Free Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt Page A

when she pulled the clumsy wooden door closed
     behind her. Sammy was inside washing his hands and face, giggling, but Dicey didn’t
     want to risk hanging around any longer than she had to.
    Louis and Edie were standing around Maybeth when Dicey came out. She sent Maybeth
     and Sammy over to the swings.
    “Not exactly alone,” Louis said, facing Dicey.
    “Not exactly.”
    “And there’s another one,” Louis said. “Maybeth shook her head when I asked was this
     all of you.”
    Dicey nodded.
    “He’s not with you now,” Louis observed.
    Dicey sighed. “He had a fall so he’s resting.”
    “Is he all right?” Edie sounded worried. “What happened?”
    “He fell,” Dicey said. “He says he’s okay.”
    “So—where you heading?” Louis asked.
    “Up to Provincetown, on the Cape,” Dicey told him. “We used to have some family there.
     It’s a neat place in summer.”
    “Edie, want to go with them?” Louis asked. “It would be a good cover, in case your
     old man has the cops out.”
    Edie shook her head. She looked at Dicey with frightened eyes.
    “Provincetown’s a good place, from all I’ve heard,” Louis went on. “Some jobs. Lots
     of people. Cops don’t look too close.”
    “You said we’d stay here until our money ran out,” Edie said.
    “You scared?” Louis challenged her.
    “You know I’m not. I proved it, didn’t I?”
    “Sure. You got ahold of the money just fine. You can relax, Edie—Danny here isn’t
     about to tell anybody anything. Are you, kid?”
    Dicey just stared at him.
    “It’s not as if she really robbed him,” Louis went on explaining. He was talking to
     Dicey, but he was watching the effect of his words on Edie. “I mean, I wrote the checks. She just took the checkbook. Besides, the way I figure, I’m saving
     him a lot of money—on her college education. So he should be grateful to me. Right,
     Edie?”
    “Sure.”
    “So—whaddayou say? Want to travel with these kids?”
    Edie shook her head. “I like it here,” she said.
    “And if I decide I don’t?” Louis asked.
    Edie looked up at him. Her eyes had tears in them. “Hey,” Louis said. He threw his
     arm around her. “Hey, I’m just kidding. Can’t you take a joke?”
    Dicey sidled away from them and went to the swings. Let it goon being a joke, she thought. She didn’t know what to do if Louis and Edie tried to
     go with them.
    She couldn’t wait there long for worry about James, and for worry about when they’d
     be able to get moving again. Sammy complained, but she hurried the two little ones
     back to their campsite. James greeted them in his normal voice. His head, he said,
     was better now. His appetite, he said, was huge—he’d missed lunch, after all. They
     all went down to the little cove. James moved his body slowly and cautiously, as if
     he was afraid it might break.
    They gathered clams for dinner while James watched the fire. Dicey wrapped the potatoes
     in seaweed, too, and baked them in the fire. They had brought the milk carton down
     with them. They picnicked in tired solitude, eating as much as they wanted. Behind
     them, the sun went quietly down. Twilight crept over the water toward them, dainty
     as a mouse.

CHAPTER 5
    D icey awoke to the beginning of a bright day. She lay still for a long time, looking
     at the cloudless sky through the branches and leaves of green maples and sycamores.
     The leaves made designs on the background of the sky, intricate patterns that shifted
     with any slightest breeze. She heard James stir and rolled over on her side to watch
     him.
    James’s eyes opened. He yawned and stretched. Dicey waited for him to say what he
     always said first thing, about it still being true. Then everything would be back
     to normal.
    He caught her eye. “I wish I’d seen you going into the boys’ bathroom,” he said. “I
     thought I’d split when Sammy told me.”
    “I noticed,” Dicey said. “How’s your head?”
    James rolled it back and