Running Out of Time by Haddix Margaret Peterson

Author:Haddix, Margaret Peterson [Haddix, Margaret Peterson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Historical, Childrens, Mystery, Adventure
ISBN: 9780439632508
Amazon: 0439632501
Goodreads: 227658
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 1995-10-01T07:00:00+00:00

15

Jessie stood next to the phone, trying to decide how long she should wait before dialing Mr. Neeley’s number again. And then she felt the bump from behind. She half turned and saw a man slipping. His limbs jolted outward; his left arm brushed the note from Ma and knocked it to the ground. The force of his fall brought Jessie down, too.

“Oh, excuse me,” the man said. “You aren’t hurt, are you? I’m so clumsy. Looks like I haven’t broken in this new pair of feet yet.”

Jessie scrambled to her feet and looked at the man suspiciously. His fall reminded her of the way Chester Seward and Richard Dunlap sometimes acted during recess at school, knocking down girls “by accident” so they could look up the girls’ skirts. But this man was an adult, and Jessie was wearing pants like a boy.

Then the man picked up Ma’s note and looked at it.

No! Jessie wanted to scream. What if the man was from Clifton? Should she run? But she couldn’t get help without Ma’s note—

“This must be yours,” the man said casually, handing the scrap of paper to Jessie. “I am so sorry. Are you done with the phone? That was really why I walked over here, not to put you in traction. You are all right, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes,” Jessie stammered, clutching the note.

The man turned away, took out a notebook from his jacket, and seemed to be writing something down. Then he picked up the phone.

Jessie backed away from the man, her thoughts jumbled. The man couldn’t be from Clifton, because he would have captured her right there. Wouldn’t he? But why had he knocked her down? Why had he looked at her note? What had he written?

Jessie wanted to believe the man had nothing to do with her or Clifton. Still, she couldn’t shake her fear. Blindly, she turned and ran.

Risking one glance over her shoulder, Jessie saw that the man was still talking on the phone. She kept on. The man had acted so strangely and was dressed so strangely—he wore a blue shirt with an odd strip of flowered cloth hanging down from his neck. But everyone seemed odd to Jessie outside Clifton. . . .

Panting, Jessie slowed down. She couldn’t run forever. And she had to keep looking for a phone. Now that she knew they had blue signs above them, she would surely find another one soon. And then she’d get help for Katie and the others, and she wouldn’t have to worry anymore about whether the strange people she saw were or were not on Miles Clifton’s side.

But Jessie walked miles without seeing another one of the blue phone signs. She wondered if she should have stayed by the phone at the Stopping Point, in spite of the strange man. She worried about the puzzle even Ma didn’t understand—why did anyone want the children of Clifton to die of diphtheria? Mrs. Spurning, the guide for the tourists back at Clifton, had said Clifton residents got modern medical care, so the tourists must not care if Clifton was totally authentic.

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