Diamond Willow (13 page)

     for a long time,

     nothing happened.

 

16

The garage door went up.

The light came on.

     Somewhere outside, a car door opened and closed.

I heard someone

     walk through the garage

     and open the door to the house.

 

A woman's voice:
What's this car doing here?

The man:
How many times do I have to tell you—

             
stay out of my business.

The woman:
You keep a stolen car in our garage,

             
it's my business.

 

The light went off.

The garage door closed.

The other door slammed.

I heard shouting inside the house.

I couldn't hear words,

       but the man's voice was loud

          and mean.

 

17

I was shaking.

     Trying hard not to cry.

How could I sleep

     in the crowded boat?

I was thirsty.

Hungry.

I had to pee.

 

18

The light came on. The door from the house flew open.

     The woman:
This is the car they're searching for!

         
What happened

         
to Wren Abbott?

 

     A voice on TV:
Once again,

         
the child is eight years old.

         
Last seen wearing a pink dress,

         
with matching beads in her hair.

         
She may be holding a doll

         
she calls Kamara.

         
If you have any information

             
please call—

 

19

The TV cut off.

The man:
Nothing to do with me!

     
You think I'm some kind of pervert,

     
taking a little kid?

 

(What's a pervert?)

 

The woman:
Of course not. But, West,

     
did you check the backseat

     
when you got in the car?

 

(The man's name is West.)

 

West:
No! There wasn't time!

     
None of this worked like we planned, Stacey.

     
No one was going to get shot.

 

(
Who
got shot?)

(The woman is Stacey.)

 

I heard the car doors—opening, closing.

 

Stacey:
She's not in the car.

     
Where is she?

 

West:
Maybe she got out when I stopped

     
in the parking lot—I took a few minutes

     
to take the plate off another car

     
and put it on this one.

 

(That time he stopped—could I have jumped out?)

 

Stacey:
If she was lost in a parking lot,

     
someone would have found her by now.

     
They've been searching for more than six hours!

 

West:
They can keep searching.

     
Tomorrow, we paint the car.

     
We ditch it.

     
Nothing to pin on me.

 

Stacey:
West—this girl is Darra's age!

     
We can call from a pay phone—anonymously—

     
tell them Wren Abbott is not in the car they're searching for.

     
At least we know that much!

 

(The girl is Darra.)

 

West:
We know NOTHING. You hear me?

Stacey:
Let go of me!

 

I'd never heard

     the sound of one person hitting another,

         but I knew

         that was what happened.

 

Stacey stopped talking.

     Started crying.

 

The door slammed again.

     More yelling. Crashing sounds.

     Silence.

 

20

The door opened.

     Darra's voice:

         
Stay out here tonight.

         
He won't hurt you if you stay out of his way.

         
I bet you're hungry. Here's some food and water.

 

The door closed.

 

     (Who was she talking to?

     Does she know I'm here?)

 

Someone (Darra?) was in the garage.

     Moving around …

     coming closer …

         Right in the boat with me!

         I yelped! I couldn't help it.

     
Yeeooowww.

A cat!

     Scratching my face. Barely missing my eye.

         We looked at each other.

 

     Carefully, I reached out to pet it.

         After a while, we both calmed down.

             It curled up in my arms and purred.

Also by
Helen Frost

Keesha's House

Spinning Through the Universe

The Braid

Crossing Stones

Hidden

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helen Frost
is the author of several books for young people, including
Hidden
,
Diamond Willow
,
Crossing Stones
,
The Braid
, and
Keesha's House
, selected an Honor Book for the Michael L. Printz Award. Helen Frost was born in 1949 in South Dakota, the fifth of ten children. She recalls the summer her family moved from South Dakota to Oregon, traveling in a big trailer and camping in places like the Badlands and Yellowstone. Her father told the family stories before they went to sleep, and Helen would dream about their travels, her family, and their old house. “That's how I became a writer,” she says. “I didn't know it at the time, but all those things were accumulating somewhere inside me.” As a child, she loved to travel, think, swim, sing, learn, canoe, write, argue, sew, play the piano, play softball, play with dolls, daydream, read, go fishing, and climb trees. Now, when she sits down to write, her own experiences become the details of her stories. Helen has lived in South Dakota, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Scotland, Colorado, Alaska, California, and Indiana. She currently lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her family. You can sign up for email updates
here
.

 

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CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Author's Note

Begin Reading

Acknowledgments

A Conversation with Helen Frost

Discussion Questions

Writing Ideas

Things You Might Like

Hidden
Teaser

Also by Helen Frost

About the Author

Copyright

An Imprint of Macmillan

DIAMOND WILLOW. Copyright © 2008 by Helen Frost. All rights reserved. For information, address Square Fish, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Square Fish and the Square Fish logo are trademarks of Macmillan and are used by Farrar Straus Giroux under license from Macmillan.

Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
.

Originally published in the United States by Frances Foster Books, an imprint of

Farrar Straus Giroux

First Square Fish Edition: May 2011

Square Fish logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

mackids.com

eISBN 9781466896345

First eBook edition: July 2016