Free Ten Thousand Truths by Susan White Page A

my best to accommodate your foster children, have I not?”
    â€œYes, Mr. Harrison,” Amelia answered, knowing that a long debate about the shortcomings of the school and how complicated it was knowing what these kids need would take more energy than she had and a lot more time, she was sure, than the principal had at this moment.
    Mr. Harrison went on to explain that any further outbursts from Rachel would result in her suspension. Amelia calmly thanked him for the phone call and hung up the receiver, letting out a deep sigh.
    â€œDo you know how to add and subtract positive and negative integers?” Rachel asked Zac as he pulled his truck to a stop. He had picked Rachel up after her detention and she hadn’t said a word all the way home.
    â€œYes, as a matter of fact, I do,” Zac answered. “I’m guessing that maybe you don’t or you probably wouldn’t be asking me. It doesn’t seem like something you would be just waiting to brag about.”
    â€œCan you teach me?”
    â€œOf course I can. Let’s eat supper first and then we’ll find our way through all the positive and negative stuff.”
    â€œSir Isaac Newton, who invented calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would sometimes forget his brothers’ names,” Amelia said as she sat down at the table across from Rachel and Zac, who were hard at work on Rachel’s math homework. “I’m glad you asked Zac to help you and not me, Rachel. I’m still spinning just listening to all that positive, negative talk.”
    Rachel had driven by the ferry on her way to school every day but she hadn’t been on it since Mrs. Thompson had brought her to Walton Lake in August. Now, sitting high in Zac’s truck as they headed across to the mall to do some Christmas shopping, Rachel could see a row of bubbles all the way along as the ferry moved through the cold, grey water. Zac explained that the bubbles she could see were from an underwater system that kept the ferry track from freezing.
    â€œI think I’ll buy Amelia a pair of earrings,” Rachel announced. “I want to find earrings with flowers on them, pansies maybe.”
    â€œThat sounds like a good idea,” Zac said. “I often have a hard time deciding what to get her. She always surprises me, even though I’m the one that does all the shopping. Last year she ordered carved knobs for my kitchen cupboards from the Lee Valley catalogue and she got Terry Fullerton to pick me up a pair of new chainsaw pants. I think I’ll get her a new sweater. That old brown one she wears needs to go to the rag bag. She always thinks of other people, but never thinks about getting herself new stuff.”
    Rachel sat quietly, staring out the truck window as they got onto the highway. She thought about her reaction when she’d seen Amelia for the first time. The lumps on her face had scared her and she’d found them hard to look at. She remembered the first time she’d seen Amelia in her bathing suit and how she’d gagged at the sight of her bare back.
    She broke the silence with the question that had been eating her up for months. “What’s wrong with her face, Zac?”
    â€œI wondered when you would ask about that,” he said. “Some kids ask right away. Travis asked Amelia the minute he got out of the car. He asked her if whatever was wrong with her face was contagious.”
    â€œI never thought that, but I thought it was gross. At first I tried not to look at her face.”
    â€œShe has the disease NF1, which stands for Neurofibro something. I don’t even try to pronounce it. It causes tumours to form under her skin.”
    â€œLike cancer?” Rachel asked.
    â€œNot exactly. They aren’t cancerous, but they come in clusters and they never clear up completely. She gets them on her neck and back, too, but usually she covers those up with her clothes so no one can