Promise by Judy Young Page B

Kaden.
    â€œHe is a thief and a tricky one, too.” Kaden laughed. “You just have to be trickier.” Kaden pulled a straw from one of the empty juice boxes, waved it around to catch the bird’s attention, and tossed it out the window. Kubla followed the straw and Kaden quickly opened the chest.
    â€œAnd you gotta be quick,” he said, cramming a whole cookie in his mouth.
    Yo-Yo followed Kaden’s example and while watching Kubla play fetch, the two boys finished off Emmett’s cookies.
    â€œHave you ever been in an airplane?” Kaden asked.
    â€œYeah. Why?”
    â€œI guess it looks like this, doesn’t it?”
    â€œOnly when you first take off. Soon the trees are just like a lumpy green blanket. Cars and trucks look like little toys and you can’t see people at all. Not like this. From up here, people would look small but you could still see them pretty good, even without binoculars.”
    Kaden agreed. From here he was close enough to recognize someone walking up from the barricade. Unless you’re trying to recognize someone from a memory formed eight years ago when you were only three , Kaden thought. He closed his eyes and tried to recall just a glimpse or a shadow from the past. But all he could picture was a stranger in jeans, work boots, a gray T-shirt, and a cowboy hat.
    â€œThere’s one more secret,” Kaden said hesitantly. “Something nobody in town knows yet. Just Gram, Emmett, and me.” And he told Yo-Yo about the letter, the man with the white pickup truck, and his worries about the backpack.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    TRUMPETS

    As usual, Doris pulled into Emmett’s drive in the morning. Unlike usual, Emmett was not in the kitchen. Instead, as Doris and Kaden stepped off the bus, he stuck his head out of the shop door at the end of the driveway.
    â€œThere are some blueberry muffins keeping warm in the oven,” he called out. “And I already made coffee. Make yourselves at home.”
    Kaden told Doris about the fishing trip while they ate but Emmett never came in the house.
    â€œI wonder what he’s doing out there,” Doris said. “I thought for sure he’d be coming in to join us.” She looked at her watch. “We need to get going.”
    â€œI’ll go see what he’s up to. I have to get something anyway,” Kaden said. “I’ll meet you at the bus.”
    When Kaden rushed out to the shop he was surprised the shop door was locked. Emmett never locked his doors. Kaden could hear the table saw going and he pounded on the door until he heard the saw stop. Emmett stuck his head out an open window.
    â€œI’m working on the school sign,” he said. “You can’t come in. Nobody gets to see it until it’s up.”
    â€œI need my trumpet,” Kaden said.
    â€œOh yeah. Wait right there.” A few seconds later the door opened again, just wide enough for Emmett to hand Kaden the black case.

    Kaden sat alone in the middle of Ms. Ales’s classroom, his backpack on his desk, the black trumpet case beside his chair. It wasn’t long before Yo-Yo came in.
    â€œSweet! You’re going to get to be in band after all,” Yo-Yo said, nodding at the black case.
    â€œYeah, I forgot to tell you. Emmett got it for me. Gram doesn’t know anything about it, so don’t say a word to her.”
    Yo-Yo just smiled and slapped his hand over his mouth.
    First bell rang and students started entering the room. Elana noticed the trumpet case right away.
    â€œHow did you get that already?” she asked. “I didn’t think anyone got their instruments until band today.”
    â€œI didn’t order it through Mrs. Strokowski,” Kaden told Elana. “I got it in Chapston City.”
    â€œHe probably burglarized the music store,” Luke sneered.
    Elana ignored Luke’s comment. “I’m going to play the clarinet. What are you playing,