Sixteen-year-old Evie Hutchins, the main character in A String of Chances, lives with her parents
and Aunt Ida in a small Maryland town. To make ends meet, the family takes in elderly boarders in need of
care.
A String of Chances
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
“Help.”
A strangely calm but insistent voice came from one of the lower bedrooms. Like the ring
of a telephone, it was repeated again and again at regular intervals.
“Evie, can you tend to Sister Ozzie?” Aunt Ida called. “I’ve got my hands in the bread
5 dough. Soon as the cartoons is over, she starts that yelling.”
Evie went downstairs and into the bedroom in back of the kitchen. A tall, angular woman
in a short nightdress was sitting on the edge of the bed, rocking back and forth. Her wrinkled cheeks
were heavily rouged, and a jagged line of lipstick cut across her mouth. Like a veil, her white
hair hung in wisps about her face and shoulders.
10 “I want to see Mama,” said Sister Ozzie.
“Your mama’s not here, but I am. What would you like?”
“I want to go to the bathroom.”
“Are you sure?”
“I want to put on my make-up.”
15 It was attention she wanted, then. An old fool’s vanity, Aunt Ida had said about the
cosmetics. She never wore any all the years she sang in the choir, and why she wants it now that
her mind’s gone, I don’t know.
Evie took a box from the night stand and handed Ozzie a mirror. The old woman stared
intently at her own reflection.
20 “Who’s that?” she asked sharply.
“It’s you, Sister Ozzie.”
The tall woman frowned.
“Now what you need,” Evie told her, “is something to highlight your eyes. Hold real still.”
The white-haired lady began to smile. Carefully Evie rubbed a sponge-tipped stick in the
25 blue mascara and smeared it under Sister Ozzie’s eyebrows. Even there, the skin was finely wrinkled,
like crepe.
“You’re going to be so beautiful that men will go absolutely mad,” Evie told her. “They’ll be
pounding on the door day and night.”
Sister Ozzie giggled, then scolded, “Well, go on. You always stop.”
30 “The first man will say, ‘Sister Ozzie,’” and Evie lowered her voice, “‘I’ve brung you
these here flowers to put on your table.’ And you will lift one long finger, and the butler will throw
him out. Close your eyes, now.”
“What butler?”
“Murphy.”
35 “Oh.”
“Then the second man will knock on your door, and he’ll say, ‘Sister Ozzie, I’ve brought you
some flowers to wear on your dress.’”
The old woman’s eyelids fluttered. “And I’ll take them, won’t I?”
“Nope.” Evie smoothed out the spots of rouge that Sister Ozzie had applied herself that
40 morning. “You’ll just smile and say, ‘No, thank you,’ and Murphy will show him out. Because
you’re waiting for the third man, see. Then he’ll knock and say, ‘Ah, Mademoiselle, here are the
most beautiful flowers in all the world to wear in your beautiful hair.’”
“I’ll take them!” Sister Ozzie cried.
“Of course, you will, and he’ll pin them behind your ear, whispering adoringly…”
45 “Evelyn Hutchins, that is about the silliest thing I ever head,” said a voice from the doorway,
but Aunt Ida chuckled as she passed by.
Sister Ozzie put one wrinkled hand over Evie’s and said, “I certainly do like your stories.”
And for one brief moment it seemed that the old woman had a grasp on time and place before she let
them slip away once more. Would she even remember her, Evie wondered, come September? critical idea in 35 word length sentence WRITTEN LIKE A 8TH GRADER