The Invisible Day Read online

  I called Jody to tell her about my revenge on Alyssa, and she laughed for five minutes without stopping. Now we talk to each other on the phone at least once a week. I pretend it’s someone from school, needing help with homework.

  Another present for my eleventh birthday was that my mother gave me a key to our front door. Not to start using right away, she said, but after a little practice in “street smarts.” So now we have a new routine for walking to school. I walk alone, a couple of blocks ahead of Jane and my mother, but still in their sight.

  The first time I did it, I stopped to wait for a green light at the corner of LaGuardia Place. I looked back and waved at them. Jane waved wildly and then leaned over and wiggled her bottom in my direction, which is her idea of hilarious.

  My mother didn’t wave because her hands were jammed in her pockets. I know she wished she was next to me with her arm around my shoulder instead of trailing along behind. She had a shiny, fake smile on her face, trying to show how brave she is.

  I blew her a kiss and walked the rest of the way to school without turning around. With my head up and my shoulders back, just like my mother taught me.

  Text copyright © 1997 by Marthe Jocelyn

  Illustrations copyright © 1997 by Abby Carter

  Published in Canada by Tundra Books,

  McClelland & Stewart Young Readers,

  75 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 2P9

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced,

  transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

  photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system,

  without the prior written consent of the publisher - or, in case of

  photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the

  Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency - is an infringement of

  the copyright law.

  Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Jocelyn, Marthe

  The invisible day

  eISBN: 978-1-77049-037-6

  I. Carter, Abby. II. Title.

  PS8569.0254I58 jC813’.54 C97-930627-2

  PZ7.J62In

  We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for

  our publishing program.

  We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada

  through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our

  publishing activities. Canada

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