Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Title
- Dedication
- Shelley
- Frank
- Lil
- Harvey
- Lil
- Frank
- Shelley
- Lil
- Frank
- Lil
- Shelley
- Harvey
- Lil
- Frank
- Harvey
- Lil
- Shelley
- Harvey
- Lil
- Shelley
- Lil
- Shelley
- Lil
- Shelley
- Lil
- Harvey
- Frank
- Shelley
- Frank
- Harvey
- Shelley
- Lil
- Shelley
- Frank
- Shelley
- Harvey
- Shelley
- Frank
- Acknowledgments
- Readers Guide
- Writing HieroglyphicsAn Essay by Jill McCorkle
- Questions for Discussion
- Also by Jill McCorkle
- About the Author
- Praise for Hieroglyphics
Before he left for school, Jason decorated Harvey’s bedroom ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars and markers and Harvey couldn’t wait for it to get dark so he could look up and see. Jason had written Little Dude right over the closet door and then wrote both of their names in Klingon just above the bed. Harvey’s name in Klingon looks like PEFHr and then a bad circle, all done by somebody who can’t do letters good. They do that to trick people. That’s what Jason says. Jason says his J looks like pie, but not the kind you eat, a kind Harvey will learn about someday if he studies and can pay attention to numbers. Jason loves numbers and told a joke to their mom where he said, “Pie aren’t square. Pie are round.” And Harvey laughed too, even though he didn’t get it, because when they all laughed together he felt like he could fly. Jason said if you know numbers you can do just about anything and he made Harvey count out loud when he stuck stars to the ceiling. They did constellations of all of Harvey’s favorite things: doughnuts and turtles, including that one from China that is four hundred years old the camp teacher told about. Sometimes, Harvey pretends that he is there visiting that turtle and when he puts his hand to the glass it swims right up and stays as long as Harvey stays, and people say things like: Look at that smart boy. He knows all about numbers and can speak Klingon, and turtles all over the world love and follow him. He’s the turtle whisperer.