William S. and the Great Escape

William S. and the Great Escape Read Free Page A

Book: William S. and the Great Escape Read Free
Author: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
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hunk of hair was hiding her face. “Crying won’t do any good,” he said.
    But of course it did. After a few minutes of listening to her sobs and watching her skinny little shouldersshaking and quivering, he sighed and said, “Okay, okay. I’ll think about it.” And he meant it, even though it didn’t take much thought to figure out that one reason, even the main reason, that Jancy wanted him to run away too was because she knew about—
    â€œOh thank you, thank you, William.” Jancy interrupted his suspicious musings. And then her special talent for mind reading—at least where William was concerned— kicked in. “And it’s not either because of your money,” she said. “All that money in your running-away piggy bank.”
    William’s snort was even louder. “My Getaway Fund is
not
in a piggy bank,” he said.
    â€œWell, whatever you keep it in,” Jancy said quickly. “It’s not because of your money. It’s because you don’t belong here either. You’re not like the rest of them. You’re not nearly as mean, and ever so much smarter and …”
    William didn’t have to listen to know the rest of what Jancy had to say. He’d heard her say it before when she wanted to get something out of him. But he also felt pretty sure that she said it because she knew it was true—at least the part about being smarter. But he still had a strong suspicion that his running-away money had a lot to do with it.
    He shrugged. “Well, okay then, maybe I’m in. So what are your plans? I mean like
when
—and
how
?”
    â€œWhen?” Jancy’s smile, still tear wet, was wide andbeaming. “Well, as soon as ever I can. Tomorrow or else the next day, for sure.” She nodded again, so hard her curly mop bounced up and down. “Not a minute later.”
    â€œOokaaay,” William drawled the word out slowly. “But then comes
how
. How are you going to do it?”
    â€œWell,” Jancy’s big eyes rolled thoughtfully. “I guess I’ll just …” Her voice trailed off to a whisper and then came slowly back. “Well, I’ll just pack up all their clothes”—long pause—“and something to eat on the way, and then …”
    â€œYeah,” William prompted. “And then?”
    Jancy’s bony little face widened into a wobbly smile. “And then you’ll decide what to do. You will, won’t you, William?”
    William shoved to the back of his mind a lot of troublesome unanswered questions concerning such things as
how
and
when
, and the even more serious one about what Aunt Fiona’s reaction might be to their unannounced arrival. He sneezed again, wiped his nose on his sleeve, sighed, and said, “Yeah. Well, sort of looks like I’ll have to.”

CHAPTER 3
    B ack in the crumbling remains of what had once been a large farmhouse, the plumbing seemed to be working again, so what was left of Sweetie Pie must have moved on into the septic tank. So things were back to normal. Or, if not what most people would think of as normal, at least to “as usual.” There was the “as usual” fistfight between two of the big guys on the back porch, the “as usual” screams from Gertie for Babe and Jancy to come help in the kitchen. And some of the usual roars demanding peace and quiet from Big Ed Baggett. Roars that made Little Ed stop yelling at Rudy or whichever other brother he was beating on, without cutting down much on how many punches he was throwing. Twenty-year-old Little Ed was Big Ed’s first kid, and people went on calling him Little Ed, even after he got to be as big as a horse.
    Also, as usual, Jancy was busy scooting around trying to get her hands on something she could feed Trixie and Buddy. As for William, he was on the floor behind theraggedy remains of what had once been a leather couch, eating a

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