Ivy rode out of the tall cornfield and into Rosie’s yard. She didn’t notice that the sparrows had followed her out of the cornfield, an umbrella of brown high in the air. She avoided the unruly weeds and took a shortcut to the road across Rosie’s bare front yard.
The door to Rosie’s shack opened and there she stood, looking like the witch from “Hansel and Gretel.” A pack of barking wild dogs tumbled out her door and gave chase, nipping at Ivy’s ankles as she rode past.
Rosie’s wrinkled face was like an old dried-apple doll. “Get off my property,” she scolded in a raspy voice.
Ivy gripped the bike’s handlebars and turned to Rosie. “I’m trying.”
The relentless dogs ran down the path and onto the road after her, barking and biting at her legs as she pedaled away. One enthusiastically vici
