36

Clues

Let’s just say, Mama was not a happy camper when I got back from the bus station. And pulling what she calls a “stolen” suitcase behind me doesn’t help.

“I have been so worried about you!” she said, throwing her hands up in the air.

“I left you a note.”

Dylan whimpered. Mama turned to our bed. “You call that a note?” she said, soothing Dylan. “All it said was ‘Be back soon.’”

“Yeah, but, Mama—”

Mama whirled, her eyes blazing. “Don’t you ‘but Mama’ me. You think I don’t have enough to worry about with your little brother sick and your dad working all the time?”

The doctor at the free clinic put Dylan on a new inhaler, but his breathing still sounded like Grandma Bess’s teakettle.

“I’m just trying to help Jewel and Baby,” I said quietly.

Mama sank down on the bed and stroked Dylan’s hair away from his face. “How about me?” she said. “I need help too, you know, especially right now.”

“Yeah, but we have each other,” I point out. “Baby and Jewel don’t have anybody.”

Somehow, I talk Mama into letting me meet up with Karina, Daria, and Fire in the computer room. “A half hour, Piper, that’s all,” she says. I start to argue, but when I see the mix of mad and worry on her face, I change my mind.

“Thanks, Mama,” I say, giving her a quick hug.

We look over the postcards I found in Jewel’s suitcase. Fire isn’t her usual self, but at least she’s here.

Me, I’m still buzzing with excitement about finding Jewel’s sister. Well, almost.

“Noah’s right,” Karina says. “Jewel was going east to west when she wrote these.”

“And she has family,” I say. “At least a sister. That’s huge!”

“It is,” Daria says, “but I wonder if she wrote any more?”

Fire shrugs. “So? What does it matter?” I miss the old Fire, full of spit and vinegar. And hope.

Mr. Yee, the only dad who comes to the Firefly meetings, gets up from a computer where he’s been writing a résumé.

He stretches his back.

“Can we use that computer, Mr. Yee?” Karina asks.

“Be my guest,” he says, pulling out the chair.

Karina settles into the chair and logs on. “So, let’s see just how many Heartwell Manors there are.”

“There’s probably a bunch,” Fire says.

I send up a little prayer that she’s wrong.

“Oh!” Daria says, pointing to the screen. “Only three!”

I glance up. Thank you!

The first one is in Georgia. “Too close to Kentucky,” I say.