Night Light (21 page)

She rolled the paper into the typewriter and started hitting the keys.

Dear Craig,

I just got your letter and I have to say I’m disappointed at how cold it sounded. You probably don’t even realize it. You probably think it was fine. But a girl who hasn’t seen her fiancé in months needs a few reassurances. I’m not asking for poetry, just an “I love you and I miss you,” and I guess if you felt that way, you would have included that. Instead, you told me that you figured you’d hang on to me since you were pretty sure I was the best you could do. Those words didn’t exactly sweep me off my feet, Craig.

I couldn’t be more disappointed in you. It’s been almost three months since the Pulses started and you’ve had ample time to get to me if you really cared. I’ve told you of my harrowing journey across the country to get to you and all you could say was, “Too bad you didn’t make it.” I told you that I could have died in the airplane that very first day, but that didn’t faze you, either. I guess someone of your importance doesn’t want to be bothered with details.

I agree that our wedding shouldn’t happen in October, but things are a little clearer in my mind than they obviously are in yours. I don’t think the marriage should happen at all, and I don’t want to keep wearing your ring in the hope that no one else better comes along for you.

So, consider me a part of your past along with electricity and cell phones and cars and computers. Just another one of those things that isn’t working for you anymore. It was fun while it lasted, Craig. Sorry it had to end this way.

Deni

Before she could change her mind, she ran downstairs to her father’s study, got an envelope, stuffed the letter inside, and sealed it. Affixing a thirty-nine cent stamp — since that was all she found — she got on her bike and rode to the post office. She took it inside and threw it down the hole before she could change her mind.

Then she rode home on pure anger, her heart breaking over what she had just done.

thirty-seven

“I
BEEN THINKING, AND
I
DON
’
T THINK IT
’
S RIGHT FOR YOU TO
take our money.” The Brannings had been making their plans for getting to the football field early for the disbursement the next day, but Aaron’s blunt statement stopped them cold.

Doug just looked at the boy. He’d been up since before dawn working on daily chores, then hunting for enough food to feed ten people. Then he’d spent three hours working on the garbage mounds at Sandwood Place. He was too tired to deal with this again. “Aaron, stop acting like I’m robbing you. The disbursement money is to help people survive. And since we’re feeding and caring for you, we need that money to help pay for expenses.”

“But you said yourself you’re gonna buy stuff with it.”

“I said I was going to invest some of it to make it grow. For instance, I’m going to invest it in the seeds we need to plant in our garden so we can grow more food. I’m going to buy some chickens so we’ll have eggs to eat and sell. And we’re going to figure out something that the family can make and sell to earn even more money. That’s not so we can bask in luxury. It’s so we won’t have to struggle quite so hard during the winter months.”

“So you
are
gonna take our money?” Joey asked. “All hundred dollars of it?”

“Yes,” Doug said. “We’ve been all through this. You can’t get the disbursement without an adult, and that’s because it’s the adult who is taking care of you.”

“What if you find our grandparents? Are you gonna give
them
the money?”

Kay spoke up. “Of course. We won’t spend it for a month after we get it. If we don’t find them by then, we will start using it, but we’ll give them what we haven’t used to take care of you.”

Doug knew he’d never make the kids understand. To them, he was exploiting them just like the others wanted to. A hundred bucks seemed like a lot to them, when they hadn’t had a handful of pennies since May.

But like it or not, he wasn’t going to back down. He needed the money to feed them, and that was the end of that.

B
EFORE BED THAT NIGHT
, A
ARON ROUNDED UP HIS BROTHERS AND
sister. “Sarah,” he said quietly, “I want you to say you don’t want to sleep with Deni tonight. I want you to sleep in here with us.”

“But why? I like sleeping with Deni and Beth.”

“Because after everybody goes to sleep, we’re gonna sneak out and go home.”

Sarah’s eyebrows shot up. “Home? I don’t want to go. I like it here.”

“Listen to me,” he whispered harshly. “They only want our money. If we stay, tomorrow we’ll go through that line with them and they’re gonna give us our twenty-five dollars each. And what do you think’s gonna happen to it? Mr. Doug is gonna snatch it right out of our hands and use it for what he wants.”

