Stolen Girl by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Author:Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch [Forchuk Skrypuch, Marsha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2018-03-25T04:00:00+00:00

That night in bed, I tried to remember more about the other time and another mother, but it was like trying to catch my shadow. I couldn’t fall asleep, so I turned on my lamp, squinting at the sudden brightness. Once my eyes got used to it, I grabbed the Freddy novel and propped myself up on my pillow. On the cover was a pig wearing a cap, looking through a magnifying glass. Page one began, It was hot … That much I could read.

I tried to sound out more. The story seemed to be about two ducks looking at a house in the heat. It didn’t make sense. Maybe if I wasn’t so tired it would make sense. I set the book down and got The Picture Dictionary for Children. I had gone through the whole book four times, and each time I did I would find something new.

This time as I flipped through it, I kept on noticing the same couple of pictures that were used for various words. For example, the words automobile, drives, and parks were all illustrated with a fancy car. It wasn’t colored in, but in my imagination, it was a shiny black car. The picture for burn was a house burning down, and the same burning house was used to show both destroy and fire.

My nostrils filled with the memory of smoke. How many times had I seen burning buildings? It was so familiar. Yet who was I and where was I when these things had happened? This was yet another piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit.

I closed the book and waited for my heart to stop pounding. I didn’t turn off the light.

I am in the backseat of a long black car, dressed in pink finery. The doors are locked and the windows rolled up tight.

I look out the window and through the haze of smoke. Girls and women running from a burning building. One girl glances my way. It is like looking into a mirror. She calls something to me but she’s pushed away by a man in uniform. I pound at the window and pound at the door. Let me out, let me out!

The book slid off my chest and fell to the floor with a thunk. I jumped awake. The lamp was still on. I was safe in my bedroom in Canada. My head still swam with the nightmare. I rubbed my eyes and the image disappeared. I had been safe in the car and the fire was outside. Why had I wanted to get out? And who was that girl who looked like me? Was it just a trick of a dream, or did this really happen?

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