ReadWorks The Phonogray The Phonograph Rachel Howard Adam groaned and dropped his duffel bag and backpack heavily onto the floor of the small cabin he and his family had just entered. They would be here for almost two weeks—his dad’s idea of “family bonding” and a good summer vacation. It had rained the entire five-hour drive to the cabin, and the dark gray clouds that hung low in the sky didn’t seem to be drifting away. Outside was the heavily forested state park and just about nothing else—they hadn’t even passed a ranger’s hut for miles and miles. And there wasn’t even Internet or cell service here. “This is great!” Julia, Adam's twin sister, dropped her duffel bag onto the floor and flopped back on the old, creaky couch. She was a lot like their dad, and she couldn’t think of anything more fun than hiding out in the middle of nowhere for two weeks, just spending time with family and hiking when the mood struck. She and Adam had so many differences in their personalities that he couldn’t believe they had shared the same womb. “Yeah...it’s awesome,” Adam said. He sat down on the couch next to her and noticed the old clunky television set on the wooden console table in front of them. His dreams of faking sick to watch daytime Major League Baseball while the rest of the family hiked around the mountains quickly died. “Look at this!” Dad exclaimed, walking through the doorway. His hair was plastered with water, and rain dripped down his face. “There’s even a fireplace. Can't wait to get that all built up.” Mom shut the bathroom door behind her. “At least the toilets work,” she muttered Adam immediately felt a rush of goodwill and companionship toward his mom, with whom he usually fought over the TV's remote control and the family computer (the fact that he didn’t have his own computer was a whole other issue). ReadWorks.org 2:5.225:us2 1s.ncsouns conrsevensionReadWorks The Phonograph “This is really going to be fabulous,” his dad said. He swiped his hair back over his head so that it slicked back, and shook out his hands. He locked the door and got busy unpacking all of the groceries they had purchased at the mini-mart just outside the state park. Adam’s mom rolled her eyes and sat between Adam and Julia on the couch. Their mom had been kind of weird around their dad for a while now. Julia and Adam talked about it before they left. Mom seemed distant, always looking off in another direction whenever anyone asked her a question, washing clean dishes that were sitting in the drying rack...things like that, Dad didn’t want to talk about it; he just said that Mom had lots of things on her mind and that the twins should leave her alone. Adam hated when their dad brushed things under the rug like that, but Julia said it was his way of coping. She always seemed to have the answer to that sort of emotional thing. “What's on TV?” Mom said, reaching towards the fat old-fashioned remote. “Nuh-uh-uh!” Dad said, rushing over and pulling the remote out of her hands. “Let’s just see how far we can go without watching TY, like we said, right?” Mom leaned back on the couch and crossed her arms. “’m going to unpack,” Julia said, standing up. She looked at Adam pointedly, and he followed her to the back of the house, where they would share the second room. He closed the door behind him. “Wow, there’s a lot of tension in that room,” she said, dropping her duffel onto the bed by the window. “Yeah,” Adam said. He liked to let Julia analyze certain situations before he formed an opinion about them. He supposed this was part of being a twin, but maybe he was just lazy. “just feel that Mom’s been so distant lately, and Dad's been so weird about it. There has to be something else going on, right?” Julia stood, half-looking at him across the room, ReadWorks.org 225. 22520s 13,25neu's cournenensionReadWorks “The Phonograph with her hands on her hips. In the gloominess from the outside rain, she looked like a shorter version of their mom, but with light hair. “Yeah,” Adam sai “What do you think it’s all about?” She sat on the bed and looked at him intently. “4 don’t know,” Adam said truthfully. How was he supposed to try to understand his parents’ world? “Can't you contribute anything, Adam?" Julia hurled at him, and stomped out of the room. Wow, Adam thought. We haven’t even been here three hours, and everyone is already angry at each other. Adam fell back onto the bed and stared at the boring wooden ceiling. He noticed a small metal door handle in the far left corner of the ceiling, obscured by a deep shadow. Adam was curious, so he pulled the bed over to the wall and reached high above to pull down on the door handle. It opened up a wide rectangular trapdoor in the ceiling. There must be an attic up there. Adam listened hard for any noise from his family, but he heard