Birdie's Billions by Edith Cohn

Author:Edith Cohn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781547607822
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

22

After school she went to the school library to look up the location of a different shipping store. Her backpack was still heavy with money that needed to be mailed to Mama, and as anxious as she was to be rid of it, she didn’t want to go back to the Ship It store next to the laundromat. If she showed up there again, Travis or his dad might get suspicious, because how many packages could a kid her age need to ship?

So, she told the librarian that she needed to google some stuff for history class, and instead googled the next closest Ship It store. But according to Google Maps it was eleven miles away—too far for her skateboard. She’d have to take a bus. She googled bus routes, wrote down the information, and stuffed it in her shoe so she wouldn’t have to open her bookbag and reveal the hidden money to anyone who might be looking over. She really needed to ask Mama to buy her some pants with pockets so she didn’t have to carry things in her sneakers.

Every time Birdie left the safety of the school building, she panicked. Her eyes always scanned for the man in the nuclear atom jacket. She imagined her days were numbered, and one day she’d find him waiting for her outside the school. Was today that day? Thankfully, no.

She made it home without issue.

“Mama!” Birdie raced into the apartment, excited to tell Mama that her friends were her friends again. But except for the cat, the living room and the kitchen were empty.

She went to her room to hide her money-heavy bookbag, then checked Mama’s room. She wasn’t in there either. Fear rose inside her like the lake in a heavy rain. What if the man in the nuclear atom jacket had come to their apartment? He could be holding Mama hostage so Birdie would give him back his money.

The cat meowed.

“Where’s Mama?”

Cat would tell her if he could. He rubbed against her legs. She stroked his back all the way up to the tip of his broken tail and tried to calm down. She told herself she was being ridiculous.

Seconds later Mama flung open the door, carrying shopping bags. “Sorry I’m late. The lines at the mall were crazy. You’d think it was Christmastime instead of the middle of January.”

Birdie rushed to give Mama a hug. “You went shopping?”

“I did! I bought you a new pair of sneakers.”

“Really?!”

Birdie rifled through the bags Mama had set down until she found a shoebox.

“I’m sorry I didn’t let you wear your dress and silver shoes to school. They’re just so nice—I was afraid you would stick out. But I don’t think sneakers will be cause for anyone to ask questions, do you? Even if they weren’t cheap.”

Holy moly. She couldn’t believe it.

She was looking at a brand name that only Mama’s newfound wealth could buy.

“Well, what do you think?” Mama asked.

Birdie lifted the lid and shrieked. There they were. The Vans shoes of her dreams.

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