The Secret of Clouds - Hardcover

Richman, Alyson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1984802623 ISBN 13: 9781984802620

Publisher: Berkley, 2019

Synopsis

Named One of the Best 2019 Winter Books by PopSugar and Chosen as One of 9 Books to Read (or Gift!) This February by Instyle!

From the #1 international bestselling author of The Lost Wife and The Velvet Hours comes an emotionally charged story about a mother’s love, a teacher’s promise, and a child’s heart....
 
Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev. Years later, after the couple has safely emigrated to America the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children. Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories. As the two forge a deep and soulful connection, Yuri's boundless curiosity and unique wisdom inspires Maggie to make difficult changes in her own life. And she'll never realize just how strong Yuri has made her—until she needs that strength the most....
 
A novel that will make readers examine what it means to live life with a full heart.

About this title

About the Author:

Alyson Richman is the international bestselling author of The Velvet Hours, The Garden of Letters, The Lost Wife, The Last Van Gogh, The Rhythm of Memory, and The Mask Carver’s Son, and is featured in the anthology Grand Central. She lives in Long Island, New York, with her husband and two children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof***

Copyright © 2018 Alyson Richman

 

Prologue

April 26, 1986

Kiev, Ukraine

She walks the cobblestone streets, her lithe body moving quickly. Most days, she is wrapped in layers of thin sweaters and a scarf roped loosely around her neck. But today it is unseasonably warm, the sun radiating against the pale blue sky.

Everyone in the square is celebrating the surprising heat wave. Girls are wearing cotton dresses for the first time in months. Old men are playing chess in the park, their sleeves rolled up past their elbows. Young children are at the river with their parents, knee-deep in water they normally wouldn’t be able to swim in until July.

The heat. The sun. The light. For a few hours before, she had soaked in the unexpected sunlight in the privacy of her garden. But now, Katya finds herself joyously leaping over a puddle of soapy water left by the street washer. Her leotard is hidden underneath a thin black blouse. Stretching from the hem of her skirt are the sculpted legs of a dancer.

She walks as if suspended from the ground, arms swinging, her bag tossed over her shoulder. Her face is bone white, her blond hair coiled into a tight bun.

As she approaches the theater, no one takes notice of Katya as she pulls open the heavy door and ascends the cement stairs toward the ballet studios. Inside, the blinds are lifted all the way up to bring in the light. As the dancers stretch, their shadows mimic their movements across the wooden floor. Like dark ghosts resurrected by the sun.

 

 

Chapter One

Let me tell you a secret. A unique kind of person exists in this world, one who radiates light even through a curtain of darkness.

As a teacher, I’ve seen everything in eyes staring back at me: the child who hates school and wishes to be outside; the one who aims only to please; the glassy, sleepy-eyed child; and the one who’s perpetually lost in a daydream. But there are those rare moments when a student sits before you and you immediately are certain—and you can’t know why, it’s just a feeling in your bones—that they are different.

This child is not to be confused with the student who’s the most ambitious, or the one who is naturally strong at taking tests. No, this child, the one you sense is extraordinary, is the one who returns everything you give and more. He or she becomes your beacon, as every word you utter in the classroom suddenly has a destination. It’s as if you are teaching toward their light.

In the fall of 1999, I met Yuri, a student who one day would teach me lessons I could never have learned in school. I was young, just two years out of Columbia Teachers College. I had abandoned my first job after graduation as a personal assistant at a well-respected New York City PR firm, where my days had been so demoralizing and brain-sucking that I often thought eating glass might be less painful than spending twelve hours tending to my boss’s Godzilla-like needs. Hoping to switch into something that could restore my faith in humanity and also give my life purpose, I followed my mother’s suggestion and went back to school for a degree in teaching.

To be honest, I became nearly evangelical in my passion for teaching after I switched careers. The thrill of teaching children is that they don’t edit themselves, like adults do. Truth can be found in every classroom, and I savored that purity like a refreshing glass of water. I wanted to be the teacher who read passages out loud to my students, like my own English teacher had done when I was in sixth grade, so we could all hear the music in the words. Deep down, I believed a story could change us, and that if we read it deeply enough, a good book could transform our souls.

It was my second year teaching sixth grade English language arts at Franklin Intermediate School, and I was full of optimism. Everything around me seemed ripe with possibility. My boyfriend, Bill, and I had just moved in together. We had spent our first four years after graduating from the University of Michigan living a few blocks from each other on the border between the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem, where the rent was relatively cheap and the bars were plentiful. But I had grown tired of the twentysomething scene of young professionals unwinding in front of sports bar TVs and a sea of baseball caps. And the long commute from New York City to my teaching job in Long Island was killing me. I wanted fresh air and a backyard. I imagined Sunday mornings where we could spread out the newspaper and look up at each other through steaming mugs of coffee. Perhaps we’d even get a dog.

