In the book The World in Grandfather’s Hands, Jimmy moves from the open land of his Native American home (pueblo) to a city to live with his grandfather. In this passage, Jimmy’s grandfather takes him to the supermarket in the city for the first time.

“I forgot. You've never seen a supermarket before, have you?”

I shook my head no.

“Think of it this way,” said Grandfather as he put some hot peppers in a plastic bag. “This store is speaking to you. It is telling you some of the things that your mother wants you to learn.”

I didn't understand.

“A trading post in the pueblo only shows you a small part of the world. This store speaks of a world that is a very big place.”

“So I should just forget where we come from, is that it?”

“No. Carry it with you, so that you may be always in both worlds, large and small.”

“So it's big, so what! I'd rather be in a trading post any old day. Maybe they only have one kind of apple, but they are all ripe!” While I was saying that I was watching a woman putting the green apples into a bag. “That woman is being cheated because she doesn't know the apples aren't ripe.”

Grandfather laughed again. He walked over to the table where the green apples were and put about half a dozen of them in a sack. He put the plastic bag in the wagon with the bag of peppers.

“You'll get a bellyache if you eat green apples,” I said.

Grandfather Whitefeather looked as though he were going to laugh again, but he didn't.

We didn't talk much after that. I trailed along while Grandfather Whitefeather filled the cart with what we needed. I saw lots of new things. I was burning to ask him what those strange foods were and what they tasted like and where they came from, but I remembered I was supposed to be bored and not interested in anything so I didn't speak about it.

When we were ready to leave, we went up to pay. There were seven or eight cash registers. This store was a real busy place! At the trading post there was one cash box and you had to bring your own baskets or boxes for the stuff you bought.

Grandfather paid his money, and the woman rang it up and then packed his groceries in paper bags. A young man in a white shirt put them in the wagon for us. Nobody said much, and nobody talked about the weather or the corn crops or who had an illness in the family. At the trading post sometimes you can spend longer talking at the cash box than you do picking out your groceries. But the woman rang up our stuff real quick, with just a nod of her head to Grandfather, and the guy who bagged up our groceries was in a hurry, too. As soon as our stuff was in the wagon, they were busy with another customer.

Grandfather seemed to act like this was what he expected so I didn't say anything. Maybe everybody in a city always acted like strangers. I remembered the policeman. Maybe that was how people got along with each other here.

When we got outside, I was pulling the wagon and Grandfather was smiling as if he understood some private joke. About halfway back, he motioned for me to stop. He bent over and rummaged around in the bags until he found the plastic bag with the apples.

“Feel like sharing an apple with me?”

I was hungry, but I shook my head no. A green-apple stomachache is just about the worst kind there is. Even a horse won't eat green apples.

Grandfather Whitefeather pulled out one apple and used a small pocketknife he took out of his shirt pocket to cut it in half. He bit into one section of the apple and offered me the other piece. He chewed, making a great show of how good it tasted.

“Not afraid of an apple, are you?”

I shrugged. I didn't know why he was making such a big deal over an apple, so I took it. It was kind of big for an unripe apple. I bit into it and it was juicy and sweet.

“It's not a trick. I thought it was when I saw them, too. But it is some kind of apple from a far-off place called New Zealand, and it gets ripe but it stays green.” He finished his half of the apple and looked to see how I was liking mine.

“It tastes pretty good,” I finally admitted. I was still surprised. I took another bite, wishing my friends back in the pueblo could see this. A green apple that was ripe! It just didn't seem possible somehow.

“You're going to see lots of new things here. Just try not to forget the old things you already know and you will do well,” said Grandfather.

Aim Plus Middle School Assessments

English Assessment

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