Chapter 1
Aunt Mary wasn't there to meet us when we got off the airport bus at the hotel.
"Where is she, Andrew?" Abby asked, clutching her teddy bear, trying to peer through the dark and the rain."And you and Mrs. Williams told me it didn't rain in California."
She gave a forlom hiccup and I put my arm around her and said quickly, "Don't cry, Aunt Mary will come any minute.It's ok Abby." I could feel her sharp little shoulder bones through her wet T-shirt and I edged her under the overhang of the hotel where the airport bus had left us off.
"You go inside the lobby, Abby.I'll wait here."Abby cringed against me."aI don't want to go anywhere.I want to stay with you." I heard the edge of panic in her voice and I squeezed her shoulder again.It must be hard to be five years old, to have no mom, to be in a strange place with only you not-very-big thirteen-year-old brother to keep the scariest away.I was having a problem keeping the scaries away myself.Where was Aunt Mary?
"Well try to find your jacket and put it on, Ab," I said."No sense of getting pneumonia."
She couldn't open the knot in the strings on her duffel bag so I gave her Mom's portfolio to hold and did it for her.Her red jacket was on the very bottom.I tried to shake out the wrinkles."Do you think Aunt Mary's forgotten we're coming, Andrew?"Her eyes were big and scared.
"No way!" I pulled the hood over her straight black hair."She'll be here any minute."
A gray Cadillac drove in and stopped and the bell-man came pushing through the hotel doors to help the driver with his luggage.
"Don't you kids want to come out of the rain?" the bell-man asked.
"We're waiting for our aunt to pick us up."He nodded."Well if she doesn't get here real soon, why don't you come on inside."
"Ok thanks." I wiped a smear of wet off the precious portfolio. What if it wasn't waterproof anymore? What if inside it Abby's future and mine were washing away? I pulled a sweatshirt from my bag and wrapped it around the worn plast
