Free The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade Page A

ways on Exeter Street, clutching a worn basket and shouting, “Apple a pence!” If he hurried he’d catch her and they could walk home together.
    He scratched at the lice on his scalp, then patted his pocket to be sure his coin purse hadn’t gone missing. Fourpence for a whole day of work at the inn, plus the twopence the beautiful woman had given him. His mother had probably earned the same amount. His father would have made nothing because some sickness had crawled down his throat and now he was trapped in bed at home, yellow and thin and moaning about being “just anofer moot ta feed.”
    Oppie was taking a shortcut down an alley when he remembered his friends saying that they’d heard a child had disappeared in this very same alley a week ago. Was it Varney the Vampire who had taken him? The boy had beenyounger than Oppie, so he probably had short, slow legs. I can outrun anyone, thought Oppie. Besides, the alley was a quicker way to Exeter Street. He shooed a cat out of his path and ran on.
    When he heard the twittering of a bird, he slowed down. Its music was out of place among the gray light and the shuttered windows of the buildings. Hundreds of chamber pots had been dumped into the gutter. The smell made his eyes water.
    He spotted a flash of silver on a broken, rusted oil lamp. Moving closer he discovered a metallic sparrow perched on the lip of the lamp. It was a clockwork toy, chittering away. It had to be worth a fortune! If he could sell it, his family would live off the money for a month. Who had left it here for any quick-fingered sort to snatch? Maybe the bobbies had set up the bird as a trap. He looked around furtively and, deciding he was safe, reached for the sparrow, grasping only air as the bird hopped away. He lunged at it again and it fluttered to a pipe sticking out of some stonework.
    “I’ll be,” Oppie whispered, licking his lips. The creature’s lifelike eyes rolled back and forth, taunting him. “You must be dreaming, Oppie.” He narrowed one eye, as though sighting a gun, and jumped, grabbing for the bird frantically.
    This time the sparrow flapped high into the air, twirled around twice, and landed two yards away. It pecked in a circle as though hunting for seeds, then disappeared around a turn in the alley.
    Oppie raced ahead to discover the bird sitting on a banged-up crate. It was rubbing at its beak with one wing. It looked at Oppie and cheeped insistently. What wondrous clockwork made it tick? He edged closer; it flitted up to his eye level and began flying down the alley. Oppie broke into a run, only a step or two behind the glittering bird, once even brushing its metal tail feathers with his fingertips. When it flapped through a door, he followed without a second thought.
    The bird landed on a man’s outstretched hand. Oppie looked up at him. The man was dressed like a gentleman, with top hat and all, but his hair was long and as white as St. Nick’s. His skin was pale.
    “Do you like my pet?” the man asked.
    “Yes! A true wonder. I weren’t going to take it, honest!”
    “I believe you.” The old man placed a seed on his palm and the bird pecked at it. “I’m Dr. Cornelius Hyde, and I am so pleased to meet a young specimen such as yourself.”
    “Pleased to meet you, too, guvnuh.”
    The man reached into his greatcoat pocket and produced a second sparrow. It chirped. “Would you like a bird of your own?”
    Oppie nodded.
    “Then come with me.”
    Oppie paused. His mother wouldn’t want him to follow a stranger. But a bird of his own! Maybe two! He could play with them and later they would fetch a good price. Mumwould rub his head and hug him and say, “You’re a good un, darlin’.”
    The man set a bird on either shoulder, opened a door, then proceeded down a hallway, while the sparrows sang, their lively marble eyes mesmerizing Oppie, who hurried to keep up.

10
A Friendly Interrogation
    “H rrts.”
    The raspy voice echoed in the near dark. Modo