“Penny said other havens have been reporting runaways,” Luca said, shaking his head. “They’ve all been told to tighten security, so I doubt it’ll be long before excursions into town are stopped altogether.”

“Then what?” I asked. “They’ll just be locked up there until . . . ?”

“They’re sent back home,” Luca finished.

55

They Couldn’t Stay

The next day, Sam and I told Aidan and Jed the real reason Merjeme and her friends had been stealing. And the reason there were always security men with the refugees when they came into town now.

It was a sticky, warm day in early November, when everything had started to smell like summer again—of ocean salt and pine trees, the smell of my birthday.

We were heading to the rocks, where a bunch of other sixth graders were eating their lunch, including Keira.

We hadn’t talked in such a long time—not since she’d started hanging out with Stacey and Katie. But when I sat down, Keira smiled over at me and I smiled back. We didn’t have anything to say to each other, but it was something, at least.

Pretty soon, though, everyone went off to play an epic game of four square, and my friends were the last ones sitting in the shade of the rocks.

“Not very good supplies for an escape plan: salt and pepper shakers and packets of sugar,” Jed said after Sam and I had told them everything we knew.

“It’s like when my sisters promise to run away and then only pack their Barbie dolls,” Aidan said.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

Aidan shrugged. “Whenever Rachel and Rochelle get so angry or upset that they want to run away from home, Mom always says to let them go through the motions. They plan and pack to run away, getting all emotional; sometimes Mom even lets them get as far as the end of our street. But by then they’re so exhausted, and all they really wanted to do was say they were going without actually doing it.”

“But they wanted to stay,” I said. “The haven kids wanted to run away so they wouldn’t be sent home, so they could stay here in Australia.”

We sat in silence for a little bit after that, just listening to the rolling of the ocean.

Jed broke the quiet. “My parents still miss Vietnam,” he said, his head down. “They were only kids when they left, but they still talk about it like they miss it, and how none of their family really wanted to leave, but they couldn’t stay.”

Jed looked up and caught my eyes for a second, and then he turned to Sam and Aidan. “Home wasn’t safe anymore, but it was still their home, y’know?”