Free Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica Page A

downstairs and have them get you a cab.”
    Then he crumpled up the pages in his hand, made them into a ball, and fired it across the room and into a wood basket that sat next to an antique desk.
    â€œNothing but net,” he said.
    That was when Molly ran.

CHAPTER 10
    W hen they had come into the lobby of Two Commonwealth, Josh Cameron had pointed to the door that he said opened into the lobby of the hotel part of the Ritz. When Molly came out of the elevator, she went through it, figuring that if Josh Cameron did care enough to follow her, he’d be looking for her out on the street.
    For once in her life, she couldn’t wait to get back to 1A Joyless Street.
    Molly was brave, but not a total dope, so she wasn’t going to run across the Public Garden alone at this time of night. She figured she’d go through the lobby, wait to see if the coast was clear on Arlington, then run over to Beacon and up to the corner of Beacon and Joy.
    That was the plan, anyway, and she sprinted through the lobby toward the revolving doors.
    â€œWhoa there, girl.”
    There was a tall young guy in a suit and a tie. Dark hair. Good-looking, Molly noticed. He was wearing a little name tag that read “Thomas O’Connor, Concierge.”
    â€œWhere are you headed alone at this time of night?” he said.
    â€œHome,” she said. “I was visiting…a friend…at Two Commonwealth.”
    â€œWhat’s the friend’s name?”
    Go with it, Molly thought.
    Do anything just to get out of here.
    â€œCan you keep a secret?” she said.
    â€œIt’s practically the first thing they teach you at concierge school,” he said.
    â€œJosh Cameron,” she said. “You can ask Lindsay the doorman. He’s my uncle. Josh Cameron, I mean.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œCross my heart.”
    â€œWell, why don’t we call him?”
    â€œNo!”
    Molly yelled at him the way she’d just yelled upstairs at good old Uncle Josh.
    â€œHe was doing an interview,” Molly said, the words coming out of her like a pipe had just burst. “And I told him I’d have Lindsay call me a cab. But then I got downstairs and decided it was silly to take a cab over to Joy Street—I live on Joy Street—and, well, you got me, Mr. O’Connor.”
    â€œIf Lindsay was going to call you a cab, what are you doing over on this side, then?”
    â€œI was going to buy a candy bar, but then I remembered I forgot to ask Uncle Josh for money.” She smiled and shrugged. “My bad, all the way around.”
    â€œIs Josh Cameron really your uncle?”
    â€œWell, I think of him as my uncle. Him and my stepmom went to college together and are still good friends, and so we’ve always acted as if we’re related, even though technically we’re not.”
    Somehow she managed not to gag on stepmom.
    Molly said, “So please don’t get me in trouble with him.”
    â€œThere’s still the matter of getting you home.”
    Molly said, “Would you mind walking me? It’s really not far.”
    He told her to wait a second, walked over to the concierge desk, where there was another guy, older, talking on the phone.
    Then Thomas O’Connor came back and said, “Let’s go, kid.”
    Kid sounded better coming from him.
    â€œYou can call me Molly,” Molly said.

    As they were walking up Arlington, she told Thomas O’Connor she had to call her friend.
    Sam answered on what Molly thought was half a ring.
    â€œWhere are you?” he whispered. “I’ve been, like, sick worried. You said you were going to call.”
    â€œWay home,” she said. “Long story.”
    â€œWay home from where?”
    â€œHis place.”
    â€œWhat the heck happened?”
    â€œTell you at school. What happened with your uncle when he realized I was gone?”
    â€œI told him you didn’t want to wait and that he was