I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871 by Lauren Tarshis

Author:Lauren Tarshis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Oscar sighed with relief.

“You really know your way around the city,” he said to Jennie as he dabbed drops of water onto his burned forehead. “You’d make a good tracker.”

“My mother was a baker,” Jennie said, with a hint of pride. “Bruno and I used to go with her to deliver her cakes and cookies.”

“I love cookies,” Bruno whispered to Oscar, as though he was sharing a deep secret.

A picture popped into Oscar’s mind. He saw Jennie with her braids straight and glossy, Bruno nibbling on a cookie almost as big as his head. He pictured a lady with Bruno’s dark curls and Jennie’s big brown eyes, standing in the kitchen in a flowered apron.

“My mama got sick,” Bruno said softly. “She in heaven.”

Jennie glanced at Oscar and he glimpsed the fresh hurt in her eyes.

“My papa’s in heaven, too,” Oscar said, swallowing the lump in his throat.

“Our father died right after Bruno was born, in an accident,” Jennie said. “Mama died six months ago. I promised her I’d keep an eye on Bruno, no matter what.”

Oscar thought of his own promise to Papa: to watch over the farm. That promise had kept him going these past two years. But now it was broken.

Would Papa forgive him? Would Oscar forgive himself?

Jennie put her hand on Bruno’s head.

“I couldn’t let us go to the orphanage,” Jennie said.

Her voice dropped very low when she said orphanage, as if it was a curse word no one should ever say.

Oscar understood.

He’d heard horror stories about the orphanage in Minneapolis, the city closest to Castle — that it was more like a jail than a home.

Oscar looked at Jennie and Bruno, suddenly wondering what would happen to them. Their home was gone. They were all alone.

What would they do?

But no, Oscar suddenly remembered. They weren’t alone.

He picked up Bruno.

They weren’t alone because they had Oscar.

“Hey, Bruno,” he said. “I bet up in heaven, my papa and your parents are good friends.”

Bruno leaned back so he could look Oscar in the eye.

“Like us!” he exclaimed.

His soot-covered face grinned out from under the fancy lady’s hat.

Both Oscar and Jennie laughed, and for that second Oscar forgot about the smoke and the flames.

But their smiles didn’t last long.

They’d just started walking through the alley again when they heard loud voices. A group of boys swung into the alley from the street. They were walking toward them.

Jennie froze.

Then Oscar saw who they were: the boys from the train station. And there, right in front, with his rattlesnake eyes glowing through the smoke, was Otis Webber.

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