Blossoms Meet the Vulture Lady (11 page)

“Well, let’s start walking,” Pap said. “Mud’s going to be wondering what happened to us. That dog’s got more sense than most people. He knew I was going to shut him up in the cellar even before I did. I couldn’t even trick him to get him down there. I had to push him down and shut the door on him. I hated to see his face when I done it.”

“Well, he couldn’t come, Pap. He snarled at Mary last time and chased her off.”

“I know, but I sure hated to see the look on his face.”

“Hold your head still,” Vicki told Maggie, “and quit trying to look out the window.”

“Well, hurry,” Maggie said.

“You can’t hurry French braids.”

“You’re the one who wanted me to have French braids. I would have been happy with ponytails.”

“You’ll like them when I get through. Next week I’m going to do cornrows.”

“Mom, Pap and Vern are going to leave me. I think I hear them getting in the truck.”

“I thought you didn’t like to go can collecting.”

“Well, I do. Everybody knows us now. Everybody rolls down their car window and yells ‘Hello, Blossoms’ when they see us. I like it.”

“Is Junior going?”

Vicki tugged Maggie’s head around—Maggie was trying to look out the window again. “They are getting in the truck, Mom. Hurry.”

“They’ll wait. I asked is Junior going.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“He said he was busy.”

Vicki started braiding Maggie’s hair more slowly. “Busy doing what?”

“I don’t know. He won’t let us see.”

Vicki stopped braiding altogether. “Where is Junior?”

“In the barn.”

“Not again. I’ll be right back.”

“Mom, don’t leave me. My hair’s only half done! Mom!”

Vicki Blossom ran out onto the porch and down the steps. She ran across the yard. Junior had tugged the barn door closed for privacy, and his mom yanked it open.

“Whatever you’re doing or making, Junior, stop it right this minute.”

“Bye, Mom,” Maggie called quickly.

Vicki glanced around, and she threw up her hands when she saw Maggie getting in the truck.

“Maggie, you can’t go off with your hair half braided. Now people recognize you as a Blossom. You got to look right!”

“I’ll finish it myself on the way,” Maggie called.

Then she said “Scoot over” to Vern.

“No way. I’m sitting by the window.”

“Oh, all right, if you want to be selfish.” She crawled over his legs.

Pap gave Mud’s honk—one long, two shorts—and Mud came running out of the barn. Without breaking stride, he leapt into the back of the truck and faced forward.

Pap started the truck and made a broad U-turn in the dusty yard. “Oh, go on,” Vicki Blossom said, waving them away. She entered the barn.

“Junior,” she said, “you and I are going to have to have a little talk. Now I am not going through another one of these Blossom Julys. I am too old.” She couldn’t see for a moment, the sun had been too bright outside. Then her eyes adjusted to the dim barn. She put her hands on her hips.

“All right, Junior,” she said. “What in the world is that?”

All about the Blossoms in …

The Blossoms Meet the Vulture Lady
and more!

Discussion Questions

An Interview with Betsy Byars

1. Junior didn’t learn from his mishap last July when he tried to fly. A year has passed, and he doesn’t want the summer to end without inventing something. Why does he want his invention to be a surprise to his family? Discuss the motive behind his invention.

2. Why does Junior like it when people spy on him?

3. Mad Mary is a legend in her neck of the woods. How did she get her name?

4. Compare Mad Mary’s life as a child to the way she lives now.

5. Why are Maggie and Vern surprised when they find out that Pap went to school with Mary? How does Pap help Maggie and Vern see Mad Mary through different eyes?

6. Describe the special relationship between Mud and Pap.

7. What is Mud Blossom’s role in searching for Junior? Why is Mud sad when he doesn’t get praise from Pap for leading them to Junior’s trap?

8. How do the Blossoms determine that Mad Mary has Junior? Explain why Pap needs to be the person to approach Mad Mary.

9. Describe Mad Mary’s cave from Junior’s point of view. Why is he so surprised that she has lots of books?

10. Discuss the bond that develops between Mad Mary and Junior. Explain what Mad Mary means when she says to Junior, “I was about in a cage myself, and getting you out of yours was the start of me getting out of mine” (p. 143).

