An Outtake Schoolyard Scene with Emmie

If you have read my books, you know that I love having a young character in my stories. I’ve had two young teens as viewpoint characters – Jocie, 13, in my Hollyhill books and Kate, 14, in Angel Sister, my first Rosey Corner book. But I like having even younger characters and sometimes make them viewpoint characters too. Leatrice, 6, in The Refuge got to share her views in a few chapters. And of course, Ada June, 10, was a very important character in The Song of Sourwood Mountain. Calla, 14, and Sienna, 9, were in When the Meadow Blooms.  Lorena Birdsong, 5. in the Rosey Corner books. Jacci who starts out as a 5 year-old in my story, In the Shadow of the River.  Adria, like Jacci, starts out as a child, 7 years-old, in The River to Redemption. I’ve had other youngsters who had important parts in my stories that weren’t viewpoint characters. One was Hannah, 7, in The Believer. (You can read all about these books on my website.)

If I keep thinking, I’ll be coming up with more. I didn’t realize I had so many child characters until I started thinking about it for this post.  Well, in my upcoming release (May 19tth), I have another one. Emma Louise Bertram better known by her family as Emmie. Emmie has a birthmark on her face that she’s heard other people say is a mark of the devil, a superstition some people once had. I’m sharing an outtake scene that was cut in the edits to help speed up the action a bit, but I thought you might like reading it to get another early peek at Emmie. I had a post about her in an earlier post here if you missed it.

The following scene won’t be in the book. It ended up on the cutting floor, but a writer sometimes saves every word. Well, not every word. but when I cut a scene, I often save them to share here. In this scene, Emmie has started school and made friends with twin girls. She tells them there are some things she doesn’t understand about what kids do at school.

“Like why the kids are always pickin’ on Billy because his ears aren’t like theirs?”

Across the schoolyard a couple of bigger boys were circling around Billy and trying to flick his ears that did stick out some instead of being tidy and neat up against his head. Billy held his hands over his ears and looked to be crying. He wasn’t much bigger than Emmie.

“Crybaby, crybaby.” The boys voices were loud and, to Emmie, felt like blows. She knew Billy had to be feeling them even worse.

“We oughta tell Miss Carson.” When Emmie started toward the schoolhouse, Dora grabbed her arm.

“Ain’t good to be a tattletale,” Dora said. “Besides, we don’t pay any mind to what boys do out here in the yard.”

“What if they start makin’ fun of us girls?” Emmie stood still.

“They don’t pester girls.” Dora gave Emmie a considering look. “But if’n they do start to bother you over that place on your face, we’ll tell them to leave you alone.”

That sort of made Emmie feel better, but she didn’t like hearing them make fun of Billy. She breathed easier after Julie ran over to talk to an older boy, who yelled at the boys to stop.

Emmie wished that had been Whitt, but he had stayed over on the other side of the schoolyard like he didn’t care. But he’d care if they started making fun of her. She was sure of that.

“If’n you act all upset over Billy, everybody will think you’re sweet on him.” Dora and Dicey took her hands and turned her back toward where a couple of girls had picked up the jump rope again.

“I’m not sweet on nobody.” Emmie frowned, but at the same time she felt the words pushing up inside her to ask them if Quinn was sweet on Kallie. She swallowed them down.

“I reckon not on Billy,” Dora said.

“Not with those ears.” Dora and Dicey said at the same time and laughed.

Emmie wanted to say that Billy couldn’t help how his ears were, but she didn’t want them to think she was sweet on him. She kept quiet, but she didn’t laugh.

Dora noticed and patted Emmie’s shoulder. “Don’t be worryin’ about Billy. He’s used to getting made fun of. Most of the time he just laughs, but he must be feelin’ bad today and that’s why he went to crying. Things like that happen at school. Kids did a lot of starin’ at us when we first came to school.”

“Why?” Emmie asked.

“Cause we look alike. Don’t you remember how you were surprised about it when we saw you over in the woods that day.”

“I guess so, but I wasn’t makin’ fun. I was just surprised seeing double like that.”

“We didn’t get bothered by it. Well, not more than a little. Anyhow, when it comes to boys, Orly says a little teasin’ makes boys tougher. That boys need to be tough.”

Hope you enjoyed another peek at Emmie and that you will like her when you get to read the rest of her story in A Chance for Kallie Mae. Right now the book is available for pre-order at most internet book sites. You can get a great pre-order deal on it, 40% off & free US shipping,  at the Baker Book House along with some extras, a signed bookplate and a bookmark, while supplies last.

If you’ve read my stories, do you have a favorite young character in one of them?