Contents ( 66)
- Cover
- Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map of Florida
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- thirty-eight
- thirty-nine
- forty
- forty-one
- forty-two
- forty-three
- forty-four
- forty-five
- forty-six
- forty-seven
- forty-eight
- forty-nine
- fifty
- fifty-one
- Epilogue
- Keep Reading for a Preview of Valerie Luesse’s Next Book!
- Prologue
- one
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
“My name’s Bonnie, and this here’s my brother Jasper,” the girl said. “I’m seven and he’s four, but Mama calls us her twins on accounta we look so much alike.”
“Pleased to meet y’all. My name’s Peyton.”
“That’s a funny name. You named after somebody?”
“Never thought to ask,” Peyton said with a shrug. “What are y’all doin’ at the hospital?”
“Weren’t no other place for us to go. Daddy took a tumble down at the mill where he works, and they brung him here on accounta this place has a ward for people like us that ain’t got no money to pay. Our other brothers and sisters is old enough to look after theyselfs, but Mama says me and Jasper’s too little and we gotta stay here with her.”
“Your daddy doing okay?”
“Yeah, but the doctor says he’s always gonna walk with a limp. And he done lost his job. The mill fires people like Daddy that gets hurt and misses a bunch o’ work.”
“How’d y’all end up roaming around this place all by yourselves?”
“Just did,” Bonnie said, shaking her head. “Mama’s busy lookin’ after Daddy up in that ward, and Jasper was hungry, so somebody needed to do somethin’. We slipped out when nobody was lookin’ and asked directions from ever’body till we found the eatin’ place.”
“Y’all live around Atlanta?” Peyton asked as Jasper reached for the cake Bonnie hadn’t finished and began peeling off the icing with his fingers.
“No, we live up on Pine Mountain. The ambulance brung Daddy here. My Uncle Willis brung the rest of us in his pickup truck. ’Course he had to get back to the farm, so we ain’t sure how we gettin’ home. Hitchin’, I reckon.”
“Wouldn’t that be mighty hard on your daddy with his bad leg?”
“You got it backwards,” Bonnie said with a sigh. “Daddy’s the one’s hard on us. If hitchin’s the only way to get home, I reckon that’s what we gonna do. How come you in here?”
“My daddy had an accident too.”
“I bet he don’t work in no mill.”
“No. He took a bad fall at home.”
Bonnie had another sip of her Coke and crinkled her nose. “I can’t get over them bubbles. I bet rich people like you knows about all kinda stuff that I ain’t never heard of.”
“I don’t really think o’ myself as rich.”
“That don’t mean you ain’t.”
“Fair enough. Say, Bonnie, is your daddy gonna be looking for work in Georgia when he gets well? Because I can help—I mean, I know grown folks who can.”
“You ain’t grown?”
“Fifteen.”
Bonnie rolled her eyes. “That’s grown, silly. Two o’ my sisters got married when they was fifteen.”
“Okay, then, I guess I’m grown. Y’all going back to Pine Mountain?”
“No. Daddy’s got a cousin in Florida what told him there’s work down there in this place called Fort Lauderdale. I wonder if there’s any cowboys and Indians at the fort.”
“Probably not anymore,” Peyton said, smiling at her.