Prepared by Pat Scales, retired school librarian and independent consultant, Greenville, South Carolina.

Do you know a person like Mad Mary?

Mad Mary is based on a real person. I never met her, but I read a story about her in the local newspaper. She lived in a shack and ate roadkill. She even revealed some of her recipes. She made her life sound free, peaceful, and full of tasty food.

Did you ever eat varmint stew like Junior and Mad Mary?

One of the good things about being an author is that you get to do enjoyable things without leaving your home. In my mind I did eat varmint stew in Mad Mary’s cave with Mary and Junior. There was the pleasant rustle of vulture wings overhead. There was candlelight, good company, and one of the tastiest stews I ever had in my life.

Mary’s cave has so many books! What was your favorite book when you were a child?

My favorite book was
The Adventures of Mabel.
Mabel was my ideal. She had adventures, her own horse, and long, naturally curly hair—three things I lacked. She knew a secret whistle that allowed her to communicate with wild creatures such as lizards, frogs, even wolves. I worked out the notes on the piano and I too would communicate with wild animals as soon as I learned how to whistle.

You say on your website that Mud Blossom is your favorite Blossom. Why is he your favorite character?

Mud is my favorite Blossom because sometimes when I’m driving around the county, I see a pickup truck with a dog in the back. As I look closer, my heart leaps because it’s Mud! It is Mud! I drive on with the happy feeling that I’ve caught a glimpse of a dear and valued friend. That doesn’t happen with any other Blossom. Maybe if they started riding in the back of trucks …

Betsy Byars (b. 1928) is an award-winning author of more than sixty books for children and young adults, including
The Summer of the Swans
(1970), which earned the prestigious Newbery Medal. Byars also received the National Book Award for
The Night Swimmers
(1980) and an Edgar Award for
Wanted … Mud Blossom
(1991), among many other accolades. Her books have been translated into nineteen languages and she has fans all over the world.

Byars was born Betsy Cromer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her father, George, was a manager at a cotton mill and her mother, Nan, was a homemaker. As a child, Betsy showed no strong interest in writing but had a deep love of animals and sense of adventure. She and her friends ran a backyard zoo that starred “trained cicadas,” box turtles, leeches, and other animals they found in nearby woods. She also claims to have ridden the world’s first skateboard, after neighborhood kids took the wheels off a roller skate and nailed them to a plank of wood.

After high school, Byars began studying mathematics at Furman University, but she soon switched to English and transferred to Queens College in Charlotte, where she began writing. She also met Edward Ford Byars, an engineering graduate student from Clemson University, whom she would marry after she graduated in 1950.

Between 1951 and 1956 Byars had three daughters—Laurie, Betsy, and Nan. While raising her family, Byars began submitting stories to magazines, including the
Saturday Evening Post
and
Look
. Her success in publishing warm, funny stories in national magazines led her to consider writing a book. Her son, Guy, was born in 1959, the same year she finished her first manuscript. After several rejections,
Clementine
(1962), a children’s story about a dragon made out of a sock, was published.

Following
Clementine
, Byars released a string of popular children’s and young adult titles including
The Summer of the Swans
, which earned her the Newbery Medal. She continued to build on her early success through the following decades with award-winning titles such as
The Eighteenth Emergency
(1973),
The Night Swimmers
, the popular Bingo Brown series, and the Blossom Family series. Many of Byars’s stories describe children and young adults with quirky families who are trying to find their own way in the world. Others address problems young people have with school, bullies, romance, or the loss of close family members. Byars has also collaborated with daughters Betsy and Laurie on children’s titles such as
My Dog, My Hero
(2000).

Aside from writing, Byars continues to live adventurously. Her husband, Ed, has been a pilot since his student days, and Byars obtained her own pilot’s license in 1983. The couple lives on an airstrip in Seneca, South Carolina. Their home is built over a hangar and the two pilots can taxi out and take off almost from their front yard.

Byars (bottom left) at age five, with her mother and her older sister, Nancy.

A teenage Byars (left) and her sister, Nancy, on the dock of their father’s boat, which he named
NanaBet
for Betsy and Nancy.

Byars at age twenty, hanging out with friends at Queens College in 1948.

Byars and her new husband, Ed, coming up the aisle on their wedding day in June 1950.