often. “We need to be off.”
Sister Eve looked terribly unhappy but gave no more objection. “Whisker, go to my hotel room and gather up the children’s clothing. Put it all in my suitcase and bring it back here.” After Whisker had gone, she said, “Mose, get whatever things you and Albert brought. I’ll ask Dimitri to put together some food for you to take when you leave. Hurry now.”
A couple of hours later, we were standing together in the big tent, ready to depart. Mose was supporting Albert, pretty much bearing all his weight. The first cars were arriving for the evening service, and Sister Eve and Whisker walked us out the back way. Behind the tents, we said goodbye. Whisker shook my hand, his long, reedy fingers warm and reluctant to let go. “Sure going to miss you, son. You keep playing that mouth organ, you hear me. You got the music in you.”
Sister Eve knelt before Emmy and said, “You have something amazing and beautiful in you. You’ll realize that someday. I would love to be there when you do.” To Mose, she said, “I’ve never known anyone stronger here.” She touched his chest over his heart, and then she hugged him. To Albert, she said, “You’ll recover, and when you do, I know you’ll guide them all well.” She kissed his cheek. Finally, she handed me a small paper bag and said, “I’ve put some cotton balls, antiseptic, gauze, and such in there. You have to keep your brother’s wounds clean. I’ve also put a few other useful items in.” Then she leaned to me and whispered into my ear, “This is important. It’s up to you to make sure that Emmy is safe. Promise me.” And I did. Then she said, “Remember this. It’s an old saying but a true one. Home is where your heart is.”
She kissed my cheek, too, and we were preparing to leave when I saw something that made all my hope sink. Among the cars arriving in the field was an all-too familiar silver Franklin Club Sedan, and right behind it came a Fremont County sheriff’s cruiser.
“The Black Witch,” I said, and my heart began to race.
“Go,” Sister Eve said. “I’ll take care of them.”
We hurried off, although Albert, in his weakened condition, kept us from going as fast as I would have liked. We crossed the meadow and the railroad tracks and entered the trees on the bank above the river. Mose and Albert and Emmy made their way down to the water’s edge, then Mose headed toward the bulrushes where he and Albert had hidden our canoe. I stayed among the trees, watching as Clyde Brickman, that snake with legs, got out, went to the passenger’s side, and opened the door. The sight of Thelma Brickman, thin and dressed all in black so that she looked like a burned matchstick, was ice water on my soul. A heavyset, red-faced man emerged from the cruiser, and I recognized Sheriff Bob Warford, who’d terrorized so many runaways from Lincoln School. The Brickmans and Warford started toward the big tent, and Sister Eve came out to greet them.
I didn’t stay to see anything further. I hopped down the bank to the river, where Mose had the canoe already on the water. He’d put in the canvas water bag, the blankets, the pillowcase with the letters and other documents we’d taken from the Brickmans’ safe. He’d tossed in the suitcase with the clothing Sister Eve had purchased for Emmy and me, as well as the basket of food Dimitri had thrown together for us. Albert was in no condition to paddle, so he sat in the middle with Emmy on the blankets, holding the food basket in his lap. I sat in the bow, Mose pushed us into the current and took the stern, and we paddled as hard as we could away from the place where I hoped Sister Eve was somehow misdirecting the Black Witch and her toady husband.
The river curled around the eastern edge of New Bremen. We passed the flats where houses stood near grain elevators and the white steeple of the little church rose above the treetops. We slid under the railroad trestle where I’d sat before I stumbled onto Sister Eve praying upriver. We left the town behind. The current, coupled with our own efforts, took us between fields where young corn and soybeans rose out of the turned earth. The sun had fallen below a long,