Patricia Reilly Giff

He was laughing again. What was it about Bird that made him do that?

"With just the sweep of a pen, Thomas, you can change the world, all of it."

But that was a realworld, and he didn't have to put it down on paper. He ripped the page out of the book, tore it into shreds, and threw them behind the tree, where they settled into the weeds.

What had it been like the first time Da tried to read the same page? She could almost see his finger under each word, the whisper of his voice as he sounded out the words to himself. How had he ever done that? It seemed impossible.

And the boy was right in back of her, his neck thin as a pencil. "My name is Thomas," he said. "Thomas Neary."

She didn't answer.

"The horse's name is Alfred, in case you want to know." He screwed up his face. "Or maybe Fernando."

Writing wasn't easy for her. It wasn't like arithmetic, not like a column of numbers to be added or subtracted from the top of the blackboard to the bottom, neat and organized; or science, figuring out the why of things.

"Sometimes in life you have to do the hardest things to get somewhere—to change your life."

She didn't want to touch the baby. Didn't want to know if she was dead. But still she reached down, her arms underneath that small body, and pulled it up against her. The body was burning with fever.

But alive. Alive!

He remembered everything. Maybe that was why he was such a great writer. What he remembered he'd put on paper, but it came out different, more interesting, more exciting than she'd ever been able to imagine.

"I don't think he's touched a washcloth to his face since the day he was born."

How many times had she seen Annie sew in a sleeve, easing both sides so that they wouldn't pucker, taking a stitch, and smoothing out the fabric again? And now Mama was doing the same thing to someone's head. Someone's skin.

"A new start," Pop said as they stopped at the corner and waited to cross over to where te horse and cart waited for them. "A new apartment, Thomas. A new life."

A new world to write about.