I am now on page 213 of my book, Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt. A lot has happened since my last blog a week ago. So far, Dicey and the gang have met up with two kids who are also runaways in a park where the kids had stayed and fished for a week. When they moved on and finally reached the city where they could no longer keep moving forward, they felt like giving up until they were kindly taken into the hands of two college grads nearby that helped them on their journey by taking them to their aunts. There, they found out that their Aunt Cilla was dead, and her uptight daughter lived at the house now. This cousin “takes them in on account of her good heart”, where the kids lived and went to school for about two weeks until they finally couldn't take it anymore there. Now, they are on a journey to find their long lost grandmother once again, now knowing that there mother, who is in a mental hospital, will never be able to take care of them.
One thing that I have noticed when reading this portion of the story is how Dicey has changed throughout this short time. Now, she seems as if she is almost in a way excepting the fact that she can't do this on her own, and that it is okay to accept help from people. Prior to the many weeks that the kids had added onto their trek, Dicey was very head strong in the sense that any help given to her was declined because she felt that she could do what her mom left for her to do by herself. Another thing that grabbed my attention is that their cousin wants them to feel especially grateful to her for letting them stay in her house. This isn't really the way I would have expected a woman wanting to go into the convent to act.
As I read this story, many things have come to my mind. One little detail was when Sammy got into a fight at school, and he didn't even know the reason he was fighting. This greatly reminded me of Huckleberry Fin who occasionally did that in The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin. Another small remembrance I had in this book was when Dicey got a job as a window washer in grocery stores to make money for when the kids planned to leave their cousin's house. This reminded me of all the times I have used a squeegee as well to clean windows and the weird sort of thrill it is!
In the story, I began to feel sorry for Sammy especially because he is always being told to be more like his brother, who he knows is better than him. He is just a young boy that needs guidance, but instead gets reprimanded and told that he could be given to a foster home. I also felt a sense of happiness when Dicey said the only way they were going to get anywhere was, “together, because that is the only way the Tillerman's travel.” That made me feel good knowing that even though they have been through so much bad together, they still see the good in everything just knowing that they will be doing it together as a family. I do have some questions, however. I want to know more about the men that helped them, how their cousin reacted when she found out the kids had left, and what will be awaiting them at their grandmother's. I guess I'll just have to find out.
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