Flying Up the Mountain by Elizabeth-Irene Baitie

Author:Elizabeth-Irene Baitie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Norton Young Readers

Talented Turkeys

128

1st

Gallant Geese

126

2nd

Excellent Eagles

125

3rd

Yes! Leslie, Dzifa, and Ato exclaimed, jumping up and hugging each other. Hafsat did not react. She sat twiddling her fingers and sniffling. Dzifa slid an unsympathetic glance at her.

“Ato, something about Hafsat doesn’t add up,” she whispered to him and Leslie a few minutes later. They were heading up the grassy hill toward the Pecking Bowl along with the rest of Flock Eleven. Hafsat trailed behind everyone else.

“Really? What?” Ato asked.

“Her dad. Sometimes she speaks as if he’s alive. Then as if he’s not. Past tense. Present tense. Past tense. It’s confusing. What do you think?”

Leslie switched his attention from his possibly gangrenous arm to Hafsat.

Ato didn’t know what to think.

“I’m going to ask her. It bugs me,” Dzifa said. She turned around and walked back toward Hafsat.

He hurried after her and tugged at her arm. “No,” he hissed. But she just pulled him along.

Hafsat slowed to a stop when she saw them. Dried tears marked her face.

“Hafsat.” Dzifa turned a puzzled gaze on her.

Ato nudged Dzifa. “Don’t!” he whispered fiercely.

A few kids who had gone ahead looked back with mild interest.

“It’s nothing,” Ato cut in hastily, but Dzifa would not be stopped.

“I don’t understand. About your dad … I know he’s dead, and I’m sorry about that … but …” she began.

Hafsat froze. Her lower lip wobbled and she looked accusingly at Ato.

“It’s just a question. I get confused …” Dzifa continued.

“My dad isn’t dead,” Hafsat said. Her voice was almost too low to hear. “He’s … in prison.”

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