Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen Page B

section but haven’t come back for a while. I can’t see any cameras mounted on the walls, scanning the room for tired gypsies, so I’m hoping I’m safe for the night.
    I’m going to forget the couch (even though it’s calling my name really LOUD). It’s in the wide-open middle of this room, and they’d see me for sure if they came through again. I thought about snagging two of the couch cushions and bringing them back here, but then I can’t pretend to have fallen asleep during business hours if I get caught. (That’s what I’m planning to say if they find me. You know, “Oh no! I can’t believe it! I’ve got to get home. My mother is going to be SO worried!”)
    Better safe and uncomfortable than comfy and caught.
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    The next day, 8:45 a.m.
    Close call! I was on my way to the bathroom, because my bladder could not make it to opening time to get relieved, when this lady came into the teen section with a cart of books. I held really, really still, and she was so busy rolling the cart around, putting books on the shelves, that she didn’t notice me. The minute she went around a stack, I beat it into the bathroom.
    So now I’m in a stall, killing time before the library opens. I hope there’s some librarian’s lavatory that they use instead of this one. One look at my shoes under the divider and they’ll know I don’t work here. Then they’ll bust me and find a yogurt container and cellophane and figure out that I just had their lunch for breakfast.
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    Same next day, 10:45 a.m.
    Back in my teen-section chair, comfy and fairly safe. I did get The Look from a librarian. At least I
think
she’s a librarian. She asked me, “Weren’t you here yesterday?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” I said with a smile. “I love the library.” Then I added, “My mom’s a lawyer, and I beg her to take me here whenever she has to do research. I love books, and getting to spend whole days at the library is just the best!”
    So okay, I laid it on pretty thick. But she smiled and nodded, and I think the bit about my mom being a lawyer was a stroke of genius, don’t you? Who wants to mess with a girl whose mother is a lawyer?
    Just call me the Genius Gypsy!
    Ha ha!
    But the truth is, this genius gypsy is starting to wonder what in the world she’s doing. I can’t stay in a library in the middle of a cement city. I don’t want to be a cement-city gypsy. I’m a
sea
gypsy. A genius gypsy of the sea, that’s me!
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    3:15 p.m.
    I finished that book about the girl and the dog. The dog saved her life about twenty times, then in the end he died. Stupid book. I buried it in the bathroom trash bin, which is where a book like that belongs.
    The story about escaping Alcatraz was a lot better. I like escaping books. I can relate.
    So I’ve started on the one with the ghost boy and so far it’s really good, but I’m distracted because I’m worrying about tonight. I’ve gotten The Look about ten times in the past hour, and I know the clock is ticking. I tried to wash up in the bathroom, but it’s not even close to the same thing as a shower. And no matter how polite I act, my clothes are filthy and I know I look awful.
    I guess it’s time for me to find that church.
    I wish I could get a library card. I’d really like to finish this book.
    I guess I’ll have to steal it.
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    8:00 p.m.
    When I realized my little vacation at the library was coming to an end, I started getting really stressed out. I didn’t want to go back outside! I started thinking about how long it takes to go
anywhere
in this city. How depressed and disoriented and hungry I’ve been living here. But then I got the brilliant idea that the library might have
maps,
and it does!