from “Teamwork”
from Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
She was my father’s teacher at the night school class.
She never married.
She went to college for two years
and studied and worked,
and didn’t notice how lonely she was
until she met Daddy and fell into the
big hurt of his eyes.
She knows how to keep a home,
she knows how to cook,
she knows how to make things
last through winters
and drought.
She knows how to smooth things between two
redheaded people.
And she knows how to come into a home
and not step on the toes of a ghost.
I still feel grateful she didn’t make cranberry sauce
last month, at the first Thanksgiving we
spent together.
Louise made sweet potatoes and green beans,
and turkey, and two pies, pumpkin
and chocolate.
I was so full
my lids
sighed shut and Daddy walked with Louise instead of
me
out to Ma and Franklin’s grave,
where he let Ma know his intentions (1).
And Ma’s bones didn’t object.
Neither did mine.
1 intentions: Decision (to marry Louise)
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic, Inc., 1997, pp. 223–224.
This item has two parts. Answer PART A; then answer PART B.
Read these lines from the passage.
“And she knows how to come into a home
and not step on the toes of a ghost.”
PART A: What does it mean to step on someone’s toes?
PART B: What does the phrase not step on the toes of a ghost suggest about Louise in this passage?
This item has two parts.
PART AA: According to this passage, how does Louise affect the relationship between Billie Jo and her father?
PART BB: Which lines from the passage best support the answer to PART AA?
Read these lines from the passage.
“And Ma’s bones didn’t object.
Neither did mine.”
PART AAA: What does object mean in this context?
PART BBB: What do these lines reveal about Billie Jo?