Bill resisted at first. He enjoyed the convenience of picking up a coffee and a bagel along with his copy of the New York Post from his favorite corner deli, before hopping on the number 6 subway each morning to his Midtown office where he sold corporate insurance. He loved the fact that there were fifty delivery places he could always choose from if he wanted something to eat after midnight. He had just started making good money and was happy to have places to spend it. He bought himself a new set of golf clubs and splurged on box seats at Mets games and concerts at Madison Square Garden.

But then, over the next few months, one by one, our closest couple friends started announcing their decision to leave the city and go where there was more grass and the lines for Sunday morning brunch weren’t always an hour long. One night over Ray’s Pizza, Bill observed that the migration had started. “And who am I to be the last man standing?” He wiped his mouth with a paper towel. “Maybe you’re right, Maggie, let’s make the move out to the burbs.”

We ended up renting a small cottage in Stony Brook, a part of Long Island that felt more like New England than the fancier towns closer to Manhattan. I had found the listing for it in my parents’ local PennySaver, and circled it in bright red ink. The location was perfect. It was close to the middle school where I was teaching, and Bill was thrilled that his Manhattan employer had a satellite office not too far away. I believed I was well on my way to becoming a full-fledged adult, at the ripe old age of twenty-six.

The new place appealed to the romantic in me. A small white clapboard cottage with red shutters and a brass doorknocker, it looked as though it was lifted from the pages of a children’s book. Others might have been put off by the low ceilings and the lack of closets, but I was completely sold by what the Realtor referred to as its “old-world charm.” Who doesn’t love flower boxes filled with purple and magenta petunias underneath their windowsills? Who needs air-conditioning when you have tall linden trees shading a slate blue roof?

“Let’s try to negotiate a little on the rent,” Bill advised, the businessman in him always thrilled by the chance to get a better deal. But I ignored him. The real estate agent was pointing out the wood-burning fireplace, and I didn’t want to be distracted when she was detailing the craftsmanship in the carved molding.

“That’s all the heat you’ll need in the winter,” she laughed, pointing to the logs of cherrywood the owners had thoughtfully stacked to the side. I was sold! Already, I could imagine myself curled up underneath a blanket, reading Toni Morrison as the fire blazed on.

At the end of the tour, Bill thanked the agent and promised we’d get back to her in a few days.

I waited until he was several feet ahead of me before I pulled her aside.

“We’ll take it!” I said, squeezing her arm. I had always been a sucker for “old-world charm.” I could almost smell the burning cherrywood, even though it was days away from the start of summer.

We moved in at the end of June, just after my first year at Franklin ended, and I found myself doing most of the unpacking. I wiped down the wooden shelves in the tiny living room and lined them with all my favorite novels. Ever since I had first left home, I brought with me every one of the books I had ever loved. So even my favorite ones from eighth grade now found their way to my new shelves. My dog-eared copies of A Separate Peace and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn were lovingly placed next to more recent additions, like The God of Small Things and A Suitable Boy. Every day I worked toward making the cottage our new home, while Bill went off to work. I placed photos of the two of us in college over the mantel, and cut wild roses and arranged them in old mason jars. The fireplace hinted at all of our cozy nights to come.

In the meantime, I found a slice of heaven in the Adirondack chair under one of the trees in the garden. I knew, come September, it would be the perfect spot for me to correct my new students’ papers. I couldn’t wait to discover whose sparkling eyes were going to inspire me most in the coming school year.

The Friday before Labor Day, I arrived early at Franklin Intermediate, eager to set up my classroom. I had filled my silver Toyota with boxes of supplies: folders, paper, and marking pens. My friend Suzie Price, the art teacher, was in the hallway stapling colored paper to the bulletin board when I walked inside. I knew it would be a full-blown art gallery of student works on display in less than two weeks’ time.

“Hey, beauty,” she said. In truth, Suzie was the real beauty. With bright red lips and perfect skin, and all her scarves and mix-matched separates, she had that artistic way of styling herself I so envied. Come winter, when I’d be bundled up in a practical wool cardigan, she’d be wearing one in chenille with buttons made of sea glass.

“Good summer?”

“The best! No more reverse commute from the city. Bill and I found a great new place . . . a cottage out in Stony Brook.”

