The Blackwoods by Brandy Colbert EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Brandy Colbert
- Language: English
- Genre: Teen & Young Adult Multigenerational Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Waiting in the Wings
Hollis
Hollis Blackwood hadn’t understood the meaning of fame when she
was a little girl—not truly. She’d noticed that, sometimes, people she didn’t
know would do a double take when they pulled up next to her family’s car
at a stoplight, or start whispering to each other when her father was picking
up a prescription from the pharmacy or choosing steaks at the Gelson’s
meat counter. The fifth time a stranger had approached their table at a
restaurant, asking for a picture as they were digging into their entrees, she
remembered wondering why people were so interested in her family in
particular.
Even at six years old, Hollis suspected that not everyone could
know Isaiah Blackwood made the best chocolate chip pancakes on the
planet. She’d been sitting in her car seat in the back, on their way home
from dinner, when she’d blurted, “Why do people care so much about
Dad?” Her parents loved to tell the story to anyone who would listen. The
punch line was that they were driving past a billboard for one of her father’s
new movies, his supersize face grinning out over West Hollywood.
By the time she was in fourth grade, though, Hollis had completely
understood what fame meant. It meant that when people walked up to her
father in public, even when he was having a bad day, he would still give
them a big smile and pose for a selfie. It meant that, when the release of one
of her father’s movies was approaching, her parents would begin leaving
her with Grandpa Abe and Taffy when they went out, so they could shield
her from the ever-lurking paparazzi. It meant that, despite her parents’ best
efforts, Hollis herself was considered interesting enough for the gossip
blogs to post the occasional photo or quick write-up, simply by virtue of
being a Blackwood.
Today, however, was not about her or her parents—it was all about her
great-grandmother. And as she observed all the people who had come
together to remember Bebe, Hollis was overwhelmed, just as she had been
when she was a little girl, by what fame meant. At ninety-six years old,
Bebe had lived longer than many people in her generation, including her
Hollywood peers, so there weren’t many of her contemporaries in
attendance. Even the sisters she’d so deeply loved had each passed on
before her: Marla from natural causes twelve years before, and Sybil eight
years ago, from a stroke.
But Blossom Blackwood had made such an impact
on just about everyone she’d met—and so many she hadn’t—that her
family had been forced to trim the memorial’s guest list down to only a
couple dozen people, for both privacy and security concerns. They were
there because they all loved her, each in their own way, and it was clearly a
celebration of life, just as Grandpa Abe had promised. The speakers he’d
had installed throughout Bebe’s home a few years ago were playing jazz,
the big, brassy kind that his mother had so loved.
Hollis walked down from the second floor, trying not to draw too much
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