Breadcrumbs (21 page)

“And Mom . . .” he said, and then looked away.

Hazel was supposed to say something comforting now, something that would let him know it was going to be okay, except she knew nothing of the kind. But that was still better than this.

“Come on,” she said, and she tucked her hand through his arm. “We should go home.”

Jack exhaled, and Hazel took that as agreement and pulled him through the trees. Hazel’s foot landed in the snow and she muttered, “Oh, great.” She was sick of winter.

It was dark out, and the air was filled with the squeals of sledding kids. It was the same scene that she’d left. A great fatigue slammed into Hazel, and with terrible dread she thought of the blocks they had to walk.

They crossed the street to the sidewalk. They’d made this walk hundreds of times in their lives together. It was as familiar as air.

There was so much she wanted to tell him. There had been wolves and weird psychics, swanskins and bird girls. There had been a marketplace that sold potions for forgetting, a wizard who could pull truths from your heart. There had been a cottage, a couple, a garden. There had been a match girl. There had been a journey. There was a witch who wanted nothing. And at the end of it all there was Jack, and maybe the witch was right, maybe things wouldn’t be the same, but Hazel would still do everything she could to remind him what he was made of. There was so much she wanted to tell him—it used to be that nothing really happened to her unless she told Jack about it—but they walked in silence.

A minivan stopped in the street next to them, and a window rolled down to reveal the face of Tyler’s mom. She called to them and motioned them into the car. “Come on, I’ll drive you home!”

Jack and Hazel exchanged a look, shrugged, and climbed in the backseat.

Tyler was in the front, and he had turned fully around and was gaping at them. Hazel’s hackles instinctively went up, and then she breathed them away. It wasn’t going to be like that anymore. She wouldn’t let it.

“Are you okay?” Tyler whispered to Jack.

Jack nodded slightly.

Hazel’s eyes went to the dashboard of the minivan. It read 7:10.

“Is it still Friday?” she whispered to Tyler.

He nodded, wide-eyed. His eyes were on her face now, like they could not quite take in the magnitude of her scar. Hazel’s hand flew to it and traced it all down the length of her cheek to her jaw.

“Hazel, what happened?” asked Mrs. Freeman, eyes full of alarm. “That looks fresh. Did someone do that to you?”

“Oh,” said Hazel. “I tripped.” What was she going to tell her mom? She had to think of something. She had to get used to the question.

“I see,” said Tyler’s mom, looking dubious. “And what are you doing out without your coats? Jack, I thought you were with your elderly aunt Bernice?”

“What?” Jack said. Hazel elbowed him.

“He came back,” said Hazel.

“Okay . . .”

Tyler’s mom drove them the few blocks to their houses. When Hazel and Jack spilled out, Tyler was silent. His mother noticed. “Aren’t you going to say good-bye to your friends?” Hazel heard her say as the two got out onto the sidewalk.

Tyler rolled down the window and called good-bye. He started to roll the window up and then stopped.

“Hey, Hazel?”

“What?”

“You can hang out with us at recess on Monday if you want.”

And then he rolled up the window and they drove away, leaving Hazel and Jack standing in front of their houses.

“Um, everyone thinks you’re with your aunt Bernice,” Hazel said.

Jack looked at her, brown eyes wide. “I don’t have an aunt Bernice,” he said.

A light went on in Jack’s house behind them. Hazel looked up toward it, and then back at Jack. Jack rubbed his hand against his chest.

His mom appeared on the stoop and Jack straightened. He looked at Hazel. “I should go.”

She nodded.

“Hazel?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for coming to get me.”

“Of course.” She was his best friend.

Jack hesitated still, and Hazel wanted to say something comforting, give him some bright plastic flowers of words, but Jack would see them for what they were. Jack knew how to see things.

Then he put his hand up and squeezed her arm, and then turned toward his house. Hazel stood and watched him disappear inside.

