Chapter One
Fairy Tales and Matzo Balls
Hannah sat in her secret place at the top of the mountain and looked down at the Hudson River. Her dog, Skippy, sat beside her.
"Isn’t it beautiful up here, Skippy?" asked Hannah. Her legs hung down over the edge of the mountain, and she swung her feet. Skippy thumped his tail on the ground.
They turned their heads at the same time and looked at each other, nose to nose.
"Oh, I’m so glad you’re my dog," said Hannah. She thought of the day last year when customers had driven off from The Grand View Restaurant and left a little, skinny, shivering puppy behind. The customers had never come back. Hannah had hugged the puppy till it stopped shivering and she had fed it and cared for it till it wasn’t little and skinny anymore.
"You’re so big now!" said Hannah. "I used to carry you up here in my pocket! Now you run up here every day with me to my secret place and you race me down the mountain so fast! And you run up here by yourself now too, and I have to call and call you to come home!"
Skippy licked Hannah’s nose.
Hannah fell back onto the ground and looked up at the sky through the branches of a tall tree. She saw layers of branches and twigs filled with fat yellow-green buds. Some of the buds had burst open, and Hannah thought it looked like yellow-green lace popping out of them. She sat back up and looked down at the sun spots sparkling all the way across the river over to the mountain on the other side.
"Oh, spring is really the best time of the year, Skippy!" she said. "And this is my favorite place in the world. I could sit up here and just look and think about things forever." She held up her wrist and looked at her Mickey Mouse watch.
"But it’s twenty to eleven!" she said. "We have to go this minute or we’ll be late for Let’s Pretend!"
Hannah jumped up. Skippy jumped up. Hannah pushed through the high grass that separated the secret place from the mountain road. Skippy followed.
"Race you down the mountain road!" said Hannah. "Last one down is a rotten egg!"
Near the bottom of the mountain road, Hannah stopped.
"You’re the rotten egg, Skippy!" she said. "I won!"
But when Hannah turned around, Skippy wasn’t there. Hannah could just see his tail disappearing up the mountain road.
"Skippy–no!" yelled Hannah. "I haven’t got time to race you back up now. It’s a quarter to eleven. Come back–or you’ll miss the beginning again!"
Skippy kept running up.
"Oh, what’ll I do?" said Hannah. "It’s my favorite one today!"
She looked both ways and crossed Route 9W. She looked back up at the mountain.
"I’ll meet you back home, Skippy!" she called. "I can’t be late!"
Then she ran down 9W until she saw the sign on the roof that said:
HUNGRY? THIRSTY? STOP HERE.
THE GRAND VIEW RESTAURANT.
Hannah stopped. She wasn’t hungry. She wasn’t thirsty. She was home. She couldn’t take her eyes off the new colors on the building: bright blue and yellow. For weeks her father had been painting the shingles the two colors so he could win a certificate for the best-looking place on Route 9W. He had finished with the restaurant and now he was working on the garage, where the two blue-and-yellow gas pumps were.
Hannah ran over to say hello to her father.
"Well, how do you like it?" asked Hannah’s father. He stopped painting a minute and leaned against the white latticework fence between the garage and the restaurant. "Does this place look like a prizewinner or does this place look like a prizewinner?"
"It looks beautiful," said Hannah. "But I can’t talk now. I have to hurry."
"What’s the hurry?" asked her father.
"It’s ten of eleven. It’s almost time for Let’s Pretend!"
Hannah ran over to the restaurant, opened the door, and went inside. She left the door open for Skippy.
"Week-end Special," she read out loud from the little blackboard inside. "Roast beef and mashed potatoes, two vegetables, bread and butter. 65¢." She studied the neat handwriting a moment.
"My mother has the best handwriting in the world," thought Hannah. She picked up a piece of chalk from the bottom of the blackboard and quickly drew roast beef and mashed potatoes in the space her mother had saved for her.
"I’ll draw the carrots and peas later," she said to herself.
She ran into the kitchen. Her mother was peeking into the oven of the big black cast-iron stove.
"Mmm, it smells good!" said Hannah. "I’m back! Skippy almost made me be late."
Hannah’s mother looked at the clock.
"You’ve got time," she said. "Calm down. Catch your breath."
"But I have to get myself ready," said Hannah.
"Okay," said her mother. "You get yourself ready. And what about getting Skippy ready for the dog show at the movies this afternoon? Are you going? Remember, if you are, he’ll need a bath."
"I didn’t decide yet," said Hannah. Hannah only liked to think about one thing at a time. "I’ll decide after Let’s Pretend."
"I’m going out for a few minutes and work on my garden," said her mother, "if I can stand to look at those blue and yellow shingles!"
"It looks pretty," said Hannah. "I love it!"
"A checkered building?" asked her mother. "It makes me dizzy! I can just imagine what those judges will think of it." She put on her gardening hat. "Call me if any customers come," she said.
"Okay," said Hannah. She crossed her fingers to keep customers from coming and ran from the kitchen through the living room and into her bedroom. She took the chair from in front of her rolltop desk and dragged it into the living room. She put it in front of the radio, which was in the corner next to the door to the kitchen. Then she looked at her Mickey Mouse watch again.