nothing. He assumed they were all stewing in anger, his dad trying to make a remote vacation special, his mom crippled by boredom (like Adam was), and his sister annoyed that Adam had proven (once again) to be a terrible confidant and bosom buddy. He shrugged and pulled himself up, monkey-bars-style, into the attic. It was a big square room, with two grimy windows looking north and south. The people who owned the cabin must have stored all of their personal stuff in the attic when they rented it out to people crazy enough to actually pay to stay here, Adam thought. There were cardboard boxes stacked up to the slanted ceiling and piles of old papers stacked up on old wooden tables and chairs, A mannequin with a black lacy dress huddled next to a large whitish wardrobe, and an old clock lay overturned by a few huge, ornate trunks with gold molding on the sides. Adam moved farther into the room, coughing against the dust that billowed up off the floor. ReadWorks.org 2:52:31 sce conrnevensionReadWorks “The Phonograph In the corner was a large machine that had an old-fashioned horn standing up out of it. Adam had seen pictures of this object before but had never seen a phonograph in real life. He walked toward it, drawn by the dusty brass horn and heavy box that held it up. He touched the scalloped edges of the horn, running his fingertip along its circumference. It was so different from sleek technology—his iPhone and flat screen TV and Wii game console—that he used so often. This record player was not something you could just pick up and carry around in your pocket, listening to whatever music you wanted at whatever hour of the day. Adam dusted the phonograph off with the hem of his sweatshirt, which immediately turned gray. Mom wouldn't be too happy about that. There was a brass knob on the side of the box, and Adam turned it to wind it up. Nothing happened. Adam thought it might be like a music box, and if he wound the knob the right way, it would release some kind of sound. But this didn’t seem to be working. Adam stopped turning the knob and decided to try something he had only seen in cartoons: he put a sharp needle down on the black circle that had been placed on the top of the box. All of a sudden, faraway-sounding music began to play, reminding Adam of the old-time, black-and-white movies his mom used to like to watch with ‘le. Adam sank to the old wooden floor of the attic and leaned him and Julia when they were against the wall, listening to the quiet music. He imagined people in grayscale, dancing together in circles to the music. He imagined bonnets and hoop skirts and suits. Sitting there, in the gloom and dust of the unloved attic, Adam felt transported back to another time. After what was at least an hour, and when it finally stopped raining, Adam climbed back into the bedroom. Julia was calling for him from outside the door, her muffled voice sounding annoyed. He closed the trapdoor carefully and hoped Julia wouldn't notice it when she came in to go to sleep. “Did you fall asleep?” Julia asked when Adam opened the door. ReadWorks.org Sinisa ne Araptreoned © COMPREHENSIONReadWorks The Phonograph “No.” Adam pushed past Julia to the kitchen, where his mom and dad were sitting at opposite ends of the table, waiting for the twins. “Let's have a nice dinner,” Mom said, noticing the annoyance on both of her children’s faces. They ate pasta and salad for dinner, with some chocolate cake for dessert afterwards. Everyone's moods seemed to have quieted down, and they were able to laugh with each other. Even Mom was engaged, joking around with Dad about the sad contents of the tiny mini-mart, and how she didn’t know if they’d be able to survive off of canned foods and whatever they could forage from the state park. After dinner, and after everyone else had fallen asleep, Adam thought about waking Julia up to tell her about the phonograph. After considering it for a few minutes, he decided not to. He would keep it his secret, his special place, reserved for the times his family let the tension build up and bubble around them. He would vacation in the attic with the lovely old music and drift away to another time when he needed to, ReadWorks.org Sta aneacre Wigmnanae | COMP RENENSIONReadWorks Unexpected Fortune Unexpected Fortune Alizah Salario \ Claire opened the blinds in her father’s hospital room and watched a bar of sunlight slice across his face. She walked over to his bed and straightened the pillow behind his head. Her father smiled Claire hated how the nurses never paid attention to detail. When she came to visit, his blankets were often pushed to the foot of the bed, or the remote was on the floor. Sometimes Claire’s father was too weak to bend down and reach it. “No practice today?” Claire’s father asked in a raspy voice. Claire shrugged