Children of Exile by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Author:Margaret Peterson Haddix
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Once I was in the room Bobo and I shared, I unzipped my suitcase and slowly began lifting each item out. Somehow I knew the mother and the father would leave me alone. And it felt almost like a sacred ceremony for me, touching the things I’d last touched in Fredtown.

I didn’t want it to end.

I piled books and school supplies in one corner, and clothing along the back wall. Here was the dress I’d worn the night of the school talent show; here were the heavy leggings I wore on the rare occasions when a cold wind swept down from the mountains into Fredtown. Here was the solar calculator I’d been so proud of receiving at the end of fifth grade—the Freds always said you had to prove you could work with numbers in your head before you could be trusted with owning a machine to do it for you. I’d always thought Edwy was better than me in math, but I’d earned my calculator first.

I reached the bottom of the suitcase too quickly. Even after I emptied it, I kept it open. I knew I wasn’t missing anything—everything I’d put into it back in Fredtown was already out and arranged along the walls of my new room. It didn’t look like Edwy or his supposedly thieving family had stolen anything, and part of me wanted to go out and inform the father and mother of that. But I kept sitting there, kept running my hands along the suitcase’s wrinkled lining, just in case there was some tiny item I’d forgotten about.

Something jabbed against my hand. It was something tucked under a loose edge of the lining. I tugged at the thing jabbing me—it was a piece of paper wrapped in on itself like a miniature cone.

From my Fred-parents? I thought.

My heart beat faster. Of course they wouldn’t have sent me back home—to a home they even suspected might still be dangerous—without giving me a way out. A safety net of sorts. This was probably some secret way of reaching them, some secret number to call in case of emergency. Never mind that I hadn’t seen a single phone since I’d left Fredtown. Never mind that there might be complications calling someplace so far away. I would be able to unwrap this paper and look at their message and get in touch with them right away. Because this was an emergency.

My real mother slapped me! I could tell my Fred-parents. Something really bad happened here, and I think something bad might happen again! I’m worried about Bobo!

And they would understand instantly. They would come and retrieve Bobo and me, and all the other kids, too. We could live the rest of our lives in Fredtown and we would always be safe.

With trembling hands, I began unrolling the tiny paper. Finally it lay flat in my hand. There were words written on the paper, words in handwriting I recognized instantly.

But the handwriting didn’t belong to either of my Fred-parents.

It belonged to Edwy.

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