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crutches, but Henry won’t let her walk with them. He carries her into the kitchen.
    â€œBed or chair?” he asks.
    â€œChair,” says Maddy until she sits down. “Bed,” she says. “I’m too tired.”
    â€œGood choice,” says Henry. “You have lots of medicine in you, too. You might slide down to the floor and become a rug.”
    I laugh.
    Henry puts Maddy on her bed and comes into the kitchen.
    He sits at the kitchen table.
    â€œI’ll stay here tonight,” says Henry. “In case Maddy needs help.”
    â€œThat’s good.”
    The phone rings and I answer.
    â€œHello.”
    â€œRobert?”
    My mother.
    â€œHello.”
    â€œYour father and I have been thinking that we need to spend some more time with you,” she says. “Our last conversation wasn’t very satisfying.”
    â€œNo,” I say. “It wasn’t.”
    Henry looks at me. He knows who it is the way he knows all things.
    â€œAnd we thought maybe you could come to London and spend time here while we’re playing concerts. We could arrange for you to fly over. How does that sound?”
    I wait a second. And in that second I see my mother as a very young child after her father had left her. I never thought about her as a very young child before. Ever.
    â€œMother, Maddy has broken her ankle and is on crutches. She needs me. She has taken care of me so far. I’m going to stay and take care of her.”
    There is a hollow, empty sound on the phone.
    â€œIs she all right?”
    â€œYes. Henry is taking care of her. She tripped in the garden.”
    Henry smiles at me.
    â€œI didn’t get to tell you how good you sounded when you played the Schubert,” I say. “I listened to Death and the Maiden on Maddy’s radio.”
    â€œWell, thank you, Robert. That’s so nice.”
    My mother is surprised. She doesn’t know what else to say. She doesn’t know how to talk about us: about how we feel, how we think, and how we are sometimes scared.
    But I do.
    I want to say many things.
    I want to say that I know many new truths about myself.
    I want to say I am an alpha and Ellie is a hero.
    I want to say I have fed corn bread to a bear who did not hurt me.
    I want to say I have touched a bobcat.
    I want to say I know my mother was a small child who was lonely and sad.
    But I can’t say all these things.
    But there is one thing I can say.
    So I say it.
    â€œMother?”
    â€œYes, Robert?”
    The telephone wire hums. We are both close and faraway at the same time.
    â€œI love you,” I say.

Copyright
    Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
    T HE TRUTH OF ME . Copyright © 2013 by Patricia MacLachlan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    MacLachlan, Patricia.
    The truth of me : about a boy, his grandmother, and a very good dog / Patricia MacLachlan. — First edition.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â pages       cm
    Summary: Robbie and his dog, Ellie, spend the summer at his grandmother Maddy’s house, where Robbie learns many things about his emotionally distant parents and himself.
    ISBN 978-0-06-199859-1 (hardcover bdg.)
    ISBN 978-0-06-199860-7 (lib. bdg.)
    EPub Edition May 2013 ISBN 9780062292681
    [1. Grandmothers—Fiction. 2. Dogs—Fiction. 3. Parent