Read Promise Online

Authors: Judy Young

Promise

PROMISE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

Copyright © 2015 Judy Young

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Young, Judy, 1956-

Promise / written by Judy Young.

pages cm

Summary: Eleven-year-old Kaden, a boy who lives with his grandmother outside the small town of Promise, learns, just when he is starting middle school, that the father he has never known was released from prison.

ISBN 978-1-58536-914-0 (hard cover : alk. paper) -- ISBN

978-1-58536-915-7 (paper back : alk. paper)

[1. Conduct of life--Fiction. 2. Fathers and sons--Fiction. 3. Ex-convicts--Fiction. 4. Middle schools--Fiction. 5. Schools--Fiction. 6. Grandmothers--Fiction. 7. Crows as pets--Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.Y8664Pro 2015

[Fic]--dc23

2015003515

ISBN 978-1-58536-914-0 (case)

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

ISBN 978-1-58536-915-7

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States.

Sleeping Bear Press™

2395 South Huron Parkway, Suite 200

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

© 2015 Sleeping Bear Press

visit us at
sleepingbearpress.com

Contents

Friday, August 26

Chapter One: The Fire Tower

Monday, August 22

Chapter Two: Four Days Earlier

Friday, August 26

Chapter Three: The Truck

Chapter Four: Salt and Pepper

Chapter Five: Not Ready

Monday, August 29

Chapter Six: The Exit Plan

Chapter Seven: A-Team

Chapter Eight: The Stowaway

Chapter Nine: Surprises

Tuesday, August 30

Chapter Ten: Accepted

Saturday, September 3

Chapter Eleven: All Figured Out

Sunday, September 4

Chapter Twelve: Allies

Monday, September 5

Chapter Thirteen: Cabin Five

Chapter Fourteen: Secrets

Tuesday, September 6

Chapter Fifteen: Trumpets

Wednesday, September 7

Chapter Sixteen: All Riled Up

Thursday, September 8

Chapter Seventeen: Home Alone

Friday, September 9

Chapter Eighteen: The Sign

Chapter Nineteen: Friendship Rock

Saturday, September 10

Chapter Twenty: Unexpected Visit

Chapter Twenty-One: Ready

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Meeting

Sunday, September 11

Chapter Twenty-Three: Like A Normal Family

Monday, September 12

Chapter Twenty-Four: Town Crier

Chapter Twenty-Five: School Beautification

Chapter Twenty-Six: Sharing Music

Tuesday, September 13

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Framed

Wednesday, September 14

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Paying the Price

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Still Strangers

Chapter Thirty: Under A Yellow Moon

Thursday, September 15

Chapter Thirty-One: The Plan

Friday, September 16

Chapter Thirty-Two: Homework

Chapter Thirty-Three: A Little Stirring Up

Saturday, September 17

Chapter Thirty-Four: Not Amused

Chapter Thirty-Five: In Trouble

Sunday, September 18

Chapter Thirty-Six: Confrontation

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Forgiving

Monday, September 19

Chapter Thirty-Eight: A New Day

Judy Young

For Ross

and his brethren, the crow.

Love, Judy

Any day with a crow in it is full of promise.

—
Crows
, Candace Savage

Friday, August 26

CHAPTER ONE

THE FIRE TOWER

If Kaden had gotten the dog he wanted for his eleventh birthday, it would have barked when the man walked up the narrow path from the road. The man would have wondered how a dog got trapped in the top of an abandoned fire tower. He would have tried to rescue it, and Kaden's secret hiding spot would have been discovered instantly. But the man took no notice of a crow cawing incessantly from the window of the fire tower. Kubla was much better than a watchdog if you really wanted no one to notice you. And that was exactly what Kaden wanted. No one to notice.

Kaden should have easily gone through life unnoticed. He was very average. Average height and weight. Unnoticeable
brown hair and eyes. Made average grades. But in the small town of Promise, Kaden felt he stood out like a crow against snow. He was the kid whose father was in prison.

When Kaden first heard the vehicle, he picked up the binoculars. Not many cars turned onto the rutted, nearly undriveable dirt road leading up to the fire tower. On the first warm days of spring or when the color changed in the fall, a few hikers might come from Chapston City, forty miles to the north. They would park at the log barricade and wander up the weedy path to the tower. There, they'd be disappointed to discover the bottom set of stairs was gone.

But this was a scorching August Friday. Hikers rarely came in the summer, discouraged not only by the heat but also by ticks and jungles of poison ivy. Kaden put the binoculars to his eyes. He focused on the spot where a small piece of road showed through the trees. Kubla sat on his shoulder. The vehicle soon passed through the open spot: an old white pickup with a big plastic cargo carrier taking up most of the bed.

When the truck disappeared under layers of leaves, Kaden sat down out of sight from anyone below and waited. Kubla waited, too, chattering in Kaden's ear and pulling at strands of
his hair. He pestered Kaden whenever he wanted to play, but now Kaden gently pushed the bird off his shoulder. It wasn't long before the truck pulled up at the log barricade. Music drifted from its open windows. Then the engine turned off and the music quit. A door squeaked open and slammed shut. There was no talking.

Just one hiker,
Kaden thought. He was tempted to take a quick peek but was afraid he'd be seen. People always looked up when they first approached the fire tower.

Kubla darted out one of the paneless windows, making a racket of harsh warning caws. Kaden knew the hiker was making the usual inspection of the tower and surrounding area. When Kubla perched on his favorite limb near the edge of the clearing and quieted to just a few grunts, Kaden knew the hiker was heading back toward the truck.

Kaden quietly peeked out. A man in blue jeans, a T-shirt, and a cowboy hat was stepping over the log barricade, his back to the tower. He didn't look like the typical hiker. No daypack. No canteen hanging from his belt.

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