Inside, I found PO Box 491, a golden bronze door, just at eye-height. Just like Alli had said it would be. The door unlocked with a slight click. And there were two letters.
“Who from?” Marj asked.
“Alli!” I tore open the one with her handwriting.
“Dear Eliot:
Let me tell you right off, this new place is good.”
She was only ten miles way and the new foster home had two girls. Alli had new clothes, and plenty to eat and a big sister and a little sister. I handed the letter to Mom to read.
“She gives her phone number. Do you want to call her later?”
I nodded and turned the other letter over in my hands. It was just a standard business size envelope, addressed to Alli at this PO box, but there was no return address. I opened it and read:
“Dear Alli:
I don’t know if I am the person you are looking for or not. But I was in the US Army and when I came home, I couldn’t find my wife or mother-in-law or daughter. She was born on. . .”
Included was a picture of a soldier taken with his daughter at Wal-Mart right before he left on tour. It was the same picture that Alli had carried for years.
Alli’s Dad.
We could call Alli, Marj said, and take the letter over to her.
I agreed, but first I had something to show Marj. When we got home, I took a deep breath and asked Marj to come upstairs to my room, and I had her sit in a chair beside my computer desk. And I pulled up the website I had made for Griffith Winston, Dad and Husband. We clicked through the pictures and read the stories that people from the community center and other places had sent me.
And we cried for what we had lost.
And for what we had gained.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Translated into eight languages, children’s book author DARCY PATTISON writes picture books, middle grade novels, and children’s nonfiction. Previous titles include The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman (Harcourt), Searching for Oliver K. Woodman (Harcourt), The Wayfinder (Greenwillow), 19 Girls and Me (Philomel), Prairie Storms (Sylvan Dell), Desert Baths (Desert Baths), and Wisdom, the Midway Albatross (Mims House.) Her work has been recognized by *starred reviews* in Kirkus, BCCB, and PW. Desert Baths was named a 2013 Outstanding Science Trade Book and the Library Media Connection, Editor’s Choice. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators and the Author’s Guild. For more information, see
darcypattison.com OR mimshouse.com
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OTHER BOOKS BY DARCY PATTISON
Saucy and Bubba: A Hansel and Gretel Tale
The Girl, the Gypsy and the Gargyole
Vagabonds
Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma:
Wisdom, the Midway Albatross:
Searching for Oliver K. Woodman
The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman
I Want a Dog: My Opinion Essay
I Want a Cat: My Opinion Essay
The Aliens, Inc. Series
Book 1: Kell, the Alien
Book 2: Kell and the Horse Apple Parade
Book 3: Kell and the Giants
Book 4: Kell and the Detectives
READ OTHER NOVELS BY DARCY PATTISON
SAUCY AND BUBBA: A HANSEL AND GRETEL TALE
This is a heartbreakingly simple story that weaves through the tangled threads of a family and builds to an ending full of hope.
THE GIRL, THE GYPSY, AND THE GARGOYLE
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
-Michelangelo
But what if an unscrupulous sculptor could trap someone inside a block of stone, just so he could carve them?
VAGABONDS
In the tradition of Charlotte's Web or The Underneath comes the American fantasy, VAGABONDS, the saga of El Garro's armadillo colony, the scouts and pioneers who have always been at the forefront of the migration. Rumors from their original homeland, the jungles far to the south, indicate that El Garro's colony may be nearing the fabled Faralone Falls, where they will find the answer to why they have traveled northward for decades.
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