On the Blue Comet (26 page)
On the streets of Cairo, jobs were as rare as hen’s teeth. There was a shabbiness to people’s clothes and fear in their eyes because of the crash. But according to my dad, a man named Frank Roosevelt was setting up to run for president and make things better for the people in the country. I wanted so much to tell my dad that Mr. Roosevelt would succeed. He’d stand up on his two feet in spite of his polio and get the country back on the tracks again.
In the meantime, Dad and I were soon to head for California, land of surprises. “I’ve got us two sleeper seats on the Golden State for July fifth night,” Dad said and fished in his pocket to show them to me. “It leaves from Dearborn Station in Chicago at 7:09. You’ve never been on such a grand train in your life, Oscar,” he said. “Never in your life.”
I didn’t argue. Mr. Kinoshura made us two chocolate sodas. Nobody hated the Japanese yet, or even the Germans. No one was in a soldier’s or sailor’s uniform, and nowhere could we hear the voice of the wolf.
Rosemary Wells
has written or illustrated more than sixty books for children and has received numerous awards. She is the creator of the beloved Max and Ruby stories; the co-author (with Secundino Fernandez) of
My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood,
illustrated by Peter Ferguson; the author of
Lincoln and His Boys,
illustrated by P.J. Lynch; and the illustrator of
My Very First Mother Goose,
edited by Iona Opie. She lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Bagram Ibatoulline
has illustrated many acclaimed books for children, including Hans Christian Andersen’s
Thumbelina,
retold by Brian Alderson;
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
and
Great Joy,
both by Kate DiCamillo;
The Animal Hedge
by Paul Fleischman; Hans Christian Andersen’s
The Tinderbox
and
The Nightingale,
both retold by Stephen Mitchell;
The Serpent Came to Gloucester
by M. T. Anderson; and
Hana in the Time of the Tulips
by Deborah Noyes. Bagram Ibatoulline lives in Pennsylvania.