"Rolling Toward Clear Skies"

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than forty published and forthcoming books.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Rolling Toward Clear Skies, and reported the following:

Page 69 text:

“I hope this is okay,” Maggie said, feeling unsure for the first time.

“You hope what is okay?”

“Having them in the RV. It’s a bit less… conventional than a hospital room.”

“Under normal circumstances,” the social worker said, “sure. It would be odd. But after a hurricane like that one, nothing is normal. The hospital has no beds, and minors are unattended in those huge makeshift shelters. Normally I wouldn’t take a day off work and drive two children to Mobile. I’d just call the grandparents and ask them to come claim the girls. But they don’t drive anymore, and somebody has to get the girls somewhere. We’re all doing the best we can, right?”

“That’s a good way to look at it.”

“Have you told them they get to take their dog?”

“I haven’t seen them since then, no. If those are the first words out of your mouth I’m sure they’ll be your biggest fans.”

She opened the door to the RV. The girls were sitting at the table, their heads close. Talking about something, from the look of it. The blinked at the new visitor, but it was hard for Maggie to match an emotion with their faces. They looked calm, almost accepting. But Maggie could feel their resistance and fear.

The puppy crawled around in a circle under the table, pressing his face into a corner. Maggie thought if he could will himself right through the side of the RV, he would.

“Hi girls,” the social worker said. “I’m Evie Moskowitz from Child and Family Services.”

The girls only sat in a slightly stunned silence.

“I have some good news,” Evie continued. “Your grandparents are going to let you bring your dog.”

“Oh that’s great!” Rose said.

Since Rose hadn’t spoken to Maggie until they’d known each other for a day or more, Maggie knew it meant a lot. Either they were coming up through the worst, most paralyzing phase of their trauma, or the dog just meant that much. More likely a combination of the two factors.

“Oh my, he’s so thin,” Evie said.

I have mixed feelings about how this page 69 holds up. As is often the case, it catches the characters in a fairly ordinary moment. There’s a lot of drama leading up to this page, and following this page, but I’m not sure how much of it the reader gathers just from this text.

It’s all a bit more loaded when you know that the dog isn’t even theirs. He was also orphaned in the hurricane, and they’re trying to fool social services and the grandparents into letting the girls bring him. It’s more loaded still if you know that they’ll bounce away from the grandparents’ house before our protagonists can even drive home. But it’s the Page 69 Test, so you don’t know that. I do hope it creates a few mysteries, though—a few holes in what you know that might make you want to read on and learn more. I know curiosity is a big factor for me as far as determining whether I put a book down or keep going.

I’d say page 69 in this case is a bit less that moderately successful at representing the novel as a whole.

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Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

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--Marshal Zeringue