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  She handed me the train stub from my first train trip in Switzerland, when we’d traveled from Zurich down to Lugano. “You’ll want to keep it,” she said. “It’ll bring back memories.”

  A little farther along, she passed me a photo of me and Uncle Max sitting in the Piazza della Reforma eating pizza. “You’ll want to keep it,” she said.

  Next she passed me a folded piece of paper. It was one of my kidnapped signs. “That’s the one that says turnip—or blockhead,” she said. “You’ll want to keep it.”

  Uncle Max laughed. “Maybe not,” he said.

  But I did want to keep it. I wanted to keep all of it.

  With me was my box of things—my fishing rod, my book of dreams, my book of places I’d lived. On my last night in Lugano, I’d entered my Swiss address in the book of places. Added to the box were my lucky red scarf and faded ski passes and hiking maps and photos of me and Guthrie and Lila and Keisuke and Belen and Mari. Uncle Max and Aunt Sandy had given me a new, small suitcase, too, in which were packed the few clothes which I hadn’t yet outgrown.

  I’d left one last sign on my window: CIAO, SVIZZERA: BELLA, BELLA SVIZZERA! I’d also left my spider plant blooming on the windowsill, sending off its own new shoots that floated in the air, and I’d left the skis in my closet. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max had reminded me they were mine to keep, and that I could take them, but I couldn’t do it. If I took them, it would mean I was never coming back. I didn’t know how I was ever going to be able to make the decision over the summer, about whether to stay in Bybanks or return to Switzerland. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, or what I should do. I hoped, though, that when the time came, I would know.

  At the airport in Zurich, as we waited for my plane’s departure, Uncle Max kept rushing off to the airport shops. He’d return with something each time, pressing it into my hand. “Here are some postcards with Swiss scenes on them,” he said. “Send us one as soon as you get home.” And “Here are some Swiss chocolates. Your mother will like them.” And “Here’s a wooden music box for Stella’s baby.”

  And then I was waving them good-bye, and walking down the ramp, and I was sitting in my seat, and the plane was taking off, and I was sitting there looking out the window like a civilized person, not screaming my head off that we were going to die. I looked down on Switzerland, on the mountain peaks, and I wondered how Grandma Fiorelli felt when she left Italy all those many years ago. Maybe Grandma Fiorelli would come back to Switzerland with me some day, and we’d both go to Italy, to Campobasso, and we’d both feel right at home.

  Soon I could no longer see Switzerland or any land at all. I was over the ocean, miles high, and I started thinking about Bybanks, wondering what it would look like and how it would smell and how it would feel to see my mother and father and Stella and the baby again, and how soon Crick might come home. Bybanks. What would I find in Bybanks? It would be an opportunity, I told myself. A new life.

  The Dreams of Domenica Santolina Doone

  I was flying over the mountains and over the ocean, dipping and gliding and looping and turning. I could feel the air on my wings and I could see Guthrie beside me, flying along. All around us were white eagles flying, flying, and the bells of St. Abbondio were running in our ears, and the eagles were all singing in one chorus: Viva! Viva! Viva!

  About the Author

  Sharon Creech is the Newbery Medal—winning author of WALK TWO MOONS. Her other work includes ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS, CHASING REDBIRD, and PLEASING THE GHOST. After spending eighteen years teaching and writing in Europe, Sharon Creech and her husband have retured to the United States to live.

  In writing BLOOMABILITY, Sharon drew upon her experiences at The American School in Switzerland. “The school and the country affected me and my husband and children profoundly,” Sharon says, “and although the characters and incidents in BLOOMABILITY are fictional, I hope I’ve captured the feeling of bloomabilities at the school, and the beauty of Switzerland.”

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  ALSO BY SHARON CREECH

  Walk Two Moons

  Absolutely Normal Chaos

  Pleasing the Ghost

  Chasing Redbird

  Credits

  Map illustration by Holly Berry

  Cover art © 1998 Lisa Falkenstern

  Cover © 1999 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  Copyright

  BLOOMABILITY. Copyright © 1998 by Sharon Creech. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub © Edition NOVEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061972447

  Version 062413

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  Sharon Creech, Bloomability

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