“But he said he was gonna use it to buy us food,” Joey said. “Maybe we should let him have it. This is a good place, Aaron.”

“A good place? It’s like a prison. We work like slaves.”

“But he does too. And we have good water to drink. And Luke and Sarah are happy.”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “I don’t want to go, either.”

Aaron couldn’t believe they were turning on him this way. “What is wrong with you? Don’t you see? They don’t care about us. It’s been about money from the very beginning. From the first day, they were probably looking for a bunch of kids to keep so they could get all their money. They’re practically doubling their cash if we’re with them.”

Joey wasn’t buying. “They found us because we robbed their house. They weren’t looking for extra kids.”

“That’s what they
want
you to think.” He could feel the heat blotching his cheeks. Somehow he had to convince them. Time was running out. If they were going to leave, they had to do it tonight …
before
the disbursement. “Have I ever let you down before?” He looked from Joey to Luke, then to Sarah, demanding an answer. “Any of you?”

One by one, they shook their heads.

“Haven’t I always took care of you?”

“But I like Miss Kay,” Sarah said. “And Deni and Beth. We’re gonna be in a play. Beth is making me a costume.”

“I’ll make you a stupid costume, and we can have our own play.”

“But how will we get our money?” Joey asked.

Aaron didn’t know what had gotten into him. He’d usually gone along with whatever Aaron said. He’d never given him this much trouble before.

“They make us have a grown-up with us,” Joey said.

“We’ll go with Edith. She said she wouldn’t hassle us and try to run our lives. We can live in our own apartment.”

“Our apartment stinks,” Joey said. “It’s even grosser than when we left it.”

“Edith promised to have some buckets handy and some garbage bags if she can find them. She said she would help us clean out the commode. She said bleach would help kill the smell, so tomorrow, when we have money, I’ll buy some.”

“But what if they find Grandma and Pop?” Joey asked.

All these stupid questions. He didn’t have the time to answer them all. “It’s better if we’re gone when they find them. Mama always warned us about them. But for now, we’re gonna do this. And if the sheriff comes and tries to force us to go back to the Brannings, we’ll throw a huge fit and tell them that we love Edith and want to stay with her.”

“But I
don’t
love her,” Sarah said. “I hate her. She’s mean.”

“Not lately, she’s not. She’s been real nice lately.”

Joey breathed a laugh. “That’s only because she wants our money too.”

“No, she doesn’t. She told me she would let them put it directly into our hands.”

“She’s never helped us before.”

Aaron was getting tired of Joey’s mouth. “Look, Joey, everybody’s in this for something. You think the Brannings are all perfect and everything, but they’re not, okay? And once they get our money, they’re not gonna be all that nice, either. So this is how it’s gonna be. I’m gonna get all of you up after the Brannings are asleep, and we’ll steal two of their bikes and ride home. Edith will be waiting, and she said we could sleep in her apartment tonight.”

All three of his siblings just stared at him with dull eyes.

“Look, I’m doing what’s best for us, okay? I’m not letting anybody steal our money. Now we’re going to get out of here while we can, and then first thing in the morning, we’ll get up and go with Edith to collect our money. After that we’ll have our freedom and some money to buy some good stuff. Sarah, I’ll buy you a princess crown, and Luke and Joey, we’ll buy a basketball hoop to put up in the kitchen. We’ll move out that worthless refrigerator and make a basketball court out of the whole room.”

Luke grinned then and looked over at Joey. Sarah took her thumb out of her mouth and smiled, as if trying to picture it. But Joey still wasn’t moved.

“Can we buy stuff to make our TV work?” Luke asked.

“No, Luke. Don’t you know that even if we had a million dollars, we couldn’t make our TV work? Those stupid Pulses are still going, messing everything up for all of us.” He looked at Joey then. “Joey, are you in or out?”

Joey thought for a long moment, and Aaron began to fear that he was going to revolt. Finally, he answered. “Okay, Aaron, but you better be right about this. Because the Brannings’ll be so mad that they’ll never take us back. And the sheriff might come and split us up for sure.”

“Would I let that happen?” Aaron demanded. When Joey looked away, he got in his face. “Answer me, Joey. Would I let that happen?”

Joey snapped. “Yeah, you might let that happen! You’re not the king, you know. You don’t get to decide everything!”

