Excerpt from Hannah’s Dream
In the fall of 1995, the elephant barn was a shabby place despite a fresh interior coat of yellow paint. A lack of insulation made the damp a perpetual intruder, and the high, uninsulated ceiling and soaring hay loft gave the place a hollow feel. It was also outfitted with a small kitchen; a tiny office; an open space furnished like a living room with a couple of inexpensive armchairs, end tables, stacked TV trays, and a big-screen television; and Hannah’s confinement area at the back. “Hey, baby girl,” Sam said softly when he reached the back of the barn. “How’s my sugar?”
Hannah lifted her trunk and rumbled a greeting, the same greeting she’d given him almost every day for the last forty-one years.
“How was your night? You hear that thunderstorm come through? God almighty, Mama nearly jumped out of bed it scared her so bad. Big woman like her scared of thunder, that’s a sorry thing. Here, look what Papa brought you.”
Sam took the donuts from the Dunkin’ Donuts bag and lined them up lovingly on the sill of the one tiny window in Hannah’s barn. Hannah investigated each one, inhaling delicately, exhaling small puffs of powdered sugar. “Go ahead, sugar. They’re those custards you like. Plus a strawberry jelly. I swear, it was all I could do to keep my fingers out of that bag. I’d have done it, too, if I didn’t think Mama would catch me.” Sam chuckled. “But she always does catch me, I don’t know how. When the Lord made that woman he must have given her supernatural powers.”
While Hannah ate her donuts, Sam eased down beside her left front foot and unhooked the heavy chain from its shackle. The anklet had worn away the skin underneath and sometimes there were open sores. Not today.
“Let Papa have a look at that foot, sugar.” Hannah lifted her foot. Max Biedelman had told him an elephant’s toenails should be smooth and the cuticle soft and close-fitting, but two of Hannah’s bulged, foul-smelling from sores underneath; another had a split that Sam had been watching for signs of trouble. His girl had started getting arthritic ten years ago or more, from never having anything soft to stand on, and the more arthritic she got, the more she walked funny, and the funnier she walked, the more unevenly she wore down her foot pads, which put uneven pressure on her toenails, which busted. Sam spent so much time caring for Hannah’s feet that he told Corinna sometimes he might hire himself out as a pedicurist at the Beauty Spot, Corinna’s beauty salon.
Now he dug in his pocket and pulled out a small plastic jar of salve. “Let’s try this, sugar. Mama made this one up specially for you last night.” Sam had a bad foot, too, with a diabetic ulcer the size of a chicken wing along one side of his heel, so Corinna was always whipping up some new healing concoction in the kitchen. If it yielded any improvement, no matter how slight, Sam would bring it in the next day and slather some on Hannah’s poor feet. Nothing ever really worked, but it made him and Corinna feel better, having something to try. Sam fished out a tongue depressor from a box he’d bought with his own money from a medical supply store in Tacoma, and used it like a paddle to apply the ointment. Hannah flinched but stayed put, like she always did. It nearly broke his heart. He patted her on the shoulder.
“Okay, shug, that’s done—you can put your foot down. You ready to go outside on this fine sunny day?” It was early September, when Bladenham smelled of apple orchards and harvested fields. “You bringing your tire with you?” Hannah picked up an old, bald car tire she liked to keep nearby, especially when she was alone. Corinna said it was no different than those shreds of baby blankets that some kids kept with them for comfort, and Sam guessed she was right. He watched Hannah amble outside, blinking in the sudden sunshine after the barn’s dim interior, before he climbed up into the hayloft. He loved the smell of clean fresh hay in the fall, always had. It reminded him of Yakima when growing season was over and new crops were still a season away. Quiet time; healing time. Every year his father’s hands had bled from early spring clear through November—working hands like Sam’s now, only his didn’t ever heal, especially now, what with the diabetes. He knew what his daddy would say about that. Sick or well, you take care of what you got to take care of. Ain’t no such thing as a day off when it comes to living things. He’d meant crops, not elephants, but it was just the same. Eustace Brown had worked right up until the day he’d dropped; died in his bib overalls, the way he’d have liked it.
Sam pitchforked some fresh hay down into the yard. Hannah shambled over, propping her tire against the barn wall in the exact same spot she always did, and began to eat. He loved to watch the way she pinched up a switch of hay with her trunk, tucked it inside her mouth, and chewed as slow and deliberate as if her thoughts were a million miles away. In Burma maybe, in those teak forests Max Biedelman had used to tell him about; the place where shug was born.
More from Diane Hammond
HANNAH’S DREAM
For forty-one years, Samson Brown has been caring for Hannah, the lone elephant at the down-at-the-heels Max L. Biedelman Zoo. Having vowed not to retire until an equally loving and devoted caretaker is found to replace him, Sam rejoices when he meets the smart, compassionate Neva Wilson—the new elephant keeper. But the two soon realize that Hannah’s health is deteriorating and she is lonely, and they must band together to do whatever they can to save their beloved baby girl.
“Featuring a cast of endearingly quirky characters . . . this charming story enchants and provides . . . lighthearted and poignant moments.”
—Library Journal
SEEING STARS
Ruth believes that her daughter, Bethany, is a terrific little actress. And if Bethany wants to leave the Pacific Northwest for Los Angeles and a merry-go-round of auditions, classes, and callbacks—well, Ruth will lead the way. Hollywood, of course, eats people like Ruth and Bethany for breakfast. Surrounded by other aspiring child stars, stage mothers, managers, and talent agents, Ruth and Bethany will discover just how far they can go, and maybe just how far they want to.