A woman in a blue bathrobe was sitting on acrumbling stone wall. She was sobbing into herhandkerchief.
Two boys with dark hair sat next to the woman.
The boys wore dusty, torn pajamas. They were bothbarefoot. The younger one was watching the olderboy write on a rectangular piece of wood with achunk of coal.
Annie pulled Jack over to the family.
"Hi, I'm Annie," she said.
The two boys looked up.
"I'm Peter," said the youngest. "He's my brother,Andrew. And she's our aunt Mary." He pointed to hisbrother, then to the woman, as he spoke.
Aunt Mary tried to smile through her tears.
"Forgive me," she said. "I'm a bit shaken up""We are, too," said Annie sympathetically.
"The house caught fire," Peter said. "We escaped,"said Andrew. "But we lost most of our things."'We've lost our shoes," said Peter. Jack and Annielooked at the boys' bare feet. They were cut andbleeding.
"Hey, my boots are just like boys' boots," Anniesaid. "One of you can wear them.""Take mine, too," said Jack. He and Annie startedunlacing their boots.
"We can't just take your boots," said Andrew.
"Then we'll lend them to you," said Jack.
He and Annie handed their boots to the two boys.
"Thank you, thank you," said Aunt Mary. Shestarted crying again.
The two boys put their new boots on. Then Peterwhispered something to Andrew.
Andrew held out the piece of wood to Jack andAnnie.
"Here's something we can lend you," he said.
Jack and Annie read a poem the brothers hadwritten on the piece of wood:
There is not waterAnd still less soapWe have no cityButs lots of hope"Thanks," said Annie.
"It's a great gift," said Jack. "We needed some hope.""It's the only thing we can lend you," said Andrew.
"Lend?" said Annie. She looked at Jack. "Oh, wow.
They just gave us the special writing--something tolend!"Jack smiled. They could go home now.
"You should go to Golden Gate Park-- that's what areporter told us," he said to the boys and their aunt.
"Is that where you're going?" asked Aunt Mary. Shehad stopped crying at last and looked stronger.
"We have to go home to our parents," said Annie.
"Will you be safe?" asked the aunt.
"Yes. Once we're home, we'll be safe," said Jack.
"Thanks for lending us your boots!" said Peter.
"You're good friends!""You're good friends!" said Annie.
"You've helped us more than you know," said Jack.
"Be careful," said Aunt Mary.
"We will!" said Jack and Annie.
They waved as their new friends headed off to thepark.
Jack sighed.
"Ready?" he said.
"Yeah," said Annie. "I guess we just go back theway we came."Jack looked down the street. Smoke billowed upfrom the bottom of the hill.
"That might not be as easy as it sounds," he said. |