Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti Page B

scoop.”
    â€œI’m fine, Claire. It was delicious, thanks.”
    â€œShe’s fine, Claire,” Thomas says. “A person gets to say whether they’re hungry or not.” Thomas and Claire catch eyes, like television parents. Mads likes that.
    â€œI’m just worried about you, sweetie. Not worry-worry—I know you can handle yourself. Just, you’ve gotten a little thin.”
    â€œLean and mean,” Thomas says.
    â€œBean and green,” Harrison says. “Weenie and peenie. Weenus and penis.”
    â€œHarrison.”
    â€œI just want to get to the library so I have enough time before it closes.” Mads pushes her chair back. She stacks Thomas’s empty plate onto hers, gathers the utensils.
    â€œI’m going, too,” Harrison says.
    Claire shakes her head. “No, buddy. You and me, spelling words.”
    â€œ C-O-N-C-E-R-N. Extra-credit word. I don’t need to practice. Mads said I’m the copilot.”
    â€œNot every where,” Claire says.
    â€œI take a really long time in the library,” Mads warns from the kitchen as she lines up the dishes in the dishwasher.
    â€œI’ll stay in the kids’ section,” Harrison says. “You won’t even have to watch me. I’ll make sure no one kidnaps me. Someone tries to snatch me—”
    â€œPut that down,” Claire says.
    Mads hears the Ha-hoo that is Harrison getting the bad guy with his samurai sword/butter knife.
    â€œYou can’t follow me around,” Mads calls.
    â€œI wooon’t!”
    It’s still light out. As they drive, Harrison announces every license plate from another state until Mads tells him to shut up. He rides with his wallet on his lap. He loves that wallet, but there’s not much in it, Mads knows. A couple of dollars, and his library card, and an old movie ticket to Space Fighters .
    Mads strolls around the kids’ section with Harrison for a while. “You don’t have to stay,” he says. “Who’s following who?”
    â€œAll right.” She’s already found what she came for anyway. “Be free, big man.”
    Mads collects a few other books. This time, they’re camouflage, the way guys in teen movies buy Red Vines and car magazines along with their condoms.
    â€œGod, Hare,” Mads says. “How can you even carry all those? Do you need help?”
    â€œI’m done. Let’s get outta here.” He sounds like a gangster after the holdup. The library always makes Mads feel like she’s just pulled off a big score, too.
    At home, Harrison lays his stash out around him, same as Mads used to when trick-or-treating was through. Thomas pats a spot on the couch and Mads sits with him and Claire as they watch some show. She’s being polite. She laughs when they laugh and grimaces when they groan, but she’s not paying a bit of attention to that TV. The book is calling to her, as books do. As stories do. As Billy Youngwolf Floyd’s story does, especially.
    She makes her escape as soon as she can. Now that she’s finally alone with the book in her room, she takes her time. Anticipation is a warm bath to soak in. She tucks her knees in just so. She reads the back of the book, then the front pages where the reviews are. Finally, the first lines. To my lawyer, Saxonberg: I can’t say that I enjoyed your last visit. It was obvious that you had too much on your mind to pay any attention to what I was trying to say. . . .
    Then: Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back . Mads loves how it’s written with a God voice, a voice with all-knowing wisdom. In this case, God is Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but still. These are E. L. Konigsburg’s words (and what is she like? The book says she lives in Port Chester, which sounds like a perfect town with perfect