He shrugged and sipped his root beer. It came in a bottle. He liked holding a bottle to his lips much more than a can. He was exhausted from worrying about everybody.
Foster children could pack quickly. Every move Matt had ever made took only minutes, whereas when real people moved, they spent weeks getting ready, filling huge vans and leaving a trail of cardboard...
Fall in love with me, Gary! She thought. Please. Please sit here holding me and think there's nowhere on earth I'd rather be than here, and no girl I'd rather have in my lap than Beth Rose Chapman!
Eben would rather have had that knife pierce his chest and kill him than live to acquire an Indian vocabulary, but it was something to do and it kept Mercy cheerful.
Brian was only thirteen. He was asleep by one A.M.
Brian and Lizzie were both really smart. Really quick. Plain basic types like Janie and Reeve could always get cornered.
Breakfast was only worth having when somebody else made it for you.
A bag lady of indeterminate race pushed her belongings in a cart, on top of which she had balanced a broken-legged plastic chair and a bag full of returnable bottles she was plucking out of garbage ca...
What do you mean--your family? he said. Joseph, you do not have a in this terrible place. You have a master. Do not confuse savages who happen to give you food with Joseph’s face hardened. They are m...
Oh, Eben! breathed Mercy, thrilled and astonished. Guess what?The glare off the ice was bothering him, and as the temperature rose, the snow on the frozen river was turning to slush. His moccasins wer...
Girl! English, eh? What is your name? Indians stole you, eh? I’ll send news to your people.His excellent speech meant that he did a lot of trading with the English. It meant, Mercy prayed, that he lik...
She had no choice but to go to him. She set Daniel down. Perhaps they would spare Daniel. Perhaps only she was to be burned.She forced herself to keep her chin up, her eyes steady and her steps even....
None of the captives possessed the freedom to choose anything or take care of anyone.It turned out that Eben Nims believed otherwise.Eben was looking at Sarah in the way every girl prays some boy will...
Mercy herself was so hungry, she was faint. Tannhahorens would despise her for it. She tried to keep her feet from weaving and her tears from falling, but she could not.Tannhahorens took her hands and...
In a dark and twisted grove of spruce, a place Eben would have avoided in summer at high noon, the Indians stopped for the night. If he had ever seen a place where an evil spirit would dwell, this was...
Eben’s moccasins were lined with thick black fur. His boots were abandoned at the edge of the trail. Eben thought of Deerfield men getting this far in pursuit and finding a hundred pairs of shoes.
The letter, crumpled in her purse, felt as large as any Rocky Mountain.
The best thing about college was that you could wear anything anywhere.
Stop being picky! yelled Mandy. You’re down to twelve minutes and you still have to swipe your credit card!
She stared at the dark shimmer of glass that faced the street. The Clares never pulled curtains. They were comftorable with the dark. But there was another kind of dark. The darkness of minds full of...