The door opened, and Kay stuck her head in. She looked from one to the other. “Everything all right in here, guys?”

Joey let out a breath and sat back on the bed. “Yeah, fine.”

“You’re not fighting, are you?”

There was a long beat of silence. Aaron turned back to her. “No, we’re not fighting. But Sarah wants to sleep in here with us tonight. I guess we’ll let her.”

He held his breath as Kay looked at Sarah. “Why, Sarah? There’s not much room in here.”

“I’ll sleep on the floor,” Aaron cut in.

Sarah’s thumb went back into her mouth.

Kay hesitated. “Well, okay, if that’s what Sarah wants. But Sarah, if you change your mind, you can go get in bed with Deni.”

Sarah just nodded, and Aaron breathed again. She was going to go along with it.

Tonight, they would all be free.

L
ATER THAT NIGHT
, A
ARON LAY ON THE FLOOR, STARING AT THE
ceiling, fighting sleep until he was sure everyone was asleep. Then he tiptoed to the stairs and went halfway down, peered across the house toward the master bedroom. He didn’t see the flicker of an oil lamp through their door, so they must be in bed.

It was time.

He hurried back up into the bedroom where they all slept and woke Joey up. Joey didn’t fight it this time. He just got up, pulled on his clothes, and grabbed his bag out from under the bed.

Aaron woke up Luke and Sarah. It wasn’t easy. The children were groggy and didn’t want to wake up, but finally he got them out of bed and reminded them what they were doing.

“Now get dressed. Hurry.”

Sarah’s hair was in her sleepy face, and he pushed it back and helped her get dressed. “Now listen,” he whispered. “When we go out, we have to be really quiet. You got that, Sarah? We can’t let nobody hear us.”

“I will,” she muttered.

“No sounds, okay, Luke? Joey?”

They all nodded and got the stuff he’d packed for them.

They crept downstairs, their feet creaking slightly on the stairs, but no one woke. Since he didn’t want to raise the garage to get the bikes out for fear of alerting Doug and Kay, he got the flashlight they always kept on the kitchen counter and went into the dark garage. Joey helped him roll two bikes through the house and out the back door.

Quietly, they stole around the house and piled on the bikes — Luke on back of Joey’s bike, Sarah on back of his. The moonlight was bright, guiding them home.

And the cool air smelled like freedom.

thirty-eight

T
HE MORNING BROUGHT REGRETS
.

Deni sat up in bed as dawn intruded on her sleep, bringing with it recriminations about the letter she’d sent to Craig. Had she really mailed it?

She wondered if it was too late to find Mrs. Lipscomb and get it back. The postmaster already suspected she was crazy. Now she’d have no doubts.

She got out of bed and got dressed. Today was Disbursement Day, and they had to get to the football field early. Even if she wanted to get the letter back, there was no time now.

She pulled open the drawer where she’d put Craig’s letter. Unwrinkling it, she read over it again. As she did, anger pulsed through her. Yes, she had done the right thing. She wouldn’t let herself think of it again. She balled the letter up and shoved it into her pocket.

She heard footsteps on the stairs outside her room. “Anybody awake?” Her mother sounded too perky.

“I am, Mom.”

“Good. Get everybody up, Deni. We have to get moving.”

Beth stirred, then sat up.

“Get dressed, Beth. It’s Money Day.”

While Beth got out of bed, Deni went down the hall to the room where the Gatlin kids slept.

No one was there. The bed was rumpled, and the pallet they’d made for Aaron on the floor was twisted and pushed to the side. But there was no clutter — no shoes lying around, no toys, no discarded clothes.

Something wasn’t right.

She woke up Logan and Jeff, then hurried downstairs. Her mother was in the kitchen, slicing a loaf of bread Amber Rowe had made for them yesterday.

“This is it for breakfast,” Kay said. “I’m trying to slice it ten ways. It may have to last us all day, depending on how fast the line moves.” She sighed. “We’re not getting the disbursement a minute too soon. I can’t wait to buy some chickens. I wasn’t this excited when I got my Expedition. Imagine eggs for breakfast!”

Deni took her slice and bit into the dry, tasteless bread. “Mom, where are the Gatlin kids?”