Out of My Mind (24 page)

Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent.

Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry.

Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes— each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.

Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs.

From the time I was really little—maybe just a few months old—words were like sweet, liquid gifts, and I drank them like lemonade. I could almost taste them. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They chattered and babbled. They verbalized and vocalized. My father sang to me. My mother whispered her strength into my ear.

Every word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them.

I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings.

But only in my head.

I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old. . . .

ALSO BY SHARON M. DRAPER

Copper Sun
Double Dutch
Romiette & Julio

The Jericho Trilogy:

The Battle of Jericho
November Blues
Just Another Hero

The Hazelwood High Trilogy:

Tears of a Tiger
Forged by Fire
Darkness Before Dawn

Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs:

The Buried Bones Mystery
Lost in the Tunnel of Time
Shadows of Caesar’s Creek
The Space Mission Adventure
The Backyard Animal Show
Stars and Sparks on Stage

ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS • An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
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• This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. • Copyright © 2010 by Sharon M. Draper • All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. • A
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OOKS FOR
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. • Book design by Debra Sfetsios • The text for this book is set in Baskerville. • 1209 MTN • Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data • Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills) • Out of my mind / Sharon M. Draper. — 1st ed. • p. cm. • Summary: Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time. • ISBN 978-1-4169-7170-2 (hardcover) • [1. Cerebral palsy—Fiction. 2. People with disabilities—Fiction. 3. Genius—Fiction. 4. Interpersonal relations—Fiction.] I. Title. • PZ7.D78325Ou 2010 • [Fic]—dc22 • 2009018404 • ISBN 978-1-4169-8045-2 (eBook) • “Elvira” copyright © 1965 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. All rights administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. All rights reserved. Used by permission.