Free Lucy’s Wish by Joan Lowery Nixon Page B

he’d understand!” Mrs. Olney snapped. “Can’t you see how busy I am? The last thing I need right now is the two of you underfoot. Get your things and go!”
    Lucy ran, clutching the marble in her pocket.
I won’t forget you, Henry
, she promised.
    In her shelter Lucy shuddered at the unhappy memory. She held Baby even more tightly.
    She was startled when a low voice outside broke into her thoughts. “Lucy! Hsst! Lucy!”

L ucy recognized the voice, so she pushed aside one of the boxes. Her friend Joey, a wiry, dark-haired boy, smiled at her. “Good. You’re still here,” he said.
    Lucy smiled in return. “Thank you for helping me last night,” she said. “When Mrs. Olney threw me out, I didn’t know where to go.”
    â€œLots of kids sleep in alleys,” Joey answered. “It’s just lucky I knew about this place and got you here before anybody else found it.” He crawled into her shelter. “Feeling better?” he asked.
    Lucy nodded. “The apple and bread you gave me must have helped.”
    â€œSo you’re not hungry anymore?”
    Lucy’s stomach gave a hollow rumble. Both she and Joey burst out laughing.
    He reached inside his ragged jacket, pulled out a banana, and held it out to Lucy.
    Lucy knew that Joey had no money to buy such a treat. She suspected that the banana had disappeared from a peddler’s cart. But she was too hungry to ask questions. She grabbed the banana and gulped it down.
    Joey’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “If you could make a wish, what would it be? A full stomach? A clean bed in a real house?”
    Lucy surprised even herself as she said, “I’d wish for someone to love me.”
    Joey blinked and smiled sadly. “I can’t give you that wish, but I can give you the next best thing.” He tugged a scrap of paper from his pocket.
    â€œOne of my chums who lives in the tenements got a letter,” he said. “It’s from a lad name ofBertie Jarvis. He used to be one of us, living on the street. Then he went west on an orphan train.”
    â€œWhat’s an orphan train?” Lucy asked.
    â€œThey’re trains that take kids who live on the streets to homes on farms out west. Now, listen. I’m not good at reading, so I was careful to remember the words. The lad wrote that the people who took him in were treating him swell. He said, ‘Tell the others. Come west on the orphan trains. Get a new mother and father. It’s a good life.’ ”
    Lucy’s heart leapt. A new mother and father? For an instant she could feel the warmth of her own mother’s arms around her. No other woman could ever replace Mum. But if the new mother was part of a family … a family with a little sister for her … “Are
you
going west?” Lucy asked.
    â€œWhat? Go to some strange place I never heard tell of? Not me,” Joey answered.
    â€œBut a mother and a father …”
    â€œWho needs a mother and father?” Joey asked.“I like New York City. I’m free here to do whatever I like. I don’t want to go nowhere else—especially to a farm where I’d have to work.” He made a face. “Feed the pigs. That’s what they’d have me do. Feed the pigs, and that’s not for me.”
    â€œI want a mother and father,” Lucy said. “And a little sister. They could make my wish come true.” She rubbed her nose hard so tears wouldn’t come. “How can I find out about the orphan trains?”
    Joey grinned and handed her a scrap of paper. “I got my chum to write down the address of the Children’s Aid Society. The people there send orphans to homes in the West.”
    Thankful that Mum had taught her to read, Lucy studied the address.
    â€œI know where the offices are, and I’ll take you part of the way,” Joey said. “But after that you’ll have