Free The Daring Escape of Beatrice and Peabody by Kimberly Newton Fusco

twig in a fast-moving tide. I fall and get stepped on and someone kicks my face and all across my diamond. I hold my arms over my head and curl into a ball and get kicked over and over and wait while the sea of folks rush past.
    I don’t know how he did it, but Peabody got himself loose, and now he is licking my face. I think about whatwould happen if he got kicked, being so little and all, and I pull myself up and totter quite a bit as I try and get my balance. For just a moment I think I might see the lady in the orange flappy hat, and then I scoop my dog into my arms and hurry across the grounds to our hauling truck. I race up the ladder and dive on my mattress. I hold Peabody and wrap us inside my bedroll, afraid of the folks running around like it is the end of the world.
    More and more lightning strikes and thunder booms and each time my dog howls. ‘Stop it, Peabody. Ellis will hear.’
    We are just dozing off when there is a banging on the outside of our hauling truck.
    ‘You left the hot dog grill on, you little idiot.’
    Peabody barks before Ellis gets all the words out. I grab Peabody’s nose and hold his mouth shut. He shakes until I let go. He barks again.
    Ellis climbs up the ladder and flings open the curtain. He whips his flashlight all over the inside of the hauling truck. I try and hide me and Peabody in the bedroll. But Peabody is growling like he is a bear.
    Ellis comes right over to my bedroll. ‘Get up and get that food cart cleaned up now. And let me tell you one thing, missy. You have two minutes to get rid of that dog. If I ever see it again, I will toss it in the next river we come to.’
    He glares at me and the flashlight makes his eyes yellow.I shake and wait for him to leave. He looks all around the truck, at my bedroll, at Peabody, at the empty place where Pauline used to be.
    ‘Two minutes,’ he says again. He stomps off and something inside of me cracks and something inside of me snaps and I know right then and there that I need a new plan for my life.

36
    It is heartbreaking to say goodbye to a pig, especially one as fine as Cordelia. She nuzzles your neck and looks you in the eye all soft, like she just knows what you are thinking and she does not like it at all.
    I scratch her backside for a long time and rub her neck and itch the places on her head she likes itched so well. I look in her eyes. I do not fib and tell her I will be back soon. I tell her the truth.
    ‘It is not safe here for Peabody. That’s why we are leaving.’ I pick up the stick Bobby kept for back-scratching and find all her itchy spots. She likes it especially well. She keeps coming back for more.
    ‘If leaving is a bad idea, I will know it pretty quick and then I will think of another plan.’ I tell Cordelia this in between kisses on her face.
    I cut a piece of rope and tie it to Peabody’s collar. We have never run on the road but if we are going to find a home, it’s the only way. Already Peabody is squirming and pulling at the rope because if there’s one thing about him, he does not like getting tied up.
    Cordelia is sticking her head through the slats in thepen, watching. I go over and scratch her one more time and bend down and kiss her on the face. ‘I will find you when I get settled.’ I look her in the eye and feel my tears well up.
    At the last minute I tucked a dozen hot dogs in my socks and Pauline’s little notebook in the pocket of my overalls. My heart told me it would not let me leave those pages flopped upside down on the floor of the truck, even if I am never going to read a word. A heart is like that. If you listen, it will give you marching orders.
    This is also the reason I climb up the boards of the pen and jump inside and wrap my arms one last time around Cordelia and let her crawl into my lap and nibble my ear. Soon they are all piling on top of me: LaVerne, Vivian and Big Ben, all grunting, all pushing to get to the bits of corn hiding in my pocket. Then I climb out of