The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Miss Smith saw a louse in my hair that had not been there before the crowded
train ride, not that when I got it mattered to her. In a shrill voice she insisted
we take baths, immediately, that minute. She said, staring at my foot, “Can
you get up the stairs? What happened to you?”
“Got run over by a brewer’s cart,” I said. Miss Smith flinched. I went up
the stairs on my bottom, one at a time. Miss Smith took us into a white room
with a big bath, poured hot water straight from a tap, which was fascinating,
and gave us our privacy, whatever that meant. There was soap and thick
towels. I took a little cloth and rubbed soap into it, and rubbed my face and
neck. The cloth came away gray. I rubbed soap into Jamie’s hair, and my own,
then turned the tap back on to rinse it out. It was wonderful, the bath.
Afterward the dirty water ran out a hole in the bottom of the tub instead of
having to be scooped out like at home. Jamie, clean, grinned from inside a
white towel. I wrapped a towel around myself and let my hair drip onto my
shoulders. “Posh, this place,” Jamie said.
I nodded. It was a fine place. I didn’t care if Miss Smith was awful. We
were used to that with Mam.
Miss Smith knocked on the door and asked us where our things were. I
didn’t know what she meant. We’d finished the food I’d brought, and I’d left
the empty paper bag on the train.
“Your other clothes,” she said. “You can’t possibly put what you were
wearing back on.”
The other kids on the train had had parcels. Not us. I said, “We’re going to
have to, that’s all we’ve got.”
She opened the door and looked me up and down. I stuck my right foot
behind my left, but it was too late. “Brewer’s cart nothing,” she said crossly,
opening the door wider. “You’ve got a clubfoot. And you’re bleeding all over
the floor.” She swung her hand toward me.
I ducked.
She froze. “I wasn’t going to hit you,” she said. “I was going to help you.”
Sure. Because she was so happy to have me bleeding on her floor.
She knelt and grabbed my bad foot. I tried to pull it away, but she held