Free The Children's Crusade by Carla Jablonski Page B

place,” she said, “a place where we can go when we need someplace to go. That’s why I’m here.”
    â€œWe?”
    â€œPeople who aren’t grown-ups yet. Kids. Us. Kerwyn says it’s a sanctuary, but it’s really just a place. We call it Free Country.”
    Something about this sounded familiar to Tim. Not in a I-read-this-in-a-fairy-story way. No, something more recent. More real. Tim chewed slowly, thinking it over. Of course! Free Country. The girl in the playground, Avril, had mentioned a free country. That’s where the strange child had wanted to take her friends.
    Marya had a faraway look in her eyes as she continued speaking. “Nobody hurts you there,” she said wistfully, “or makes you do things you don’t want to. Nobody ties you up or beats you. Or tries to kill you, like they do here.”
    â€œWhat does this have to do with me?” Tim asked. He stood and paced in front of her. Was she offering him a different world to live in? Had she guessed that it was grown-ups who seemed to be ruining his life? Could Free Country be a sanctuary for him, too? Away from Titania’s threats and his own confusion?
    â€œThey need you,” Marya said. “I mean, we need you. We need your magic to help us let all the children in this world cross over to Free Country.”
    So this wasn’t about what she was offering him—it was about what he could give them.
    Tim whirled around, his hands on his hips. “Why?” he demanded.
    â€œBecause this world is getting so bad that pretty soon it might not be a world anymore.”
    â€œOh, you’re sure about that,” he scoffed. Those were some seriously dire predictions. And Molly accuses me of being all doom and gloom , Tim thought. She should hear this girl.
    Marya shrugged. “You live here,” she said. “What do you think?”
    Tim looked around and tried to see his environment, really see it. He blotted so much out as a daily habit.
    When he allowed himself to see it, the misery and the poverty, the anger and the sadness could be found everywhere. In his dad’s smashed-up car that still haunted the driveway, the ruined lives in the surrounding flats, in the very air he breathed.
    Tim sank down beside Marya on the step. “Yeah,” he admitted. “I guess I see some problems in this world.” He looked directly at her. “But what if I don’t want to go?”
    â€œThen you don’t go,” Marya replied. “You don’t have to do anything. That’s the point. That’s why it’s ‘free’—you’re free to choose.”
    Tim studied her face. She seemed to be completely sincere. It was up to him. He could go or not. Having the decision left to him—and him alone—made him much more willing to go.
    Maybe I should , he thought. Maybe I actually can help . There should be a place for kids to go if they’re not safe here. And even if I don’t save their whole world, at least I can track down those missing kids, like Avril’s brother, Oliver.
    Tim thought back to something he had learned from his real father, Tamlin: that he shouldn’t let fear get in the way of trying. That was the way with magic—and the only hopeof getting better at it.
    â€œOkay,” Tim said finally. “Uh—I’m not sure I can actually help, so don’t get all bent out of shape if I fail. But I’m game if you are.”
    The girl smiled a beautiful, sunny smile. She pulled chalk out of her bag and drew a hopscotch grid on the pavement. Tim stared at her. Now what is she doing? She is certainly full of surprises.
    â€œYou go first,” she instructed. “It’s easy. You just hop the hopscotch squares three times and then you’re there. Nothing to it.”
    Tim pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. He raised an eyebrow at the girl. How could playing hopscotch land him in