Fire swallowed hard. “Yeah, it’s better if I stay close by her when she’s like this. She needs me, you know?”

I nodded. “I’ll let you know what we find out.”

I look out the subway window. “Her mom’s not feeling good, so she stayed with her,” I say to Noah.

He doesn’t ask a bunch of questions, just nods. That’s one thing about shelter kids: you don’t have to do a lot of explaining. We understand each other.

I bump his knee with mine. “I’m sure glad you came, though. I’ve never ridden on a subway train before.”

Noah looks out the window at the lights flashing by. “I’ve ridden them too much.”

“How come?”

He sighs. “After me and my brother came here, well, it took a while for us to find the Road Home shelter.” He glances at me real quick. “The streets aren’t exactly a safe place.”

I nod.

Noah looks away. “So my brother and me rode the subway trains at night.” He shrugs. “It was a safe place to be.”

“What about your parents?” I ask.

Noah shifts in his seat. “I don’t know my father. My mom’s in jail for possession.”

I’m not sure I want to know in possession of what.

It seems that’s all he’s going to say, but then, “My brother, Patrick, is older than me—nineteen. He came back from Saint Louis when he heard about Mom, got me out of foster care.”

“He sounds like a great brother,” I say.

Noah smiles. “He’s bossy like most big brothers, always on me about school and homework, but yeah, he’s okay.”

I think about this. What would I do if I had to be the only one to take care of Dylan?

“He works two jobs and goes to school at night.” He shakes his head. “He’s always saying, ‘I’m going to get us out of here and make something of myself. You too.’”

I remember the new vocabulary word Mr. Koehler taught us the other day. “He sounds tenacious,” I say.

Noah laughs for the first time since I met him. The train stops and the doors whisk open. He stands. “Patrick would say stubbornness is tenaciousness turned upside down.”

I laugh too. I’ll have to remember to tell that to Mr. Koehler.

We take the stairs up from the platform to the outside.

Everything looks different here from where we live in the city. It’s mostly strip malls and gas stations and fast food restaurants.

And then I see them, closer and taller. My heart about leaps out of my chest. The mountains! We’re so close now. I’ll sell the most gourmet brownies, I just know it, and then . . .

Noah nudges me. “This way.”