Where We Used to Roam by Jenn Bishop (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

That quickly, Becca’s cheeks go pink. I knew it.

“It does not look like me,” I say, swatting him.

“What are you talking about? He’s got your hunched back, your furry legs—sorry, Em, but it’s probably time to shave those things.”

“My back’s not hunched!” He’s probably right about my legs though. I think my blond hairs are starting to turn brown.

Austin hulks over, doing his best impression of me as a buffalo, and I’m borderline choking on a cracker.

Becca’s laughing so hard she’s crying, and people—perfect strangers in the gallery—are starting to stare at us.

We’re all such a mess. Me. Austin. Even Becca.

It’s funny how I ever thought I could contain a person in a box. Becca. Austin. Anyone. The thing about boxes: they have only so much space. A box can never fit everything about a person. Can never even come close.

All my shadow boxes ever really capture is me—how I see things in one particular brief and fleeting moment. They’re like time capsules in a way. A gallery, really, of all my former selves. Because by the time I’m finished, I’m not that Emma anymore. I’m changing too.

I look at my brother, his eyes squinting as he laughs. Becca’s crimson cheeks. The tiny buffalo behind them.

I wonder what I’ll make next.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some books take winding and circuitous paths or are born from fragments of abandoned projects. Where We Used to Roam is both of these things. It was partly inspired by a YA work-in-progress set aside after I wrote 14 Hollow Road. At points in the process of writing this book, it felt like everything that could change did. I am grateful for the many wise voices who chimed in along the way. First and foremost, I want to thank my agent, Katie Grimm, who read way more versions of this book than she ever should have had to, but who saw what it could be and helped me get it there, every step of the way. I am deeply appreciative of the guidance of my editors: Tricia Lin, for helping me fine-tune this story and keep the focus on Emma’s journey, and Kristin Gilson, for taking it over the finish line. So many others provided essential feedback and encouragement: Anne Bowen, Abby Cooper, Kelly Dyksterhouse, Stephanie Farrow, Robin Kirk, Autumn Krause, Laurie Morrison, Aimee Payne, Jen Petro-Roy, Bonnie Pipkin, Ellen Reagan, C. M. Surrisi, Monique Vieu, and Matt Zakosek. Thanks also to Ambrose Cohen for his football acumen and the many doctors in my family who helped on the medical end: Kara Bischoff, Ben Hulley, and George Hulley. A huge thanks, as always, to my parents and my husband, for their unwavering support. And to my cat, Lilly, for being dangerously, distractingly cute.

When I first began researching and writing about the effects of a loved one’s substance use disorder, the opioid epidemic was just starting to ravage northern New England. In the years since, it has only continued to rob so many of their lives, livelihoods, and loved ones across the country. Journalists at the Boston Globe and the Cincinnati Enquirer helped open not just my eyes, but the eyes of so many, and I’m ever grateful for the attention they continue to draw to this ongoing public health crisis. Other books that helped shape my understanding include Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy, Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones, Everything is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss by Stephanie Wittels Wachs, and If You Love Me: A Mother’s Journey Through Her Daughter’s Opioid Addiction by Maureen Cavanagh.

After my first year in college, I spent the summer in the northeastern corner of Wyoming with my best friend’s family. I didn’t save a buffalo like Emma—if only—but the landscape and people I met there have continued to shape my life. Thanks again to the Roosa family for all that you exposed this bison-crazed New Englander to and for your friendship over the years.

More from the Author

Things You Can't Say

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author photograph by Kate L Photography

JENN BISHOP is the author of the middle-grade novels Things You Can’t Say, 14 Hollow Road, and The Distance to Home. She grew up in Massachusetts and as a college student spent one incredible summer in Wyoming. She has been obsessed with bison ever since. After working as a children’s librarian, she received her MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Jenn currently calls Cincinnati, Ohio, home. Visit her online at jennbishop.com.

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Also by Jenn Bishop

The Distance to Home

14 Hollow Road

Things You Can’t Say

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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First Aladdin hardcover edition March 2021

Text copyright © 2021 by Jennifer Barnes

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bishop, Jenn, author.

Title: Where we used to roam / by Jenn Bishop.

Description: First