in response. It was the second time that week she had skipped swim practice to visit her father after school. Normally, she only saw him two Saturdays each month. She didn’t mention these extra visits to her mother. Claire’s mom hardly ever spoke to her father, especially since he married Marsha. It was strange that Claire liked her father more since he got sick. She enjoyed helping him. Sometimes she held a cup of water up to his chin while he drank from a straw. Other times she just did her homework while he slept. “We'll head to the lake when | get better and you can show me your butterfly stroke,” Claire’s father said. She knew he was just trying to be nice, Claire always asked the nurses about his white blood cell count. They didn’t tell her much. In biology she was learning how cells divide. She knew that the same DNA sequence ReadWorks.org 25 22512" z2,0s.0ute cournerensionReadWorks Unexpected Fortune repeated over and over in each cell. It made her think of looking in a mirror and seeing her image repeating over and over. But in biology class, they never mentioned what happens when cells divide too quickly. Claire found that out for herself when she researched tumors on the Internet. She'd learned that her father’s tumor probably happened because some cells wouldn’t stop dividing. The tumor was in his brain, Claire studied his face carefully. Everyone always said they looked alike: same chubby cheeks, same mischievous glint in their narrow green eyes. Lizard eyes, her father called them. Hers were speckled with little golden flecks. The other day her biology partner Justin, said her eyes were pretty. She smiled, but the compliment had made her feel sad. Her father’s eyes didn’t have the same spark. His cheek bones stuck out prominently. He had already dozed off again. They didn’t look anything alike anymore. Claire glanced at the clock. She wanted to leave before Marsha arrived after work. Claire hated Marsha’s lectures. She said Claire’s father needed time alone after treatments. So why could Marsha come and visit whenever she wanted, and not her? Claire was his daughter, after all. Marsha had told her about the cancer. She explained to Claire that her father was very sick. The doctors had to give him strong medicine. The medicine would make him feel sicker at first, but then it would make him better. Marsha spoke in a strained, high-pitched voice. Her hair was an ugly shade of orange that reminded Claire of a pumpkin, She gave Claire a fake smile that made her feel about two feet tall. “| know what chemo is,” Claire had snapped. She rolled her eyes. Marsha talked to her like she was five, not fifteen. Didn’t she know her father told her everything? She knew the chemo would shrink the tumor. Claire knew it would make him lose his appetite and his hair. He might get very skinny, and not have much energy. Claire imagined what the chemo was doing to her father’s cells. She imagined a character flowing into her father’s bloodstream and zapping the cells filled with disease, like lightning. There would be sparks and popping sounds as the chemo battled the cancer. Suddenly she felt silly. She was too old to imagine that sort of thing. The doorknob turned. Claire was startled. She looked up just as Marsha entered the room. ReadWorks.org :3: 225221 s.cege1'9 cowrnenensionReadWorks Unexpected Fortune “Hi Claire. | hoped you would be here. | brought us Chinese food,” said Marsha. “4’m not hungry,” said Claire. She wondered why Marsha was being so nice. Marsha sighed. She looked at Claire, then at her husband. Marsha took his face between her palms and kissed him gently on the forehead. He shifted, but didn’t wake up. Claire felt embarrassed at the sight of her affection. Marsha put the food on the table. She divided the fried rice and Kung Pao chicken onto two plates. “Eat, or it will get cold,” said Marsha. Claire walked to the table reluctantly. It seemed wrong to eat in front of her father. For the past few weeks, he could only have special shakes. Claire had a sip of one, and it tasted like chalk. “You're not mad I’m here?” Claire asked. “No,” Marsha said. "In fact, | think you should spend as much time with your father as you want.” Claire opened her eyes wide. She tried not to blink. If she did, she feared she might cry. Then she looked at Marsha. Her eyes looked wet and glassy. Was she going to cry, too? Marsha suddenly sat up straight and smiled. “Well, I'm starving. Dig in,” said Marsha. They both picked at their food. Afterwards, Marsha handed Claire a fortune cookie. Claire carefully pulled the slip of paper from the cookie and read her fortune silently: “Sometimes in sorrow we find the greatest joy.” She handed it to Marsha. “Here,” said Claire, “this one should be for both of us.” ReadWorks.org 5352252522 :5.2e:01'¢ eonrnenension