Free Pieces of Me by Darlene Ryan Page A

not?”
    He shook his head. “Don’t go there for now,” he said.

seven
    They didn’t come at five o’clock. At five thirty, I gave Q some of my money for supper. When he came back, I woke up Dylan and sat with him while he ate chicken nuggets and yogurt.
    â€œMaddie, where’s my mom?” he asked. “Is she still at the doctor?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “Sometimes doctors can be real slow.”
    Q was sitting in the front seat. He pointed to the parking lot and got out. I wiped a blob of yogurt from Dylan’s chin. “Share with Fred,” I told him.
    â€œWhere are you going?” he asked, one hand reaching for me.
    â€œI’m just going to talk to Q,” I said. “You can see me through the window. I promise.” I got out and then turned around and waved at Dylan. “He’s scared,” I said to Q. I folded my arms across my chest. “What do we do? Do we go to the police?”
    Q shook his head. “No.” He zipped his jacket. “I’m going to go down to the hospital. It’s possible the other two are really sick and they’re still there.”
    â€œWe’ll come with you?”
    â€œNo. I don’t want to scare the kid.”
    I looked back at Dylan again and made myself smile at him through the side window. “Take the car, then,” I told Q. “We’ll be okay here for a while, or I can take him over to Tim’s.”
    â€œHe’s better where he is,” Q said. “It’s not that far, and maybe I can even hitch.”
    I sighed. “All right, but be careful. Don’t get in with any weirdos.”
    He leaned over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “I’ll be as fast as I can,” he said. He fished in his jacket pocket and pulled out the keys to the car. “Here,” he said. “In case you have to take him to the bathroom or something. Lock the car.”
    â€œI will,” I said, tucking the key ring in the pocket of my jeans. I watched him head out, cutting rapidly across the lot. I felt for the shard of glass in my jacket pocket. It wasn’t a knife, but it would do. Then I got back in with Dylan.
    â€œWhere is Q going?” he asked.
    â€œHe’s going to see if he can find your mom and dad,” I said.
    â€œMaybe they got lost.”
    â€œMaybe they did.”
    I ate the last couple of chicken nuggets and finished his milk. Then I wiped his face with a paper napkin, and we walked the trash over to one of the garbage cans next to a cart corral.
    â€œWhat do you want to do, kiddo?” I asked.
    â€œSometimes my mom sings us songs,” he said.
    â€œI’m not a very good singer.”
    His face fell.
    â€œHow about ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat’?”
    He frowned. “That’s not a song. It’s ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’ ”
    â€œIt is too a song,” I said. Then I sang softly, “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you’re at! Up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you’re at!”
    He laughed. “Maddie, that’s silly. You made it up.”
    I shook my head. “No I didn’t. It’s from a book called Alice in Wonderland .”
    He leaned against me. “What’s the book about?”
    I put my arm around him. “It’s about a girl named Alice and all the things that happen to her.”
    â€œAre there any trains in the book?” he asked. “I like books about trains.”
    â€œI don’t think there are any trains in Alice in Wonderland ,” I said. “There’s a cat, and a rabbit.”
    He yawned. “I wish I could have a cat,” he said. “But my mom said it wouldn’t be fair to make it stay in our van all the time.”
    He snuggled in next to me. “I think your mom’s right,” I said.