“That’s amazing news, Maggie. I need to move out of my place one of these days. Living in a basement isn’t good for the artist’s soul.”

“Check the PennySaver,” I hollered over my shoulder as I carried my box down toward my classroom.

Room number 203, my classroom, was smack in the middle of Franklin’s west wing. Like the majority of Long Island’s public schools, Franklin’s interior was devoid of any charm or architectural detail. The ceilings were low, the cement-block walls were painted a drab shade of putty, and the floors were a checkerboard of linoleum tile. But nearly all my fellow teachers relished the opportunity to defy the 1960s functional architecture and transform their surroundings into something inspiring for their students once they stepped through the threshold of their classroom.

We all prided ourselves in the various themes we used to decorate our rooms. That summer, I had deliberated over mine for weeks before finally deciding on “The mind is a powerful tool.” I spent hours creating a template for a squiggly shaped brain with all its infinite coils. I then color-coded each section with an array of neon magic markers to highlight the two parts. I made the left side of my template orange to show the children “the logical brain,” where language and analysis were generated, and then I highlighted the right side in pink for “the creative brain,” the area that sparked daydreaming and imagination. I also made a miniature brain for each of my twenty-four students, and wrote their names in the center with a thick black Sharpie. I hurried to my classroom, eager to begin working on setting up my bulletin board.

When I entered my classroom, much to my surprise, I found a yellow Post-it note from the principal already taped to my desk.

Ms. Topper: Need to speak with you when you get a chance. I’ll be in my office all day. Stop by whenever it’s convenient.

Thank you,

T. Nelson

I wondered what he could possibly want to discuss on my first day back. I checked myself in the mirror, took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and prepared to go see him.

Principal Nelson was standing over his metal filing case when I walked into his office. A desk fan was circulating warm air in the corner.

“Glad to see you, Maggie.” He gestured for me to sit down. “Did you have a good summer?”

“Yes, thank you. But I’m happy to be getting back to school.”

“Good to hear.” He smiled as he walked over to his desk and settled into his chair. “I have an unusual request for you . . .” He leaned in closer to me.

“Maggie, I was pleased with your work here last year. You bring an enviable enthusiasm to the classroom.”

I blushed and was about to deflect the praise when Mr. Nelson lifted his hand to stop me.

“No need to say anything more on that subject. I just wanted you to know that I’m looking forward to a great second year with you here at Franklin.”

He cleared his throat. “And, in fact, I was so pleased, I thought of you right away when I got this special assignment from the superintendent.”

“Sounds intriguing . . .” I felt a surge of nervous energy pass through me.

“There’s a child entering the sixth grade this year who just moved into the district. He was actually slotted to be in your class, but from what I gather of the details, he was born with a heart defect that has really weakened him.”

I felt my stomach tighten.

“Since he’s too weak to be at school right now, the administration has agreed to send tutors to his house for him, so he doesn’t fall behind. And I was hoping you’d be his English language arts tutor.”

He tapped his desk with two fingers as he awaited my response.

“We’re obviously hoping he’ll get his strength back and be able to join your class later on in the year. But in the meantime, the district will pay for you to visit him after your classes end here each day. We were thinking two days a week to start. The administration will be arranging another tutor to help him with math and science, but I don’t believe he or she will be from Franklin.” He folded his hands on the desk.

“Does that sound like something you’d be interested in doing, Ms. Topper?”

The excitement I felt only seconds before was now replaced by dread. The memory of a sick little girl from my childhood flashed through my mind, her eyes pressed to the window as the school bus passed by her house.

I could feel the color draining from my face, and my mind froze. I wanted to say something professional and well-meaning, like how wonderful it would be to teach a student one-on-one, or how it would be a privilege to tutor a child who was in need, but my words failed me. I could only feel myself fidgeting nervously in my chair.

Mr. Nelson leaned forward again. “So, can I count on you, Maggie?”

I swallowed hard, desperate to do something that would at least enable me to respond, but I could not stop thinking about my childhood neighbor, Ellie.

“What’s the student’s name?” I pushed myself to ask.

Principal Nelson lifted a sheet of paper from his desk and squinted.

“Yuri Krasny.” He read the name quickly. “I have no idea if I’m pronouncing that right . . .”

“Yuri?” I said the name again. It sounded exotic and interesting. Not like all the Michaels and Jonathans who were so plentiful at Franklin Intermediate.

I felt a whirlwind of emotions rush through me—tho...

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1984802623
• ISBN 13: 9781984802620
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368