Page 41 (1/1)

The Diviners Libba Bray 12510K 2023-08-31

"What took you so long?" Will asked when Evie ca into the room He and Jericho had asse into Will’s attaché case

"I walked to Jerusaleinal," Evie snapped "Did you know there’s a door in the floor?"

"Yes," Will answered

"Well, where does it go?" Evie asked with irritation

"There are stairs to a secret cellar and a tunnel This was a stop on the Underground Railroad Sojourner Truth herself hid former slaves below," Will explained He took the Bible and put it in his case "It’s probably only home to rats and dust now Shall we?"

Evie and Jericho waited on the long, wide front steps as Uncle Will locked the low Out of the corner of her eye, Evie caught sight of soaze back

"What is it?" Jericho asked He followed Evie’s gaze into the park

"I thought I saw so the park She saw nothing there now "Iday," Jericho said gently "I wouldn’t be surprised if your eyes played tricks on you"

"I suppose you’re right," Evie said, but she had the nagging feeling she’d seen Saue iainst a tree in that overconfident posture that annoyed her so But Jericho was right--there was no one there now, only the lamppost and the park

Saed slope of rock until they were gone She’d seen hih What was it about that girl that made hi to sweet-talk her into giving him back his jacket, but then he’d seen the detective and decided to return when the ht need

Sam had bided his time in the hustle and bustle of Ti uncertainly on the corner of Broadway and Forty-third Street The streets had been croith people heading hoood time to ply their trade, when folks were distracted But Sa extra on his side: an eerie ability topeople unnoticed It wasn’t that he was invisible; hts elsewhere so that their eyes siister him He had only to think, Don’t seewith catlike speed In thoseas he extricated a wallet from a pocket, snatched a purse from a restaurant table, or stole bread from a store shelf He didn’t knohy it worked, or how--only that it did It was how he had survived on his own for the past two years

He had a clear --ten or eleven, maybe; it was sometime after his ed to Sarandfather Sam had been told not to touch it, and it was precisely that edict thatOne day he’d sneaked it out of his father’s drawer and sled the treasure in his coat to show the other boys in the schoolyard in the hope that they would understand its value and stop teasing him for his accent, his clothes, his smallness Instead, they’d ridiculed him "This? It’s just a cheap watch," the leader said, and he so ho, he wished for a place to hide When his father careat that he felt like a s that he could siame of hide-and-seek and the other person wouldn’t see hi closer, heard hiht "Don’t see me," he whispered over and over, like a prayer And then, oddly, his father looked right at hihost

Sae his mother had said to hi the scrapes he’d gotten after the school bullies chased him home and pushed hiifts they do not" "What do youas she pressed a damp cloth to his scraped chin "In time, you will see" In time, he did see, but he wondered if that hat she had meant after all and, if so, how she could have known