Free Kin by Lesley Crewe

clothes when David stopped her.
    â€œIt has to dry on there or it won’t work.”
    â€œBoys are crazy,” Lila said.
    The three of them walked out of their secret cathedral towards the water. The edge of the land was quite high here, too high for jumping down to the beach. They sat and leaned their backs against the trees, their feet dangling off the ledge. Freddy sniffed around before settling by Lila. The sunlight sparkled off the tips of the waves as seagulls cried out from above.
    â€œI love it here,” Lila said. “I’m never leaving.”
    David shook his head. “Not me. I want to see the world.”
    â€œI’m going to join the circus,” Annie said.
    â€œAs what, the bearded lady?”
    â€œI’ll be a lion tamer.”
    â€œLions belong in Africa. They’re unhappy anywhere else,” Lila said.
    â€œDo you talk to many lions?” David teased.
    Lila turned her head to speak to him. “There are some creatures on this planet who know where they belong.”
    David gave her a long look.
    â€œYou two belong to your parents. I belong to the ballerina tree and Round Island. I finally have a home.”
    â€œI’m glad you showed us,” Annie said.
    Lila smiled that smile of hers. “I had to. You’re my kin.”

CHAPTER FOUR 1940
    Sometimes twelve-year-old Lila felt like her old life was a dream. Whenever she thought she remembered something it slipped away before she had a chance to grasp it. The only tangible evidence was the picture of her mother holding her as a baby, now framed and hanging on the wall by her bed. Even meeting Annie and David was a blur. Lila’s first real memory was driving up to the Johnsons’ in the winter with the snow-covered fir trees surrounding the perfect jewel of a house.
    Now, five years later, she loved Uncle Joe and Aunt Eunie with all her heart, and the three of them were a content and happy family, contained in their own little world. Aunt Eunie always stayed home, not one for entertaining or gallivanting, and this suited Lila perfectly. Uncle Joe would come home from work and regale them with tales of his employees at the fish plant he managed. Lila had learned over the years to take what Uncle Joe said with a grain of salt. She and Aunt Eunie would exchange knowing looks in the middle of his embellished stories, but they never challenged him because he was always so entertaining.
    Lila knew there was a war on, but she tried hard not to think about it. Whenever Uncle Joe listened to the news from overseas on the radio, Lila would go upstairs to her room and read a book or draw a picture. It felt safer not to know.
    The one-room schoolhouse, a small wooden structure that housed almost thirty children from grades one to ten, wasn’t very far from the Johnsons’. Some of the neighbourhood kids farther along had to get a ride on a horse and sleigh in the winter if the snow was too high. The year they started plowing the roads after a snowstorm was a huge thrill for everyone in their neck of the woods. The feeling of isolation diminished greatly knowing they could get out in an emergency. The other memorable day was when they finally got electricity—no more studying by kerosene lamps.
    Lila was close enough to walk to school, but Aunt Eunie had to keep Freddy in the house when she left in the morning or he’d follow her and create a huge fuss when she tried to go inside the building. The dog was finally let out about an hour later and he would still run down to the school, but he was content to lie outside and wait by the door. All the kids knew Freddy by name.
    One of the older boys, Ewan, was paid to come and stoke the school’s fire at night and early in the morning so it was warm by the time the rest of the students arrived. Lila sometimes wondered when Ewan slept.
    Their teacher, Miss MacAuley, was a sweet young woman who spoke softly and was full of encouragement. Lila