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THIRTY-FIVE

EMERALD FALLS

Seven-year-old Mazie Birmingham hated cold weather. Shivering, she hunched inside the old jacket her mama got her from Goodwill and traipsed after her through the town of Emerald Falls. Other kids squealed and laughed as they built snowmen and raced onto the ice-skating rink. Her stomach growled as they passed the hot dog stand and pizza food truck. The smell of hot chocolate made her lick her dry, chapped lips.

She wanted to beg her mama to get them a slice of pepperoni, but she knew better than to ask. They had no money. Mama had stolen before, but she got arrested once and Mazie had to go to a foster home where the man was mean, smelled nasty, guzzled moonshine and chewed tobacco. She could still see his stained teeth as he spit the nasty brown juice onto the ground when he yelled at her.

She never wanted to go back there.

“Come on, Mazie,” Mama hissed. We need to get out of this weather before we freeze to death.”

Mazie nodded. Her frozen toes felt like toothpicks about to break in two.

They had to find someplace to sleep out of the cold. The ground at the park where they’d stayed last week was wet and icy, and the thin blanket she carried in her trash bag was so holey you could feel the wind blowing through it like a door to a house that had been left open.

Mama broke into a coughing fit. She’d been coughing like crazy for weeks now.

Mazie begged her to go to the doctor, but Mama said they didn’t have money for that either. Especially now she’d lost her job.

Three weeks ago, the manager at the Biscuit Barn fired her for coughing all over the customers and their food.

Mazie didn’t blame him, but the job had come with a small room to stay in and one meal a day for each of them. Now they were not only homeless but starving and winter had blown in like a beast.

People turned and stared at them, and Mazie glared back, knowing she and her mama stood out with their worn clothes and garbage bag full of their measly belongings. A little girl about her age pointed at her and whispered to the boy with her and he laughed. Mazie stuck out her tongue at them then turned her head away. But shame made her face red, and she looked down at the ground instead of the other people.

“Where are we going?” Mazie asked.

“There’s gotta be an abandoned house or something around here where we can get out of the cold.”

“I doubt that, Mama. Look how many people are in town.”

“Then we wait till the stores shut down and sneak in one of the restaurants and get some food, too.”

Tears stung Mazie’s eyes. She was so hungry she could feel her stomach caving in. But she hated eating out of the garbage cans. It smelled stinky and sometimes was a mushy mess.

Her stomach lurched. Once she’d even bit into a bug and felt its slimy insides squish out.

She’d thrown up all over Mama. But Mama had cleaned her up and taken care of her.

Her mama’s legs buckled, and Mazie slid her arm around her waist to help hold her up.

Now it was her turn to take care of Mama.