Free Up High in the Trees by Kiara Brinkman Page A

hanging on the wall and pick up.
    Sebby? says Cass’s voice.
    You scared me, I tell her.
    Sorry, she says. How’s Dad? Is it cold there?
    I’m wrapping the phone cord around and around my finger. Teacher sent me homework to do, I tell her.
    That’s good, Cass says. Is it snowing? she asks.
    No, I tell her.
    It’s snowing here, she says.

    Since I know I can walk to the post office by myself, I leave Dad and the bike in the white house and I go. I’m wearing my green coat and it’s so puffy I can’t feel the envelope that I put in the front pocket. I have to keep touching it and then I know it’s still there. The envelope has the letters for Katya and Ms. Lambert and also my homework page with the nouns underlined.
    I stop when I get close to the blue house and listen. I know that the boy without a shirt and the girl with red hair live inside of it, but they don’t know which house is mine. The blue house is quiet. Its windows are dark and empty. I walk a little closer and stop again. On the ground, there’s the white shoe that was supposed to hit me.
    I keep walking, but then I turn around and go back to the white shoe. I look at it and what I think of is the picture of the old man holding a dead bird in his hand. I know I can’t leave the shoe all alone, so I hide it inside of my coat, and cross my arms tight. I walk faster now because what if someone’s watching me from a window? I look back at the blue house again and then I run.
    At the post office, I don’t need to go inside because they have a blue mailbox in front. Through the glass doors, I can see the same lady working behind the counter. She sees me and waves without smiling and that’s good. I don’t like how her teeth look when she smiles at me.
    I take the envelope out of my pocket and look at how I wrote Ms. Lambert’s name and Katya’s name and also the address where my school is. Maybe when Katya reads my letter she’ll be my friend again.
    I pull on the handle and the blue mailbox opens up like a mouth. Really fast, I reach inside and drop the envelope. It doesn’t make any sound when it lands. I try to look inside the mailbox, but it’s just dark, like the letters are already gone.
    On the way home, I don’t want the shoe anymore, because it belongs to the girl with red hair. Even if the shoe is sad like a dead bird, it was still mean to take it away and I want to put it back. I walk fast all the way to the blue house. I know where the shoe was and I can put it in the same spot so nobody will know that I took it.
    I find the spot and stand right there and then let the shoe fall out of my coat. The heel clicks when it hits the cold cement and makes a quick, hollow sound. I keep looking at the white shoe on the ground and I can’t believe that it could make a sound at all. I want to pick up the shoe and drop it one more time to see if it will make that noise again. I can’t, though. I have to run away before someone sees me.
    I run and the air is cold on my cheeks. I can feel the cold inside my head and it stings, like there’s ice behind my eyes. My head hurts every time my feet land on the ground, so I have to stop running. I take soft steps and that feels better. In the back of my head I can hear the sound of my heart beating. My heart is so loud that the whole inside of my body is filling up with sound.

    In the morning, I go outside and the yellow bike is gone. I know who took it. I sit down on the front steps and wait for the boy from the blue house.
    I decide I don’t really care if he keeps the bike, because it’s ugly and I don’t know how to ride it. When the boy comes back, I’ll tell him that I don’t care. Then I’ll go inside and lock the door so he’ll have to go away. I know what to do.
    I can hear the boy screaming at me before he comes around the corner. Then I see him. He’s wearing just the hood part of his