A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET
©2005 Mary E. Pearson
Chapter 1
It used to be a house.
You could almost have called it pretty.
She stares at chain-link threaded with weeds, a few of them blooming. Her vision blurs on white petals and regains focus on a patch of lawn the fence holds in-or what might have been a lawn once. She can't remember that it has ever been green but knows it was once more than the dusty stubble it is now. She thinks about the rough texture between her toes, running across it, barefoot, with the hot Texas sun pressing down from above and a cool, lazy sprinkler refreshing from below. She remembers a six-year-old girl whose laughter came easy. She remembers but wonders, was it ever really that way?
No pretense is made of throwing out a sprinkler now. It is not a house anymore. She knows that. The only life is in the weeds that live in the protection of the chain-link.
She throws down her cigarette and mashes it on the sidewalk, kicking it over with a pile of a dozen others. She breathes out one last, smoke-filled breath and almost smiles. There is still a little pretense left. She slips a peppermint into her mouth and lifts the latch of the gate. It groans, low and heavy, whispering, Don't go in. Don't go in.
But she does.
Chapter 2
"Mama?"
The front room is heavy with the smell of dusty furniture, and stale cigarettes. She walks to the kitchen and sees a plate of eggs and buttered toast, untouched, still sitting at the kitchen table where she left it this morning. She shoves aside dishes, unopened mail, and brimming ashtrays, and sets her books on the counter.
"Mama?" she calls again.
There is no answer.
The floor beneath her creaks as she walks down the short hallway. The first door is open, the room dark. Her hand slides around the wall and flips on the light. The room is empty, but she yanks back the shower curtain just to be sure.
She has to be sure.
The bathtub is empty, the glimmering white a macabre gift, and a faint, strangled noise escapes through her throat as she turns off the light and continues down the hall. The door opposite her own is closed, but she turns the knob and slivers it open, just enough to see bare legs across rumpled sheets and a never-made bed. Heavy breathing, the sound of deep slumber, drifts out of the room along with the smell of hair spray, oily linen, and anisette. She closes the door, shutting in the smells and sounds, and steps across the hall to her own room. The air is hot and still.
She hits the switch on her fan to high and scans the room. What should I take? What? She grabs a duffel bag from beneath her bed and begins to fill it. Jeans, underwear, T-shirts, pajamas, the blanket from her bed? There isn't room for it all. She empties the bag and starts over, trying to decide what must go. When the duffel is full, her pillowcase is stuffed with more. Her ragged Eeyore, headphones, a framed picture of her and Kyle, her broken jewelry box with the plastic ballerina. She steps back and stares at the duffel bag and bulging pillowcase lying on her bed. Full and waiting. Stares at them for four minutes, imagining them resting on a different bed-a bed in a room, down a hall, in a house, on a street named Lorelei. |
Awards, Honors, and more for A Room on Lorelei Street
WINNER of the 2005 GOLDEN KITE BOOK AWARD for FICTION
WINNER of the 2005 JHUNT AWARD for Young Adult Literature
2006 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
2006 NYPL Best Books for the Teen Age
Bank Street Best Teen Books 2005
Richie's Picks: THE BEST OF 2005
Baltimore Great Books 2005
Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book 2006
Texas Tayshas List 2006 - 2007
2006 California Collection
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Critics and readers say: "Masterfully written . . . Highly Recommended." --Brenda Ethridge Ferguson, Library Media Connection, starred review.
"You may not agree with her choices, but you’’ll think about them long after you've finished her story. READ IT . . . " --Teen People Magazine
"Pearson's wrenching novel pierces the heart and ultimately delivers hope." --Des Moines Register
"Pearson sophisticatedly crafts a quietly cramped, small-town Texas community. All literary elements . . . seamlessly and poetically coalesce" --Kirkus
"Pearson paints a compelling portrait of a teen, easily recognizable to most YAs, who is simultaneously intent on survival and self-sabotage." --Booklist
"The third-person narration is at times lyrical, vividly expressing the teen's feelings and motivations. This book is a good read and the message--while powerful--is not overpowering." --School Library Journal
"Pearson’s book sings. Its exquisite language paints rooms and characters with vivid three-dimensional colors making it difficult to believe that we are reading fiction. A Room on Lorelei Street is a must buy for sophisticated high school readers . . . "--Ed Spicer, Michigan Reading Journal
" . . . the best book I've read this year. Not best YA book; the best book, period." --Liz Burns, Blog: A Chair, A Fireplace, & A Tea Cozy
"characters are complex and well drawn . . . Teenage girls will enjoy reading this book" --Jenny Ingram, VOYA
"Teens will relate to Zoe's fierce need for independence." --Kristen Moreland, Teen Reviewer, VOYA
"This is no doubt one of the most powerful books of the year." --Diana Tixier Herald, Genrefluent
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