CHAPTER ONE WHEN IAN CAME into Kerry's room to ask for a favor, it never occurred to her that her four-year-old brother ...
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CHAPTER ONE WHEN IAN CAME into Kerry's room to ask for a favor, it never occurred to her that her four-year-old brother could ask her to do something that might get her killed "What kind of favor^" she asked, sticking a finger in her book to keep her place It was almost eleven o'clock at night, her second period literature teacher had promised a test tomorrow. and she still had fifty pages to go. with the author seeming in no hurry to wrap things up "I left Footy at the laundry," tan said Footy was fan's stuffed koala bear "lan," Kerry pointed out-—the same thing she'd pointed out the instant he'd entered her room—"it's the middle of the night- You're supposed to be asleep in bed, I'm supposed to be asleep in bed. Dad is asleep . " lan's bottom lip began to tremble, and Kerry rested her forehead in her hand, "Don't cry," she said Ever since Mom had left, Kerry couldn't take it when lan cried- "Maybe you forgot him at Creg's"—lan started shaking his head—"or in Daddy's car?" "No," lan said. "I was playing under the counter where you fold your stuff. You know the pink stripy one that doesn't match the others?" Kerry didn't know, but she nodded to keep him going. "I was using the laundry cart as a ton. i know that's where I left him, under the pink stripy counter. Can't you go and get him?" Kerry shook her head. "I've only got a learner's permit, so I'm not allowed to drive unless there's somebody who has
a license with me," she explained. "I'd get in trouble with Dad and the police- Footy will be fine one night without you. It'll be like a campout for him" If lan had thrown a tantrum, he would have been easier to resist. But he stood there silently, tears running down his face Then, very quietly, he said, "It won't be like a campout. Somebody will steal him." "lan, munchkin, the kind of people who go to laundries in the middle of the night are not the kind of people who steal ragged little koala bears." "Footy's not ragged," lan said, "And if it was Corny, you wouldn't leave her." Kerry looked to her dresser at the unicorn she'd had since she was two. Now that Kerry was sixteen, Corny rarely traveled farther than from the bed to the dresser, but lan had made his point. "All right, all right." Kerry took her finger out of the book. "But you stand by Daddy's door and make sure you hear him snoring, or I'm not moving. And if Dad wakes up, tell him , . ," Tfll him what? What story would he possibly believe? And what am I doini) coaching a fow-year-old to lit7 Hadn't there been enouifb lies in this family in the year before Mom mooed out? 'Tell him I'll be back soon," she finished, She shooed lan out of the room and pulled her jeans on, tucking in her IF IT'S MORNING DON'T TALK TO ME nightshirt. She'd be wearing her jacket, and anyway, she thought, if anybody stopped her, she was going to be in too much trouble to be embarrassed by what she was wearing. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail without even checking in a mirror This was all her mother's fault. They wouldn't even have to go to the laundry if her mother hadn't abandoned them, moving from Brockport, New York, to Somewhere-or-other, Florida, to study to be a private investigator—and only one postcard since. She had left the car because the man she went with had a better one, but she'd taken the washer and dryer,
What kind of mother leaves her family. lettin