Miracle on 49th Street Read Free Page A

your mom she didn’t have to send you if she wanted to let me know she was back. She could’ve come herself.”
    Molly said, “No.”
    â€œSame old stubborn Jen. And she used to say I was the one who’d never change.”
    â€œMy mom died,” Molly said. “Right before school started.”
    She watched as Josh Cameron started to fall backward, before he caught himself at the last second. “No,” he said. “Oh, God, no.”
    Then he said, “How?”
    â€œIt was cancer,” Molly said. “They found out about it too late, that’s what the doctors back in London told her. Then she came home, and the doctors here told her the exact same thing.”
    He took her hands. “I am so sorry, kid. Thank you for coming out here to tell me, or I never would’ve known. I mean, I didn’t even know she got married over there.”
    Molly said, “She didn’t, actually.”
    â€œOh,” he said. He ran a hand through his hair, like he was stumped, and finally said, “Well, okay then.”
    â€œIt’s cool,” she said.
    â€œWell, at least I understand why you didn’t want some silly old signed ball. What you had to tell me was important.”
    â€œThat wasn’t it,” Molly said. “At least not all of it.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    Molly couldn’t help it, she found herself smiling now, hearing her mom’s voice inside her head like she was right there with them.
    Which maybe she was.
    The idea that she was being one of the things that kept Molly going.
    â€œMom said there was a lot you didn’t understand.”
    â€œYeah,” he said. “She did.”
    He looked past Molly, like he was looking to some faraway place in the distance, and said, “She used to say that a lot, as a matter of fact.”
    â€œSee, I wasn’t supposed to come…she kept saying it was a truly bad idea…” The words were spilling out of her now. “And if you know my mom—what am I saying? You did know her…you know what it was like when she said something was truly good or truly bad…”
    â€œMolly,” he said, “ what was this truly bad idea?”
    â€œMe telling you that you’re my dad.”

CHAPTER 2
    I n the distance, Molly noticed some of the other Celtics players coming out of the Sports Authority Training Center.
    â€œNo,” Josh Cameron finally said to her.
    He straightened up now, grunting a little as he did, as if doing that made his knees hurt.
    â€œExcuse me?” she said, acting as if she hadn’t heard him correctly, even though it was just one word in the air between them.
    No.
    â€œI don’t believe you,” he said.
    â€œIt’s true!” Molly said, louder than she meant. “You have to believe me.”
    As soon as she heard the last part come out of her mouth, she knew she sounded as if she were six years old instead of twelve.
    She put her hand on the back pocket of her jeans, where she had the letter her mom had written to her, one of the letters she had left for Molly to read after she was gone. Jen Parker, who had really wanted to be a writer. Who said that she was always better at writing her thoughts down than saying them out loud.
    Molly had planned on showing him the letter, but now she wondered what the point was.
    This wasn’t going anything like she’d planned.
    â€œKeep your voice down,” Josh said, looking past her to where some of his teammates, one of them the big Chinese rookie, Ming Cho, were getting into their own Navigator-type cars.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Molly said.
    Then thought to herself, You’re sorry? You tell him what you just told him and he basically calls you a liar and then tells you to shut up, like he’s a teacher in class, and you’re the one who’s supposed to apologize?
    Who are you, Barbie?
    Forget sounding six. She sounded like the