Excerpt
Rachael didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. She had been excited to come here today when Uncle Morley and Auntie Tyne had brought them. But now she wished she could be back in the bedroom on the farm, the one she had shared with Bobby.
She lay in bed, staring at the light reflected on the ceiling from the street lamp on the corner of the avenue where Auntie Ruby lived. The soft snores of her two cousins kept her wakeful, but that was better than having them fight over who would sleep on which side of the lumpy mattress, and playfully, or so she hoped, try to push her out of bed.
Rachael had never shared a bed with anyone before, not even when she lived at Auntie Tyne’s house. Now she had to sleep with two squirmy girls who seemed no happier to share their bed with her than she was with them. Six-year-old Lark had not been so mean, but her older sister, Lyssa, had been especially nasty.
Rachael didn’t know what she had done to make Lyssa mad. When they used to visit each other’s homes, they had usually got along. Did Lyssa think her cousin was going to take something that didn’t belong to her? Rachael would never do such a thing – her mom had taught her and Bobby never to touch anyone else’s property.
Well, she hadn’t, and she wouldn’t, and she hoped Lyssa would be nicer tomorrow. Rachael thought of her new clothes that she had so…
Manolis Aligizakis 