Read Jackie's Wild Seattle for Free Online Page B

nightshirt.
    Neal snapped, “What are you doing here, Tyler?”
    â€œI thought somebody would be here,” he said, looking at Uncle Neal, then at me in my nightshirt, then away. He was really embarrassed too.
    â€œIt’s early,” Neal said. “Real early.” My uncle was very unhappy.
    â€œI thought someone was always here.”
    Jackie must have seen this boy, this Tyler, from the kitchen window. She joined us, looking all concerned.
    â€œI was just going to do my four hours early today,” Tyler explained. “I walked here, if you’re wondering. I’ll start cleaning cages. Don’t worry, you can trust me.”
    I sneaked a good look at him. He looked like he’d slept in his clothes, or maybe not slept at all.
    â€œI can’t trust you to do a good job on an empty stomach,” Jackie said, and that’s how Tyler joined us for breakfast.
    At breakfast he didn’t say much. In, fact he didn’t say anything at all. Neither did I. I was fully dressed by then, but still embarrassed.
    Tyler kept his eyes down on his omelet. It was a strange breakfast, everybody off-balance, maybe not such a good idea. In the silences you heard everybody chewing and swallowing. The kitchen faucet had a slow drip. Cody was in agony, wanting out, but wasn’t saying a thing. Finally he distracted himself by dangling a piece of sausage at the sideof his chair. Other than me, only Sage noticed. It wasn’t the first time Cody had tried to win her over with food, but Sage didn’t budge from the corner of the room.
    Tyler ate ravenously even though he’d protested that he’d eaten at home. His cheeks were ruddy, maybe from feeling self-conscious. He’d visited the bathroom and washed up, arranged his thick dark hair somehow, but he still looked like a wild creature who’d just come in from the woods. I couldn’t help but wonder what his home life must be like and why he was at Jackie’s in the first place. Something told me I didn’t really want the answers.

7
LATE-BREAKING NEWS
    I was folding and sorting my clothes. I had a lot of them to put away. It felt good to take a little time, settle in, and enjoy the scents that the breeze brought through the open window. Jackie had flower beds everywhere, and blooming rhododendrons lined her long driveway.
    I already liked it out here in the woods. I loved my room, not fancy but clean and airy and fresh with the fragrance of the nearby cedars. I liked Jackie’s house, I liked her home-baked bread, I liked her.
    So far, so good. We’d landed safely and so had my parents. First thing after breakfast Jackie had let me check my e-mail from her office computer. “The adventure begins,” my mother reported. They’d made it to Karachi, Pakistan.
    On the spot, I got on the keys. They had said they would check their e-mail before leaving for Islamabad and Peshawar. I filled them in on our adventures so far. Were they ever going to be surprised.
    Uncle Neal was away, dropping the van at a repair place. Cody was in the clinic with Chuckie and some other new friends. Jackie had said he could pull some carrots from the garden, clean and dice them for the baby skunks, and he might like to help Rosie make a fruit dish for the baby porcupine.
    It was good to have a chance to catch my breath and gather my thoughts. I found myself thinking about Tyler, the hurt in his voice when he said, “Don’t worry, you can trust me.” Why wouldn’t they trust him?
    Tyler had acted distant after breakfast when I’d run into him in the clinic. He was cleaning cages. The nightshirt episode and the awkwardness at breakfast were fresh, and he looked away. I was about to do the same when I realized how strange it was going to be if we couldn’t even be around each other, talk, and generally act normal. I said something about how great it was that there were so many volunteers at Jackie’s. It