Second, everyone in our troop who goes to church this Sunday will tell about what we’re trying to do to help Jewel and Baby. “Doesn’t matter if it’s a church or synagogue or a mosque,” Carmen said, “on worship days, people are always more willing to part with money.” Then she looked at me. “You have to be sure we all know the story to tell, though.”

I did. With Daria’s help on the computer, I wrote out Jewel and Baby’s story and made sure each of them got a copy.

Third, when we found Ree in the park yesterday, we told her about what all we’re doing to help Jewel and Baby.

“Tomorrow is a big assembly at school,” Fire told her. “There’ll be, like, close to a million people there.”

Ree’s eyes got big. “A million?”

Karina smiled. “Well, maybe not a million, but a lot. And Piper’s going to tell them Jewel and Baby’s story.”

“And then they’ll buy millions of boxes of brownies!” Fire crowed.

Ree looked at me. “You realize, don’t you, that if you tell them the whole story of Jewel and Baby, they’ll probably figure out you live in a shelter?”

I nodded. “We know. But we’ve got to raise that money for Jewel and Baby soon. If Jewel can’t go live at Heartwell Manor, nobody’s sure what will happen to her, but her case worker says it probably won’t include Baby.”

Ree shook her head. Then she said, “If you ladies are willing to give up your brownie money to help an old woman living on the streets, then by God, we can help too.”

“We?” Karina asked.

“That’s right,” Ree said. “I’m going to get the word out on the street. We’re all going to fly our signs for Jewel.”

“Do your what?” Fire asked.

Ree laughed. “Signs, little sister. The signs we hold up asking for help, for work, for money. We call that flying our sign.”

“I will personally make sure that every person out there gives some of their money for Jewel.”

“Don’t they need the money for food and stuff?” I ask.

“We’re all on the edge of the world,” Ree said. “Lots of us have fallen off that edge with no way to get back up. If we can help one of our own get back on solid ground, into a safe place, we’ll do it.”

Ree walked across the park with me, Ajax by her side like always. We didn’t talk but that was okay. It was a comfortable not-talking. I like that about Ree.

Then out of the blue, she said, “I saw Jewel yesterday.”

I stopped and looked up at her. “You did? How is she?” I wanted to grab her hand but knew better.