Missing Collection by Margaret Peterson Haddix: Found; Sent; Sabotaged; Torn by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Author:Margaret Peterson Haddix [Haddix, Margaret Peterson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Action & Adventure, General, Fantasy & Magic, Historical
ISBN: 9781442443280
Google: mK_iOzb1m-4C
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2011-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

“When?” Chip repeated numbly.

Jonah was thinking that maybe English wasn’t his native language, after all. Maybe he’d spent his first few months of life hearing some other language, and maybe that was why he couldn’t make Angela’s words make sense in his head.

Katherine started laughing.

“Oh, thanks,” she said sarcastically. “That makes everything as clear as mud.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “We already know the ‘when.’ Chip and Jonah were both adopted thirteen years ago.”

“Twelve years, ten months and, uh, four days, to be exact,” Chip said.

Angela narrowed her eyes, looking at Katherine.

“Perhaps you’d like to hear my story before you dismiss it?” Angela asked.

“Please,” Jonah said, and he was proud of himself, that he’d managed to say that much when he was feeling so jangly and strange.

Angela looked down at the table, and it occurred to Jonah that maybe she was nervous too. Nervous, talking to a couple of kids? That didn’t make sense either.

“Thirteen years ago,” Angela began softly, “I worked exactly one day at Sky Trails Airlines.”

Katherine opened her mouth, and Jonah could tell she was about to say something snarky and mean, like, “Wow—did you get fired after one day? Or were you just too lazy to go back for day two?”

Jonah glared at his sister; he pressed his thumb and forefinger together and drew them across his lips, the universal sign forShut up! He hoped the full force of his glare plus the gesture would let her know,If you say one more nasty thing, I will throw you out. And Chip and I won’t tell you a single word that Angela says, so you won’t know a thing….

Katherine coughed.

“Um—Sky Trails?” she said weakly.

“It’s an old airline—probably none of you have heard of it, because it went out of business about ten years ago,” Angela said. “It went bankrupt, didn’t pay any of its creditors. But I still get a disability check from Sky Trails, every single month.”

Disability? Jonah thought. That was for people who couldn’t work anymore because they were too sick or, well, disabled. Angela looked as if she could run a marathon—even in those funky high heels she was wearing. And, anyhow, Jonah had had some vague notion that disability checks came from the government, not private businesses.

Angela was looking around—from Katherine to Jonah to Chip—as if she expected one of them to ask another question. No one said anything. Angela sighed.

“That one day at Sky Trails changed my life,” she said. “What I saw—well, you won’t believe me, and nobody else will back up my story. But I know what I saw. I’m not crazy!”

Oh, Jonah thought.Can people maybe get disability checks for being crazy, too?

Angela shrugged.

“I can tell by your eyes you’re already starting to doubt me,” she said in a voice that was strangely choked. Jonah wondered: why would it matter to Angela whether three kids believed her?

“But,” Angela continued, “I’m going to tell you this anyway. I think I have to.”

“Okay,” Chip said.

Angela clasped her hands together on the table, seeming to steel herself for the story ahead.

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