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"If you take his car, he'll call the police and they'll come after us," she said.

"Not for a while, and anyway, all we need is to get far enough away to find other means of transportation, maybe buses or a train. We can study those maps and try to stay off the most traveled highways. We don't have to cross the country in four days or five or even ten. We can take our time," I said.

"It takes money to take your time, Brooke. Traveling is expensive," Crystal said.

"I know. Tomorrow, we'll all go to the bank and take out our savings. Unless you all spent some that I don't know about, I calculate that together we have nearly fourteen hundred dollars," I said.

"It's not a lot of money when you consider what we want to do. We'd probably use it up the first few days. There's gas and food and tolls," Crystal replied. "Not to mention motel rooms and unforeseen problems with the vehicle."

"So? We'll find work along the way. You, Raven and I have all held jobs before and Butterfly . . ." I smiled at her. ". . Butterfly can probably get people to give her money easily. She'll dance on a street corner or something."

"This is a pipe dream," Crystal said, wagging her head. "I knew it."

"Stop saying that," I cried. "It's not a pipe dream to me. I have it all planned out. I know where Gordon keeps his car keys. He keeps them in that beat-up leather jacket that he leaves hung on the inside of his bedroom door. I've seen him put them there."

"You're going to sneak into Gordon's bedroom and steal his keys?" Butterfly asked.

"I am. It won't be hard. Louise doesn't lock their door at night."

Butterfly stared at me, amazed at my courage.

"He might not call the police," Raven said suddenly, her eyes dark with thought. "He might just come after us himself in his truck."

That made even me quiet for a moment, contemplating a maddened Gordon Tooey racing over the highway, his mouth contorted, his nostrils flared

, his eyes bulging as he pressed down on the accelerator in pursuit. If he caught up with us, there was no telling what he would do. We'd be luckier to be caught by The police.

Crystal gazed down at her maps.

"We could send him on a wild goose chase," she muttered, still looking at the documents.

"How?" I asked.

"We'll leave the route we don't choose behind. Maybe . . . pretend to drop it. He'll find it and think he has an easy way to find us and go off in the wrong direction," she said.

"That's brilliant, Crystal. That's really brilliant," I said, encouraged that she offered a helpful

suggestion.

"It's still a huge long shot, Brooke. I don't know," she said, taking off her glasses to wipe the lenses as she shook her head.

"It's better than just sitting here and waiting to turn eighteen," I said, "or until Gordon tries to touch one of us again. There's no telling who he'll go for next."

I turned toward Butterfly and gazed at her. I was determined to use anything and everything to get Crystal to see.

"She's right, Crystal," Butterfly said. "I'm willing to try if you are."

"We don't have to spend money on motel rooms if we use the station wagon," I continued. "It's big enough to sleep the four of us when I put the back seat down. Tomorrow night, after everyone's asleep, Raven and Crystal will go to the kitchen and pack up as much food as you can. That will save us money, too. Between now and then, everyone choose only enough clothing to fill a pillowcase. We can't take much and we can use the stuffed pillowcases as pillows."

"You've really been thinking about this awhile, haven't you?" Crystal asked me.

"Longer than you can imagine," I said.

"Don't forget your toothbrushes," Butterfly said. Even Crystal had to laugh.

"Okay," I said, "let's study the map we're going to use."

Crystal looked at Raven and Butterfly to see if they were still all for this, and then she put one of the maps on her desk. We gathered around.