about such places in the old books in the attic. It seemed a strange way to live, without family, but he was just as glad not to have to pretend to love another set of parents.
Now Luke looked back at his family's porch, where Mother and Dad and Matthew and Mark were standing and already waving. Dad and Matthew looked gruff, and Mark merely looked serious-strange enough for him- but tears were streaming down Mother's face.
She'd cried, too, the night Luke had told his parents everything.
He'd started with his first visit to Jen's house, and Mother had immediately scolded, 'Oh, Luke, how could you? The danger… I know you're lonely, but honey, promise us, never again…'
'That's not all,' Luke said.
He told the rest of the story without looking at her, until he reached the end and his decision to get a fake I.D. Then the sound of her sobbing made it impossible to avoid looking. She was red-eyed, devastated.
'Luke, no. You can't,' she'd gasped. 'Don't you know how we'd miss you?'
'But, Mother, I don't want to go,' Luke said. 'It's just that… I have to. I can't spend the rest of my life hiding in the attic. What will happen when you and Dad can't take care of me anymore?'
'Matthew or Mark will,' she replied.
'But I don't want to be a burden on them. I want to do something with my life. Figure out ways to help other third kids. Make-' All the things he'd thought of sounded too childish to explain, in the face of Mother's sobbing. So he finished weakly, 'Make a difference in the world.'
'I'm not saying you can never do that,' she answered. 'But that's years away. We'll figure out some way to get a fake I.D. for you when you're grown up. Somehow.' She turned to Luke's father. 'Tell him, Harlan.'
Dad sighed heavily.
'The boy's right. He needs to go now, if he can.'
Luke could tell his father's words came out painfully, but they still stabbed at him. Maybe part of him had been secretly hoping his parents would forbid him to go, would lock him in the attic and keep him as their little boy forever.
'I've checked around some, quiet-like, to see if anyone's heard of a third child getting to live a normal life. Around here, they can't,' Dad said. 'Far as I can tell, he's not going to get another chance.'
Luke turned back to his mother, because it was too hard to look at Dad while he was saying that. But the pain twisting Mother's face was worse.
'Then I guess we don't have a choice,' she'd murmured.
That had been two days ago, and ever since then she'd called in sick to work and stayed home, spending every second with Luke. They'd played board games and cards, but she'd interrupted every move with, 'Do you remember…' or, 'I remember…'
The coos he'd made as a baby. His first steps. His delight in discovering dirt the spring he was two. The first time he'd hoed a straight row. The zucchini he'd grown as long as his arm. The bedtime stories and tucking- ins.
She was filling him up with memories, he knew, for the times when he'd have no one to talk to about his childhood. But it was hard to listen to. He wished they could just move their Monopoly pieces and pretend the time wasn't ticking away.
But all too soon this morning had come. Jen's dad had pulled up in his fancy car, and sprang out to shake hands with Luke's parents.
'Mr. Garner, Mrs. Garner, thank you very much for reporting this boy's arrival immediately. From what I hear, the Grants were worried sick.' He turned to Luke. 'Young man, what you did was irresponsible and reckless. The only smart thing you did was remember to take your I.D. card. I guess you must have heard that the Population Police shoot first and ask questions later.'
He clapped Luke on the back and slid his hand down to slip something into Luke's pocket. Luke reached down to touch the stiff edge of an I.D. card. His I.D. card.
'Do we have to start pretending already?' Luke's mother whispered, the tears beginning in her eyes.
Jen's dad was shaking his head sternly and patting his chest, as if looking for something in a hidden pocket.
'Bugged,' he mouthed.
When Luke's parents nodded to show they understood, he stopped patting and pulled out an official looking paper.
'Ah, here they are. Your travel papers. Your parents are sending you to Hendricks School for Boys. And if you don't shape up-' Jen's dad gave him a stern look that somehow also conveyed his sympathy.
'Would'-Mother cleared her throat-'Would it be all right if we gave him a good-bye hug? We've gotten kind of fond of him in… in the time he's been here.'
Jen's father nodded, and then both Luke's parents held him tight and released him.
'Be a good boy, now, you hear?' Mother said. Luke could tell she was trying to make it jokey, the way she might talk to some other mother's runaway son. But for the life of him, he couldn't come back with a joking response. He only nodded, blinking hard.
And then he stumbled to the car and tried to be Lee.
Jen's dad circled the car and slid in on the driver's side. He started the car and pulled out.
'You're just lucky you're getting such a highly paid chauffeur,' he said. 'If I weren't a personal friend of your father's cousin-'
Luke wasn't sure if there was a hidden message in the words, or if Jen's dad was just talking for the sake of the bug. He decided he couldn't analyze it yet. He peered back at his frantically waving family until they were out of sight. Soon the car was passing the other side of the barn and the field beyond, views Luke had never seen, though he'd lived his entire life within a hundred yards of them. In spite of the fear gnawing in his stomach and the anguish of missing his family-already-he felt a thrill of excitement There was so much to see. He'd have to tell Jen-
Jen. The grief he'd been avoiding for days welled over him again. But, 'I'm doing this for you, too, Jen,' he whispered, too softly for Jen's dad or the bug to hear over the car's hum. 'Someday when we're all free, all the third children, I'll tell everyone about you. They'll erect statues to you, and name holidays after you…' It wasn't much, but it made him feel better. A little.
Luke stared back at his family's farm as long as he could. He could see just the roof of Jen's house beyond the sparse line of trees. And then, in no time at all, it seemed, everything familiar disappeared over the horizon.
Lee Grant turned around to see what lay ahead.
Margaret Peterson Haddix
