“Vat is wrong, little girl? Vat for you are crying?”

She looked around but didn’t see anyone. “The tree won’t let me have the apples,” she said.

“Don’t cry. Ragen gets apples.”

He shimmied up the tree, and summoning all his strength, “Ragen” broke a thick branch and brought it down. “Here,” he said. “I have for you many apples.” He loaded his arms with apples and led Christene toward the school.

When Ragen left, Christene dropped them in the middle of the street. A car was speeding toward the biggest, shiniest apple, the one she wanted to give Mrs. Roth, and when she tried to reach it, Ragen bumped her out of the way to save her from being hit. She saw the car had squashed the pretty apple, and she cried, but Ragen picked up another one, not nearly as nice, wiped it off and gave it to her to take to school.

When she put the apple on the desk, Mrs. Roth said, “Why, thank you, Billy.”

That upset Christene, because she had brought the apple. She went to the back of the room, wondering where to sit. She sat down on the left side of the room, but a few minutes later a big boy said, “Get outta my seat.”

She felt bad, but when she sensed Ragen coming to hit the boy, she got up quickly and walked to another chair.

“Hey, that’s my seat,” a girl called from the blackboard. “Billy’s sitting in my seat.”

“Don’t you know where you sit?” Mrs. Roth asked. Christene shook her head.

Mrs. Roth pointed to an empty seat on the right side of the room. “You sit in that chair right there, Billy. Now go to it.” Christene didn’t know why Mrs. Roth was angry. She had tried so hard to make the teacher like her. Through her tears she felt Ragen coming out to do something bad to the teacher. So she squeezed her eyes shut, stamped her feet and made Ragen stop. Then she left too.

Billy opened his eyes, looked around, dazed, to find himself in class. God, how had he gotten here? Why were they staring at him? Why were they giggling?

On the way out of class, he heard Mrs. Roth call to him, “Thank you for the apple, Billy. It was very nice of you. I'm really sorry I had to scold you.”

He watched as she went down the corridor, and wondered what in the world she was talking about.

(4)

The first time Kathy and Jimbo heard the British accent, they thought Billy was clowning. Jimbo was in the room with him while they were sorting their laundry. Kathy came to the door to see if Billy was ready to walk with her and Challa to school.

“What’s the matter, Billy?” she asked, seeing the dazed look on his face.

He looked at her, around the room and at the other boy, who was staring at him too. He had no idea who these two were or how or why he was here. He didn’t know anyone named Billy.