Looking for X by Deborah Ellis Page B

back so that we could have a fight, but if she heard me, she stayed away.
    Picking up my world atlas, I plotted a course across Russia — a rough, difficult, dangerous trip that I would send Tammy on. One way.
    Once Mom was soundly packed off to Siberia, I turned out the light and settled down into bed, feeling very pleased with myself.
    Minutes later, I got down from my bunk, went into the kitchen and kissed Mom goodnight. Shehugged me tightly and kissed me, too. Then I went back to bed.
    It wouldn’t be right to go to sleep without a goodnight kiss from Mom. I’m not even sure the sun would rise the next morning.
    After that, I couldn’t leave her in Siberia. I brought her back, so that she’d be here when I woke up.

CHAPTER TEN
DANGER IN THE DARK
    Of course, I did go to Juba’s after my job at the Trojan Horse. I tried complaining to her about Tammy, but she wouldn’t let me.
    Juba tried her best to make me feel better. She took me to Riverdale Farm, even though she says her legs aren’t what they used to be. We played hours of cribbage, drank tea from her special china cups, and she let me stay up, watching television, far later than Tammy would have allowed me to. Juba made a bed for me on her living-room couch so I could watch TV in bed, “just like a rich lady.”
    It was fun, but I kept thinking of Mom and the boys. I had a hard time imagining what sort of place the group home was.
    Mom had said it was like a boarding school, but the only boarding schools I knew about were in British school stories. I couldn’t picture the boys inone of those places, although they would look cute in school uniforms.
    Then I thought they were going to a work house, like in
Oliver Twist
, but Mom wouldn’t put them in a place like that.
    I was eager for them to get back, but if I showed any interest in the place, Mom might think I was okay with her plan.
    I wasn’t okay with it.
    Mom and the boys returned around eight o’clock Sunday night, just before Juba and I got back to our apartment.
    The social worker with the slime dripping from her fangs was just leaving as we arrived.
    â€œHello, Khyber,” she said. She’d obviously been coached by Mom. “How are you?”
    I started to walk past her.
    â€œKhyber,” Mom said in her warning voice.
    â€œFine, thank you,” I mumbled. I wasn’t fine, but that was none of her business.
    â€œI’ll see you soon,” she said to Mom, then left. I took the boys into the living room. We played with their button collection.
    â€œHow did it go?” Mom asked Juba. She meant, “Did my daughter behave herself?”
    I didn’t have to listen to the answer. Juba doesn’t believe in double punishment. If I had acted like jerk, Juba would have dealt with meherself, and been done with it.
    When Mom kissed me goodnight, she didn’t say anything about her weekend with the boys, and I didn’t ask her.
    The next day was Monday. My suspension was over. I went back to school.
    I timed my walk so I’d arrive at school just before the bell rang. That way I wouldn’t have to talk to anybody in the school yard.
    Miss Melon practically licked her lips with delight when I walked into class. She kept me at the front with her during the singing of “O, Canada.”
    When that was over, the class sat down. Most were tittering and smirking. A few looked like they felt sorry for me. They were the ones who had their own difficulties with Tiffany.
    Tiffany had been told I’d have to apologize, and she, of course, had spread that around.
    â€œTiffany, will you come up here, please,” Miss Melon said. “Khyber has something she’d like to say to you.”
    Tiffany’s nose was so high in the air it almost scraped the paint off the ceiling.
    â€œKeep it simple and keep it dignified,” Tammy had told me. She had practiced it with me, pretending to be Tiffany. “Think of it