Saving Sky (13 page)

“And Mrs. Governor…”

“
Madame
Governor” came a whisper from behind her. Mrs. Chavez, of course.

“Sorry,” Sky said. “
Madame
Governor, and all you other important people here, if you'll help us, we can change this. We don't have to let it happen in our state. And if we stop it here, maybe it'll stop in other places, too.”

She heard a rustling behind her, and she turned. Mrs. Chavez was standing, and so were Maria, and Jacob, and their teachers. Then the rustling became a rumble as person after person, out there in the dark, stood up.

Sky rested her hands firmly on the podium, closed her eyes, and began gathering up everything good from within her spirit—warmth, love, kindness, strength, humor, honesty, righteousness, loyalty, courage. Behind her, the scraping of chairs said the dignitaries were standing now, too. But Sky kept her focus, letting the force of good things continue to build inside her till the heat of
it burned in her chest. Then she let it go, and her blessing burst out into that beautiful room that looked like a church, and through the walls, and into the street, and across the plaza where the first buds of spring were breaking out, and on past the empty hotels, and the shops, and the few dimly lit restaurants, and through the hundreds of little neighborhoods, then on up into the hills, and out across the quiet countryside—spreading, growing, flowing endlessly across the varied landscapes of a great and beautiful country.

Her best blessing yet.

D
iane Stanley is the author and illustrator of many award-winning books for young readers. Her novels include the critically acclaimed
BELLA AT MIDNIGHT
, a
School Library Journal
Best Book of the Year and an ALA
Booklist
Editors' Choice,
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALLBRIGHT ACADEMY, THE MYSTERIOUS MATTER OF I. M. FINE
, and
A TIME APART
. Well known as the author and illustrator of award-winning picture-book biographies, she is the recipient of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children and the
Washington Post
–Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for the body of her work.

Ms. Stanley has also written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively imagined fairy tales:
THE GIANT AND THE BEANSTALK, GOLDIE AND THE THREE BEARS
, and
RUMPELSTILTSKIN'S DAUGHTER
. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.

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