Finding Esme Read online

  I hadn’t said a word all morning. I couldn’t.

  “I named her Esmesaurus,” Professor T. said as we turned to watch the truck go down the drive. “They can never take that away from you. She will go down in history with your name.”

  And still, I couldn’t speak; I was too busy absorbing my joy.

  The Register covered the removal of the last dinosaur bone, complete with photos of the huge crane, and once again the news was picked up all across the county and the whole state, even as far away as the Museum of Natural History in New York City, and some places overseas, too. Invitations came from all over the place addressed to “Esme McCauley, Dinosaur Finder, and Professor T. Rex Abramanov” to speak about our amazing new dinosaur, along with some speaking fees, which the professor said were all mine to do with as I wished. Bee said she’d start an account over at the bank in Paradise for my college fund.

  Later that year I made my first speech in Dallas, at SMU, when they officially announced their acquisition and an anonymous donation for the study and future display of Esmesaurus. My whole class attended, even Miss Ferriday and Mrs. Greenly from Paradise. Bee, Sweetmaw, June Rain, and Bo sat in the front row. I talked about Solace Hill, and that first night following the fireflies up and up till I tripped over the bone and how someday I wanted to be a paleontologist. Finch, Dovie, Rose, and Mady clapped the loudest when I’d finished. I’d sprouted a few inches by then and Bee says I was finally growing into my face and into my true self, just like she said I would.

  Professor Abramanov came to see us every now and then, even after they took the bones away. He dug small holes up and around Solace Hill, “just in case,” he’d say, meaning there might be more fossils below. But I think we both knew Louella Goodbones was best.

  “Esmesaurus.” I murmured her name, her new name, as Old Jack and I stood at the bottom of Solace Hill, my feet buzzing with the knowing that I was slowly learning to harness and to fine-tune, that knowing that I was about to find something. My gift that I no longer regretted opening. And there at the top of the hill was a figure. Paps. I shielded my eyes. Old Jack whined but stood still next to me. Paps waved to us, then disappeared on down the other side of Solace Hill. Good-bye, Paps. Good-bye, Louella Goodbones.

  Finch was coming over for an early breakfast and would be here soon. I could see the professor’s car as it slowly came up the drive, surely, patiently, just like him. His eyes, as usual, shadowed under that weathered hat. He waved to me. I looked back over my shoulder, shielding my eyes as the sun moved up over Solace Hill. Then Old Jack and I turned and walked on home.

  Author’s Note

  As a fifth-generation Texan, I’ve always been intrigued by old stories of the mythical, the magical, and the “real.” In bringing Esme McCauley’s world to life I was inspired by old 1800s ghost stories related in The Best of Texas Folk and Folklore, a publication of the Texas Folklore Society. This is particularly true of Harlan’s ghost, who took him up and down Solace Hill at midnight. Ghosts demanding treasure are also a common theme of many Texas stories, as are “weeping” ghosts like the wailing woman of Bitter Creek. The match-blowing ghost in the henhouse was inspired by a late-1800s ghost tale related in The Loblolly Book, edited by Thad Sitton, as are the McCauleys’ unusual bee-tending techniques. The story of Bee sleeping peacefully in her bassinet as a tornado passed over the house really happened to my grandmother and her mother, who suffered a head injury while desperately trying to reach her baby.

  About the Author

  Photo by Megan Parks

  SUZANNE CROWLEY is the author of two acclaimed novels for young readers, The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous and The Stolen One. The author, who is also a miniaturist and dollhouse collector whose work has graced the covers of magazines worldwide, was born in a small town in Texas and lives in Southlake, Texas.

  www.suzannecrowley.com

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  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  FINDING ESME. Text copyright © 2018 by Suzanne Crowley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  Cover art © 2018 by Isabel Roxas

  Cover design by Paul Zakris

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Crowley, Suzanne Carlisle, author.

  Title: Finding Esme / by Suzanne Crowley. Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2018] |Summary: “Twelve-year-old Esme and her best friend, Finch, discover dinosaur bones on her family’s peach farm and are suddenly surrounded by people with nefarious motives”—Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018022299 | ISBN 9780062352460 (hardback)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Fossils—Fiction. | Dinosaurs—Fiction. |

  Friendship—Fiction. | Family problems—Fiction. |

  BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Multigenerational. | JUVENILE FICTION / Girls & Women. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues Adolescence. Classification: LCC PZ7.C88766 Fin 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022299

  Digital Edition AUGUST 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-235248-4

  Print ISBN: 978-0-06-235246-0

  1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321

  FIRST EDITION

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