Read Full Cicada Moon Online

Authors: Marilyn Hilton

Full Cicada Moon

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Copyright © 2015 by Marilyn Hilton

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hilton, Marilyn.

Full cicada moon / by Marilyn Hilton. pages cm

Summary: In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in “boyish” topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.

ISBN 978-0-698-19127-3

[1. Novels in verse. 2. Racially mixed people]—Fiction. 3. Sex role]—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.5.H56Fu 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014044894

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Front Cover Girl Image © Terry Husebye, Getty Images;

Additional Images Couresy of iStock

Jacket Design by Lori Thorn

Version_2

For
Keiko and Robert, Lois and James Wesley,
and their families

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Flying to Vermont–January 1, 1969

Hatsuyume

Waxing Gibbous

Reflections

Arriving

New House

First Night

Like Saturday

Next Door Boy

Ready for School

First Day

Rules

Shop

Getting to Know You

Obento

Hungry

Journal

Notions

Science Class

Little Lies

Downtown

Farmer Dell

Others

Winter

Karen and Kim

Cooties

Notes

Detention

Science Project

Stars

February Vacation

The Soda Jerk

A Girl Who Twirls

Skating Pond

Rendezvous

Snowfall

Snow Day

The Mouse Takes the Cheese

Consequences

Tears on Glass

Life in 1968

A New Outlook

Spring 1969

Crocuses in the Snow

Kimono

Relocation

Liars

Moving Forward

Stacey's Birthday

Light and Dark

If I Had a Hammer

Poults

Math

Something Important

April Vacation

Inheritance

April Moon

Hope

Secrets

Weirdos

Sea of Tranquility

Sign of Spring

Water and Dirt

One-Way

Mama's Visitor

Spatial Reasoning

Looking Forward

Kind Of

Moon Viewing

The A Group

Best Friends Always

Dress, Hair, and Makeup

Spring Thing

Science Groove

No Words

Full Missing Moon

Bad Dreams

Learning Japanese

Party Snacks

The End of the Beginning

Summer 1969

The Question

Pie, the Moon, and Stacey

Magicicadas

Apollo 11

Room of Kings

Remember This Night

The Real Thing

The Answer

Good News and Sadness

Language

Tilling

Babysitting Baby Cake

Going Home

Jitter Legs

One Small Step

Eighth Grade

New Boy

We're Having Mr. Pease for Lunch

How to Make Corn Bread

Victor

Crush

Fall 1969

Sit-in

Civil Disobedience

The Principal's Office

Suspended

Fine

Bad News

The Way We Say Good-bye: One

The Way We Say Good-bye: Two

Reformed

Switched

Promises

Where's Pattress?

Wheels

Words

Pardons

Homework

Thanksgiving

Winter Again

Another Try

Winter Magic

Welcome Back

The Party's Over

Since Never

Making Sushi

Decisions

Best Prize

Shopping

In the Mirror

Excuses

The Exchange

Expressions

Visitors

Gifts of the Magi

Oshogatsu—January 1, 1970

Confessions

Vermont Neighbors

Full House

This Year and Last Year

Adventure

Full Cicada Moon

Acknowledgments

Glossary of Japanese words in FULL CICADA MOON

Word List

Be loving enough

to absorb evil

and understanding enough

to turn an enemy into a friend.

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“That's one small step for [a] man,

one giant leap for mankind.”

—Neil
Armstrong

Flying to Vermont–January 1, 1969

I wish we had flown to Vermont

instead of riding

on a bus, train, train, bus

all the way from Berkeley.

Ten hours would have soared, compared to six days.

But two plane tickets—

one for me and one for Mama—

would have cost a lot of money,

and Papa already spent so much

when he flew home at Thanksgiving.

Mama is sewing buttons on my new slacks

and helping me fill out the forms

for my new school in Hillsborough, our new town.

This might be a new year

but seventh grade is halfway done,

and I'll be the new girl.

I'm stuck at the Ethnicity part.

Check only one
, it says.

The choices are:

White

Black

Puerto Rican

Portuguese

Hispanic

Oriental

Other

I am

half Mama,

half Papa,

and all me.

Isn't that all anyone needs to know?

But the form says
All items must be completed
,

so I ask, “Other?”

Mama pushes her brows together,

making what Papa calls her Toshiro-Mifune face.

“Check all that apply,” she says.

“But it says just one.”

“Do you listen to your mother or a piece of paper?”

I check off Black,

cross out Oriental,

and write
Japanese
with a check mark.

“What will we do now, Mimi-chan?” Mama asks,

which means: Will you read

or do algebra, so you're not behind?

“Take a nap,” I say.

Mama frowns,

but I close my eyes

and pretend we're flying.

The bus driver is the pilot

and every bump in the road

becomes an air pocket in the sky.

Hatsuyume

A jolt wakes me up. I was dreaming

my
hatsuyume
—the first dream of the new year.

If I tell my
hatsuyume
, it won't come true

because in Japanese,
speak
sounds just like
let go
.

And if my dream meant good luck, I don't want to

let it go.

I dreamed I was a bird, strong and brown

and fast

with feathers tipped magenta and gold.

I shot straight up into the air like a Saturn rocket,

then swooped and dove, the sun warming my back.

I pumped my wings, then glided

over the desert

and the sea.

The air filled my lungs,

the wind lifted my wings

higher and higher

over the mountains

and above the clouds.

The moon grew large,

and I stretched to touch it.

Maybe it was a good-luck dream

and this will be a good year

for Papa and Mama and me.

That's what I hope.

But, what if my
hatsuyume
meant bad luck?

Mama says to let go of your bad dreams by telling them.

Papa says to bury your bad dreams

in a hole as deep as your elbow.

The ground in New England is frozen,

so if I listen to Papa, I'll have to wait until spring.

I'll listen to Mama instead

and write my dream on paper,

so either way—good luck or bad—

my
hatsuyume
will not be spoken.

I have never flown before

but one day

soar.

will

I

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