Thirteenth Child Read Free Page B

land, but it had taken the settlers a while to study out exactly what they wanted to do with it. In the end, they sold some and put the money aside to pay for building the college on another part, and the rest they rented out to whoever wanted to pay. They’d had a good bit of luck when the railroad came through right by the land-grant site, so they had more money than anyone expected, and no shortage of students, either, once they got going. What they were short of was professors, especially professors who could teach more than just theoretical magic.
    That was why they wanted Papa. It seems he had a good reputation as a practical magician, plus they’d talked to several people who said there wasn’t a teacher like him for explaining so that you could really understand and remember. They’d been after him for a whole year, and none of us except Mama had known a thing about it.
    I started to get a funny feeling in my middle right about then. Neither Papa nor Mama had said anything about Uncle Earn or the policeman since that dreadful scene in the sitting room, but it wasn’t something you just forgot about. And Papa had never given anyone the smallest hint that he’d ever thought of heading West. I didn’t say anything at the meeting, but later, when Mama tucked me into bed, I asked her straight out.
    “Is Papa making everybody move because of me?”
    “What? Goodness, child, where did you get a notion like that?” Mama said.
    “I thought maybe it was to keep Uncle Earn from putting me in jail,” I explained.
    Mama took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. Then she looked at me with a serious expression. “Uncle Earn could not have you put in jail, whether we stay in Helvan Shores or not,” she said.
    “But—”
    Mama held up her hand, and I closed my mouth on my questions and listened real hard. “I can’t deny that moving will get you and Lan away from a type of attention and comment that your father and I think is very bad for you,” she said. “And I must admit that removing you from that poisonous atmosphere was one of the things we thought was a good reason to make the move.”
    “Then—”
    This time, Mama gave me a stern look. “Eff, you should wait until someone is quite finished speaking before you jump in with your comments.” She waited a moment, but I knew well enough not to open my mouth again. Once she was satisfied that I wasn’t going to interrupt, she went on, “But if you and Lan had been the only reasons we had for moving—if your father hadn’t been pleased and excited by the thought of trying out his ideas for teaching practical magic at a brand-new school that has no traditions to overturn, and if he hadn’t liked the notion of setting his stamp on an institution that will be teaching young magicians for the next hundred years and more—then we wouldn’t be going. Not even for you.” She smiled. “So you should be very glad that your father does feel that way shouldn’t you?”
    Well, when she put it like that, I could see that wild horses couldn’t have kept Papa in Helvan Shores when there was something like this waiting. Only—“If Papa wanted to go West so much, how come it took him a whole year to make up his mind?” I asked.
    “Because it’s a hard thing to leave a place where you’ve lived most of your life, where your brothers and sisters and parents still live, where some of your children will stay behind,” Mama said. “It’s a hard thing to risk what you know and are sure of, just for the possibility of something better. Even when it’s a pretty strong possibility, and something that’s a whole lot better.”
    “I don’t understand,” I said.
    Mama bent and kissed my forehead. “You don’t understand now, but if you remember what I said, you’ll understand someday.”
    She was right. I didn’t understand then, but I do now.

CHAPTER 3
    T HE NEXT MONTH AND A HALF WAS A BUSY TIME. EVERYTHING IN THE house had to be cleaned and wrapped up