Leeva at Last by Sara Pennypacker

Author:Sara Pennypacker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

A Fresh Start

Leeva awoke remarkably refreshed to the Town Hall clock striking seven. She dressed quickly, putting extra tape around her sandals, and climbed out with her possessions in her backpack.

The day was sunny—a rinsed-clean start for her new life. She scooped up Bob, who was just curling up for a nap in the burrow he’d dug under the book drop. “Sorry, no, we have to leave,” Leeva told him. “Harry collects the books soon.”

She brought him across the drive to the faucet, and they both drank their fill. Then, using the trowel that lived in a pot of parsley, Leeva scooped back all the earth Bob had excavated and covered the area with pine needles from under the hedge.

“Now,” she said, “we have five hours until we can come back here for lunch. Where should we spend them?”

Bob yawned unhelpfully. But suddenly something wonderful occurred to Leeva: She had quit! She no longer had to obey her parents at all! Which meant she could walk right into the Nutsmore Public Library, right through the front doors as soon as the library opened at nine, just like any other Nutsmorian!

“We only have two hours to fill,” she told Bob, settling him into the backpack. She hurried to the public bathrooms in the park, and finding no one else there, she ran water over her bag of soap scrids and scrubbed up as best she could. She brushed her teeth and combed and braided her hair.

As she left, the Town Hall clock struck eight. This close, the peals seemed to ring in her bones. This was a pleasant sensation, but it reminded her of something unpleasant: Her parents were due at their offices about now. She stepped behind a clump of trees, her heart pounding.

But . . . would they even go to work today? Surely they had noticed she was missing by now. They would have searched the house and called the police—that was the first thing worried families did in her books. Soon Nutsmore would be plastered with reward posters, swarming with search parties.

This thought was surprisingly satisfying, but it was also a complication Leeva had not considered.

She consulted her map and plotted out a long, isolated route back to the library. As she walked, she kept her ears sharpened for sirens, and though she never heard any, she jumped behind a tree trunk or flattened herself into brush whenever any vehicle approached.

Leeva was at the library’s front doors when Mrs. Flowers opened them at nine.

“You’re coming inside—what a nice surprise!” the librarian said. “No more punishment?”

“No,” Leeva answered, walking in. “That’s all over.” She took out her ten books and piled them on the return desk.

“Well, thank goodness. And that means you can choose your own books! What a pleasure that is. I’ll leave you to it, just call if you have any questions.”

Leeva had never before been anywhere she could take whatever she wanted—whatever she wanted! Where to start? She looked around. The elevator caught her eye.

She dashed over to it, stepped in, and pressed Up.

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