Margaret Peterson Haddix by Running Out of Time (epub)

Author:Running Out of Time (epub)
Format: epub

TWENTY

Jessie struggled to stand up, and her grin faded. Her head throbbed and her legs ached worse than ever. She remembered how Mr. Neeley had told Mr. Clifton that "sensors" knew when Jessie left Clifton, and someone had followed her all the way to Waverly. What if Clifton's men were just letting her escape again to see where she would go?

Jessie thought about how the Keysers' cat, Abigail, always played with mice when she caught them. She'd bat a mouse around in her paws, then set it free. Just as the mouse began to scurry away, Abigail pounced again. By the end, the mouse was so battered and terrified, dying was probably a relief.

Jessie couldn't let that happen to her. She had to outsmart Clifton's men. But how? And she still had to find someone to help Katie and the other children. But who? Ma had said Mr. Neeley would call a board of health and a news conference.

Could Jessie call them herself? What were they? How could Jessie call them if she didn't have the number? And what if they turned out to be like Mr. Neeley—just pretending to help?

Jessie's mind felt scrambled with all the questions. Her legs trembled—maybe from climbing down the wall, maybe from being scared. There was too much she didn't know. She could hear cars zooming nearby, and the buildings around her loomed taller than trees. Indianapolis had made her feel small the night before, when she thought Mr. Neeley was on her side. Now that she was scared of him, too, what was she going to do? Whom could she trust?

It was all so confusing, Jessie felt like sitting down and bawling for her ma and pa, like a child even younger than Katie. Then she remembered something Pa said whenever Nathan or Bartholomew tried to eat a whole slice of bread in one gulp: "You bite off more than you can chew, 'course you're going to choke. One bite at a time. And that goes for thinking things, too, not just food."

So. What was the first thing Jessie needed to do? She glanced back at Mr. Neeley's building. As long as she stood right outside, he could easily find her when he discovered her missing. She had to get as far away as she could.

Slowly, because her legs hurt so much, Jessie began walking. She dodged behind buildings and turned as many corners as possible, so Mr. Neeley and anyone else looking for her would have a hard time following her path. At first, she thought she'd be trapped in Mr. Neeley's apartment complex forever, because all the buildings looked the same and she couldn't tell if she was getting anywhere or just

going in circles, passing the same buildings over and over again. Then she reached a big street where the buildings were all different and cars zipped by in rows of six or eight. Could Jessie get one of them to stop and take her far away from Mr. Neeley? If she did, could she trust whoever stopped for her?

Jessie's legs shook more and more with each step.

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