Army vehicles, some of them looking like they are on their last leg, approach at a snail's pace. My first instinct is to get in the ice cream truck and back track, but Steven points out the obvious.
"They're ours," he says. "See the flags. And there's our old dump truck."
I don't know how many left, but I count six vehicles coming back our way, most looking like they are on their last leg. Soldiers are hanging onto the sides of the jeeps and piled in the back of the trucks. I see no civilians. Where is my dad? And Tommy and Leia and Marla and the rest of the Resistance. I feel a chill like when people say someone has walked over your grave. I shiver.
"Where's my friends," asks Cindy?
I am frozen in place, but Steven runs out to meet them.Step, hop, run - step, hop, run - in as fast a fashion as a broken-leg man go go. Cindy and I follow walking, postponing what we don't want to hear. Baby Christopher senses our mood and starts to whimper and squirm in Cindy's arms.
I see Steven talking to the driver of the first vehicle. He looks back at me, shakes his head, and drops slowly to his knees with one hand sliding down the side of the vehicle, as if he is kneeling to pray.
Cindy will have none of it. "No," she says as she turns to go back. I want to go back too because everyone knows, if you ignore pain, it goes away. If you don't hear bad news, it didn't happen.
My friend, my best friend in the whole world, kneels now with his hands in prayer mode, and I can hear his sobs from here. I walk a little faster to the bad news.
When I get there, Steven tells me all I need to know with one word.
YOU ARE READING
Eliot Strange and the Prince of the People
AdventureWill Eliot finally have her prince? Has her mother completely gone to the dark side? Are there any Resistance survivors after the battle? What happened to the secret agents and Eliot's dad? How about Patrick - does he still have that ring for Eliot...
