It was a scary week. All the grown-ups were talking about the people who were killed in New York. Everybody was so excited and scared that terrorists might attack again. It feels like a movie.

I started going to school two weeks ago in Mrs Patton’s 5th grade class. At first it was kinda scary because I didn’t know anybody. I wish I could go back to my old school in Millersburg, but Momma said I couldn’t because I live in another county. Now I have a new friend named Lucy Woodard. She said she doesn’t care if I’m a new kid. I ride on the bus with Hank. It picks us up just outside the gate. Hank says he hates being the new kid again. He gets off at the high school for the big kids. Sam moved in with Aunt Cindy so he could be with his old friends.

On Saturday afternoon on September the 15th it was hot and sunny outside. Momma asked me and Hank if we wanted to help her pick blackberries. We got some plastic buckets. She said she saw lots of them on the fence row, just past the pond on the hill by the small barn.

As we walked towards the pond, I noticed the grass was all brown and the dirt was all dry and cracked. Someone had come this past week and cut most of the tall grass and baled it into hay. When we got to the pond it was covered in green scum and big fat frogs jumped into the water as we got closer.

“Is there fish in that pond?” I asked.

Mom said she didn’t know. I saw the little barn to our left. It looked really old and had holes in the sides. There was a pole with lots of boards leaning against it. Tall weeds surrounded it.

“Mom? Can we check out the barn? It looks really old and spooky.”

“No, It doesn’t look very safe. There could be snakes, rats, or poison ivy.”

“I been over there before, lots of pigeons inside. I also saw a yellow cat. It ran away when I tried to get close. It seemed wild,” said Hank.

“Oh, Momma, I want to see the cat,” I said.

“Okay but be careful. You stay close enough to where I can see you.”

As we got close to the barn this big bird flew up from the grass. Hank said it was a pheasant. I had never seen a pheasant before. We walked up to the door trying to avoid the poison ivy that covered the sides and peaked in through the cracks. We didn’t see any cat but lots of wasps and spider webs. We could hear pigeons near the roof cooing.

“Looks like this barn hasn’t been used in a long time,” momma said.

“Kinda looks like it was used to keep horses or cows in the stalls.”

“Wow! Wonder if Travis will get a horse,” I said all excited.

“I wouldn’t get all excited if I were you Bella. Who can afford to have a horse? They take lots of work. Anyway you seem to be busy watching those chickens,” said Momma.

“Yeah, I do like the chickens,” I said.

“We all like the eggs. Okay now that we saw the barn, Let’s go see if we can get some blackberries,” said momma.

Hank had already walked ahead of us towards the fence. When we had caught up, Hank was already picking a bunch of them.

“Whose farm is across the fence, Momma?”I said.

“Looks like this is Cody’s farm. Their house is just over that hill.”

The bushes covered the fence with big long thick spiky canes that shot up into the air and curled back down. The berries looked big and juicy, but if I wasn’t careful the thorns would grab my arm or my shirt. Mom would have to carefully break the branches in a way to let me go.

As we picked an area we would move farther down the fence. We moved down over this hill and then the fence row moved up another one. We couldn’t see the house anymore. We climbed up this hill along the fence and came upon a trail where there was wagon ruts. At the top of the hill the wagon ruts ran beside a small grove of trees. The wind was blowing gently. Tangled on the fence was a bunch of partially deflated balloons in all sorts of colors. I ran up to them. There must have been 15 or 20 of them tangled together on the barbed wire. Most had already popped.

“Wow! how do you think they got here?” I asked. Hank seemed excited as well.

“Looks like maybe they were someone’s helium balloons they were selling and they got away,” said Momma.

“Maybe they blew hundreds of miles away. Maybe some far away state or another country,” I said all excited as to the origin of these balloons. It made me think of messages in a bottle and how neat it was that these things just happened to blow and land here on this farm. The mystery of it.

As we stood there on top this big hill by the fence line overlooking some valley, we could look off and see other farms in the distance. It was really nice here and peaceful. There was lots of crows sitting in the trees.

“Lets rest here a minute in the shade,” said momma as she sat down under a tree.

I felt really happy to be here. It was like an adventure. Momma sat looking off into the distance.

“What are you thinking about momma?” I asked.

“Nothing, sweetie. Nothing important.”

I was guessing it had something to do with Ben. Travis and him went off on a fishing trip. Travis was sad but I didn’t know why and felt like I shouldn’t ask. Hank was quiet also. He got up and started walking farther down the fence line. It went down hill. At the bottom of the hill was a little stream. I watched as Hank balanced himself on the rocks trying to keep his feet dry. On the other side of the stream the fence turned to the right. Across the fence was the beginning of the woods. I looked back and Momma was picking berries from a huge patch of briars. I stood there watching Hank from a distance. Then I noticed that Hank appeared to be looking at something in the woods. As I watched I saw someone walking towards Hank on the other side. He stood at the edge of the woods. It was a boy. Then he turned and walked back into the woods as Hank waved at him. I hid behind a tree and as Hank got closer I jumped out and surprised him. “Ahh ha!”

Hank jumped and said, “Don’t do that!”

“Why what’s wrong?” I said.

“Nothing just don’t like it when people sneak up on me.”

“Who was that boy?” Hank looked shocked.  “Promise you won’t tell anybody you saw him.”

“How come?” I asked now getting really curious.

“I don’t think he is supposed to be here. I think he ran away from home and he doesn’t want anybody to know. Promise me you won’t tell.”

“I promise.”

“This can be a secret between me and you okay?”

“Okay.” I kinda liked that Hank told me a secret. I always wanted to be his friend, but lately he would not tell me much.

We both headed back up the hill where momma was still picking berries. “Nothing much down that way. The blackberries stop,” I said.

Momma looked in our buckets, “I think we have more than enough for a pie. In fact we might have enough to can a couple of jars for jam. I think we should head back to the house. Sound okay to you?”

“Yeah this was fun!”