The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

“How much farther?” I asked him.
“Three blocks,” he said. He added, “Blocks is the buildings in between the
streets. We’ve got to cross three more streets.”
I measured the distance with my eyes. Three streets. Might as well have
been three miles. Three hundred miles. “Suppose I’ll crawl a bit,” I said.
But crawling on the street was a lot harder than crawling in our flat. My
knees were calloused, of course, but the stones hurt, and the trash and mud
weren’t pleasant either. After a block I took Jamie’s hand and hauled myself
upright.
“How come you don’t walk, when you can?” Jamie asked.
“It’s new,” I said. “I learned it this summer, while you were out.”
He nodded. “I won’t tell,” he said.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. Already the world seemed huge to me. If I looked
up at the tops of the buildings I felt dizzy. “We’re going to the country.
Nobody minds if I walk there.” Of course that was a lie. I didn’t know
anything about where we were going. I didn’t really even know what the
word country meant. But Jamie gripped my hand tighter, and smiled.
The school was a brick building with an empty yard surrounded by a metal
fence. We made it inside and I collapsed. We ate bread dipped in sugar. It was
good.
“Did you take Mam’s sugar?” Jamie asked, wide-eyed.
I nodded. “All of it,” I said, and we laughed out loud.
The air was chilly now that we weren’t moving, and the ground felt damp.
The roar of pain in my ankle subsided into a deep throbbing ache. I looked up
at all the unfamiliar buildings, the scrolls and fancy brickwork, the shingles,
the window frames, the birds. I didn’t notice the woman walking across the
yard until Jamie poked me.
She smiled at us. “You’re here early,” she said.
One of the teachers, I supposed. I nodded and gave her a big smile in
return. “Our dad dropped us off, before he had to go to work,” I said. “He said
you’d take good care of us.”
The woman nodded. “And so I will,” she said. “Would you like some tea?”
When we got up, of course she noticed my limp. Limp, nothing, I was
staggering, lucky to have Jamie to catch me. “You poor thing,” she said.