Hazel went to her own front door and walked in, breathing in the smells of home. She called for her mother, but there was no answer. Of course not, her mom had her class. Hazel’s heart sank a little. She would have liked to see her mom.

She thought about going to the kitchen and getting some food, but she couldn’t bear the thought of the extra movements, so she went to her room to lie down on her bed.

Her stuffed animals were still there, sitting against her pillow, and Hazel lay down next to them and put her hand on the bear, then grabbed it and pulled it into her chest. She tucked in a ball on her bed. Her eyes fell on the spot where the Joe Mauer baseball used to be. Maybe she would get Jack another signed ball. It might not be easy, but it had to be easier than this.

Then she noticed the wrapped present on her bed stand. She rolled over to grab it. The gift wrap was familiar—shiny purple paper that her mother had been using for six months. Hazel unwrapped the paper to reveal an old shoe box. She opened up the box and unfolded the tissue paper inside to find a pair of pink ballet shoes.

She blinked and picked up one of the shoes. There was a note in the tissue paper:

Hazel—

A present and a promise.

Love,

Mom

The writing blurred in front of Hazel’s eyes. She touched the note with her fingers. She wanted to get up and leave her mom a note, but she could not leave the bed. So Hazel took both slippers and folded them in her arms with the teddy bear and curled back up on the bed. She could see the distant glow from Jack’s house coming in the window, and she wondered what he was doing, and if he was okay, and if he’d eaten, and what he’d told his parents. She wondered what things would be like between them now, and what she was going to have to do for them to be normal again. It would be harder to watch over him if they weren’t normal, but she would find a way. She wondered if she’d actually want to hang out with Tyler and Bobby at recess. Maybe a little capture the flag would do them all good. Hazel was good at capture the flag. No one took her seriously because she was small and feathered, a strange little dino-bird, but she had a sickle claw and she was not afraid to use it.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jack who got lost in the woods. His best friend went after him. Along the way, she had many adventures. She met woodsmen, witches, and wolves. She found her friend in the thrall of a queen who lived in a palace of ice and had a heart to match. She rescued him with the help of a magical object. And they returned home, together, and they lived on, somehow, ever after.

It went something like that, anyway.

She drifted off to sleep thinking that tomorrow, she would call Adelaide and make plans to go over there. This time she would bring her own ballet shoes. She wanted to tell Adelaide and Uncle Martin all about the Snow Queen. They probably wouldn’t believe her, not really. She wouldn’t believe it herself.

But at least it was a good story.

ANNE URSU
is the author of the three middle-grade novels that comprise the Cronus Chronicles trilogy:
THE SHADOW THIEVES, THE SIREN SONG
, and
THE IMMORTAL FIRE
. She is also a professor of writing for children at Hamline University and a lifelong Minnesota Twins fan. Anne lives in Minneapolis with her son and three cats. You can visit her online at www.anneursu.com.

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Also by Anne Ursu

T
HE
C
RONUS
C
HRONICLES:

Book One: The Shadow Thieves

Book Two: The Siren Song

Book Three: The Immortal Fire

Walden Pond Press is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Walden Pond Press and the skipping stone logo are trademarks and registered trademarks of Walden Media, LLC.

Breadcrumbs
Text copyright © 2011 by Anne Ursu
Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Erin McGuire

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ursu, Anne.
Breadcrumbs / Anne Ursu ; drawings by Erin McGuire. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Audience: Ages 8–12.
ISBN 978-0-06-201505-1 (trade bdg.)
1. Magic mirrors—Juvenile fiction. 2. Friendship—Juvenile fiction.
3. Rescues—Juvenile fiction. 4. Children—Juvenile fiction. [1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Mirrors—Fiction. 3. Best friends—Fiction. 4. Friendship—Fiction. 5. Rescues—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction.]
I. McGuire, Erin, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.U692Br 2011
813.6—dc22
[[Fic]]
2010045666
11 12 13 14 15 LP/rrdb 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition

EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062049247