Free Where I Belong by Mary Downing Hahn

looks out the door of the card shop. “Brendan, come here.”
    Avoiding the police, who are still talking to witnesses, I’m glad to disappear into the store.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Mrs. Clancy asks.
    â€œSomebody robbed the jewelry store.”
    â€œOh, good grief. Why does the mall waste good money paying security guards if they can’t prevent things like this?”
    I shake my head, glad she doesn’t notice I’m trembling. T.J. saw me, he recognized me, one of them has a gun. They already hate me because of the motorcycle. What if they think I’ll tell the cops?
    â€œDid you see them?” Mrs. Clancy asks.
    I shake my head. “I was reading.”
    â€œReading. Give you a book, and terrorists could blow up the mall. You wouldn’t know what hit you.”
    She pulls down the security gate and we leave by the back door. She looks around the huge, mostly empty parking lot. A few cars here and there but not a person in sight. We hurry to the car as if danger was hiding in every shadow.

NINE
    S UNDAY I’M DOWN IN THE WOODS by myself, drawing a picture of the Green Man with a circle of animals, deer and rabbits and squirrels, gathered around him. I can’t get the deer to look right. I’ve erased and redrawn them so much that I’ve almost made a hole in the paper.
    The thing is, I can’t concentrate on my drawing. The mall robbery was on the front page of this morning’s paper. The cops have some suspects but not enough evidence to make any arrests. The jewelry store is offering a thousand-dollar reward. A mall spokesman assures the public that the mall is a safe place to shop. Security has been doubled.
    Mall security won’t help me if Sean decides to make sure I don’t inform the cops. What if they find me here in the woods? If Shea could follow me, they could follow me.
    Every noise, every bird call startles me. I peer down from my tree house and look for intruders, study the underbrush, watch for movement among the trees. I think about the gun. My collection of weapons—wooden swords and buckets of stones—is pathetic. I have no way to defend myself against those three, even if I leave the gun out of the equation. If they come after me, I’m done for.
    I hear a branch snap. A flock of crows rises from a nearby tree, cawing as if to warn me of danger. Shaking with fear, I lie flat on my belly and look down. The bushes part, and the Green Man steps into the clearing and smiles up at me. His faded clothes blend in with the dappled shadows of the trees. He’s almost invisible.
    â€œHello, young Brendan,” he calls.
    Relief surges through me. I climb down, bringing a bag of sandwiches with me. I want to hug him but I’m not sure he’d like that. Instead I tell him how glad I am to see him.
    â€œIs something bothering you?” He’s looking at me closely, his eyes probing mine. “You seem nervous, upset.”
    Swearing him to secrecy, I tell him about the motorcycle and Sean and T.J. and Gene. I tell him how they treated me, I tell him about the mall and seeing T.J. and how scared I am that they’ll get me. Once I’ve started talking, I can’t stop. When I’ve told him everything, my mouth is dry and my knees feel weak, but I have a strange feeling of a burden lifting. I’ve told my secret to the one person I trust the most, even more than I trust Shea.
    He sits beside me quietly and listens, one big hand on my shoulder. He says nothing right away, but I can tell he’s thinking about what I’ve said.
    â€œThis Sean,” he says slowly. “Is he a redhead, sharp-featured, tattoos on his arms?”
    I nod. “Do you know him?”
    â€œI know who he is,” he says. “His friends, too. They’re a bad lot, Brendan. Whatever you do, stay away from them.”
    The Green Man sounds worried, and I assure him I have no intention of going near them.