Listen, Baby says,

putting his nose close to hers.

They will take you out into the sun

and the wind,

not far but still

you will hear the geese fly overhead and

feel the warm sun on your fur and

smell all the delicious scents

the wind brings

and the earth holds.

And you will know there is more than

this hard floor and

wire walls.

The dog next door opens her eyes,

wags just the tip of her tail and asks,

will they come back for me?

Baby studies the dog.

Dogs can hope

but they cannot lie.

He picks up his little bunny,

the one whose fur is worn away

from love and worry,

the one who is still beloved

even though it is old and missing an eye.

He pushes it under the wire wall.

The dog next door sniffs it,

smells the comfort it holds.

She rests her silvered chin on the small bunny,

sighs

and closes her eyes.

53

Best Medicine

Only four days left until they make Jewel leave the hospital and go into the emergency shelter.

Angel, Alexa, Carmen, Luz, and Desiree bring the brownie money they collected on Sunday. “That story you wrote out for us made all the difference,” Alexa says. “I couldn’t have ever told it the way you did.”

I hold my breath while Mrs. B counts the money we’ve brought in so far. She scribbles on a piece of paper, takes out way too much money, and then recounts what’s left.

“Well, Piper,” she says, “looks like you’ve cleared a little over two hundred dollars.”

I quickly add in my head the money Mama’s keeping that’s come in separate from the brownie sales—Rick’s donation and the money Ree brings at night from the others. That’s another eighty-six dollars.

Two hundred and eighty-six dollars. That means we still need to raise at least one hundred and seventy-four more dollars by Thanksgiving.

Now we just have to hope and pray that people who ordered brownies at school bring in their forms and their money, and the people from church too. One thing I’ve learned over the months is what people say they’ll do and what they actually do are often two different things. Mama says you can’t let bad things make you lose your faith in humanity, though. “There are good people and bad people out there,” Mama says. “Mostly good.”

We’ll see.

Mama comes into our room with a big smile on her face. She’s been downstairs in the Resource Room filling out more job applications.

“Guess what I have, Miss Piper?” she asks, pulling my finger out of my mouth. I hadn’t even realized I was chewing on my nails. There’s not much of them left.

“A job?” I guess.

“Not yet,” she says, “but almost as good.”