I started in on Winn-Dixie right away, trying to clean him. First, I gave him a bath. The whole time I was working on him, I was talking to him. And he listened. I told him how we were alike. “See,” I said, “you don’t have any family and neither do I. I’ve got the preacher, of course. But I don’t have a mama. I mean I have one, but I don’t know where she is. She left when I was three years old. I can’t hardly remember her. And I bet you don’t remember your mama much either. So we’re almost like orphans (孤儿).”

Winn-Dixie looked straight at me when I said that to him, like he was feeling relieved to finally have somebody understand his situation. I nodded my head at him and went on talking.

“I don’t even have any friends, because I had to leave them all behind when we moved here from Watley. Watley’s up in north Florida. Have you ever been to north Florida?”

Winn-Dixie looked down at the ground, like he was trying to remember if he had. “You know what?” I said. “Ever since we moved here, I’ve been thinking about my mama extra-extra hard, more than I ever did when I was in Watley.”

Winn-Dixie twitched (抽动) his ears and raised his eyebrows.

“I think the preacher thinks about my mama all the time, too. He’s still in love with her; I know that. He’s still hoping she’ll come back. But he doesn’t tell me that. He won’t talk to me about her at all. I want to know more about her. But I’m afraid to ask the preacher; I’m afraid he’ll get mad at me.”

Winn-Dixie looked at me hard, like he was trying to say something.

“What?” I said.

He stared at me.

“You think I should make the preacher tell me about her?”

Winn-Dixie still looked at me. “I’ll think about it,” I said.

It was the first time that I had a heart-to-heart talk with my dad-the preacher.

Dear Bob, I know exactly how disappointing to have your best painting destroyed. I can imagine your anger and helplessness when you see it scissored(用剪刀剪)by naughty kids. I’ve just experienced a similar situation.

Last Sunday, I was creating a birthday book for my dad, who was always taking care of our family’s grocery store. I tried to make each picture as perfect as possible, but I messed up often, so the floor under the kitchen table was covered with half-finished drawings. “Kids, remember to clean the kitchen and move the papers from the floor to the recycling bin,” my mom announced. Indi and Tex, my younger sister and brother, were playing in the living room.

When I almost finished the birthday book, my friend Mareya showed up and asked me to play in the park. It was a little freezing outside, but she said, “It’s the perfect weather for not getting overheated!” That’s the cool thing about Mareya. She has this way of looking on the bright side of pretty much anything. Leaving the drawings on the table, we went out. But soon the rain was pouring down, and we hurried back home dripping wet. Mareya laughed, “See! No need to worry about getting sunburnt!”

That’s when my heart pretty much stopped. Right there, in front of the recycling bin, was a box full of wet paper, in which were my birthday-book drawings. I ran to rescue them, but it was too late. Maybe the paper had ended up on the floor because of the wind when Indi and Tex cleaned the kitchen. Now that the drawings were gone, what could I do for Dad’s birthday present? We were all discouraged.

“Remember the work we made at the art festival last month?” Mareya suddenly said. Of course, I remembered. We created a school model using cardboard and colored paper. The model was exactly in the shape of our school, and the paper clothing was colorful and brilliant, which made our creation a big attraction during the festival.

“We can make a colorful model of our family grocery store for Dad!” I cheered up. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, dear Bob, every cloud has a silver lining.

Today was the finals of the Dance Competition. Our team of five had me as the lead dancer; then there was Grace, my best friend and Eric, a dance lover who is a master in perfecting our choreography (编舞); and two talented twins, with such flexibility and grace on the stage that one cannot take their eyes off them.

We had found a perfect coach for our team. Jackie, a cousin of Eric’s, worked in a dance school. She was a bit hesitant at first, but quickly agreed when she saw the progress we had made so far.

In the dressing rooms, there were so many other competitors preparing for their performance, rushing here and there.

Grace and I had changed into our costumes and were putting on our shoes when Eric murmured, “Who are they?”

We turned to follow his stare, among many people, four beautiful girls along with a lean boy had just walked in.

“They’re first-rate!” cried Grace, “more like fashion models.”

They sure were. A look at the list of competitors told me they were from “Tweekverse”, the most famous dance school in the whole country.

Jackie came up behind us, “Guys, it’s time, come on. Let’s go!”

“Oooh, do you get the vibe (氛围)?” Grace was excited. I could understand her, I didn’t feel any less thrilled.

When we entered the concert hall, my jaw literally just dropped. It was massive. There were so many people. The four judges, who were seated at a large panel, did look very serious.

The competition started. The first performances were brilliant. One team had the neon (霓虹) theme, in which they wore shine-in-the-dark costumes and the whole place was dark. I was attracted to their impressive display. Obviously, everybody was. The judges’ cards displayed the scores. They were marking out of ten.

The next performances were even better, but for us, they became more competitive. The group from Tweekverse was the best. Their costumes, charming faces and fascinating performance impressed everyone.

It was our turn next.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the final score — 9. 5 on the screen.