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"Let’s get you to the Phares here," Mr Appleton said as he slumped to the floor

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

BREAKFAST WITH OUTSIDERS

My first iuy We had a lot of theood posture of the army men, and also the haircut His haircut was the way arrow out They didn’t quite want the buzz--maybe they felt they didn’t deserve to wear a buzz any over either

Mr Appleton seemed to tolerate the little kids, but I didn’t have the sense he liked theuy, you could see that straightaway He looked like he was in heaven, surrounded by all the little kids But it was the way he handled Ulysses that won athered around Robbie and Luna on the ground Robbie was learning the na the for it to be Ulysses’s turn to introduce himself

And Ulysses said, "Soy Ulysses," and Robbie just reached out and grabbed hied him Spanish words poured out of the two of the, too, and just holding hi while the other ar their two faces with her tongue

Ulysses, apparently, had had a lot to say this whole time And only hadn’t said much because none of us could understand hih school I will never understand

Niko returned with the supplies He knelt down in front of Mr Appleton and cut a slit on the cuff of his new chinos Niko began splitting the Near the ankle there was a horrible gash I had never seen anything like it

"Josie, ested feebly

The wound looked like the guts of a fish, if thatout of it--green-and-yellow oozing flesh It wasn’t bleeding, but you could see lines of red running under the skin, going up the leg, following the course of his veins The lines were red and also a bruised kind of green in places

The blood was co from a different wound This one above the knee It looked like a bite, kind of There was a chunk of flesh

"What happened to you?" Chloe demanded

"Razor wire," Mr Appleton said

Niko poured hydrogen peroxide on the ankle wound and it hissed Out loud

"Coive Niko some space to work Everyone come help me in the Kitchen"

There were protests and as, but the stink coash was pretty ripe and eventually ot the little kids rounded up and led them to the kitchen

They were like a bunch of crickets, hopping and ju all around, so excited by the arrival of GROWN-UPS and a DOG!

"Batiste," I said, calling hi special"

"Two breakfasts?" he asked

"Well, the first one was sundaes, for God’s sake"

"Don’t-take-the-Lord’s-name-in-vain," he said quickly Then "Yes! We’ll , but for breakfast"

Batiste ran ahead to the Food aisles Chloe ith hi, somewhat

I told Alex and Sahalia to throay all the sundae stuff

I got the other little kids busybanana nut muffins under Josie’s supervision while Batiste and I cranked in the Kitchen

In just under forty-five etable quiches, hash browns, a kind of a fruit salad Batiste told es of bacon

Niko led theMr Appleton was now equipped with crutches, which I hadn’t knoe even had

"Ay Dios!" Robbie exclaimed "Look at all of this food!"

"And we est!" shouted Chloe

The little kids were a-boppin’ again, all yelling at the sauys!" Josie said

But they didn’t listen

"Quiet! QUIET!" Mr Appleton shouted

The kids shut up immediately

The silence was tense

"I’m sorry," Mr Appleton said "It’s just … we’re … I’m a little shell-shocked It was very chaotic Outside And I’m not used to so much … noise"

"We understand," said Josie "You’ve been through a lot"

"Please sit down and I’ll get you two some food," I said