The Second Life of Abigail Walker (18 page)

You flew?
Crow asked, sounding doubtful.
You flew up into the air, flew over the desert, and landed here?

The fox looked around her. She had to admit the field didn't look like much. It was a different place now, here in the first days of winter. Most of the weeds were gone. All that was left were clumps of brown grass stirring in the chilly breeze. No flowers, no birds. The trees remained, but their branches were bare.

Well.
Crow sniffed.
Not much to look at. Let's move on.

The fox nodded. Time to find a new story.

Crow flew above her as the fox began to trot in the direction of the creek.
My natural habitat is the prairie
, she bragged to Crow.
Wide fields, big skies.

My natural habitat is in dreams
, Crow retorted.
In every mind, in every eye, Crow flies.

The fox snorted.
You sound like a raccoon, the way you spout nonsense.

Crow took to the sky.
Let's see how you fly, Fox! Let's see you sprout wings.

Who needs wings?
the fox thought, and she began to run, the wind brushing back her fur, her paws thudding against the hard clay dirt. She closed her eyes. She leaped into the invisible air.

The author would like to thank Caitlyn M. Dlouhy, who makes everything so much better, and Ariel Colletti, for batting cleanup. Thanks also to Justin Chanda for his unflagging support, and Kaitlin Severini for her copyediting eagle eye. The author owes a huge debt of gratitude to Jennifer Gardner at Prettyfab PR, and sends big hugs to her homegirls, Amy Graham, Danielle Paul, and Sarah Schulz, for
their
ongoing support. Thanks to Virginia Hall, fifth-grade history teacher extraordinaire, who got her family all excited about the Lewis and Clark expedition, and thanks, too, to poet Campbell McGrath—
not only for his book
Shannon
, but for all his books, from
Capitalism
on, which have made this writer's world a better place to be in. Finally, she is full of love and wonder when she thinks about those boys she lives with, Clifton, Jack, Will, and Travis the dog, i.e. the Dowells, otherwise known as her own ones.

Dovey Coe

Where I'd Like To Be

The Secret Language of Girls

Chicken Boy

Shooting the Moon

The Kind of Friends We Used to Be

Falling In

Ten Miles Past Normal

From the Highly Scientific Notebooks
of Phineas L. MacGuire
(Illustrated by Preston McDaniels)

Phineas L. MacGuire . . .  Erupts!

Phineas L. MacGuire . . .  Gets Slimed!

Phineas L. MacGuire . . .  Blasts Off!

ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real
people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places,
and incidents are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance
to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Frances O'Roark Dowell

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The text for this book is set in Horley Old Style

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dowell, Frances O'Roark.

The second life of Abigail Walker / Frances O'Roark Dowell. —1st
ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Bullied by two mean girls in her sixth-grade class, a lonely, plump
girl
gains self-confidence and new friends after a mysterious fox gently bites
her.

ISBN 978-1-4424-0593-6 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4424-0595-0 (eBook)

[1. Self-confidence—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3.
Overweight persons—Fiction.
4. Human-animal relationships—Fiction.] I.
Title.

PZ7.D75455Sd 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2012010646