Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
The plates and forks are loud. So loud. It sounds like they’re digging their knives into the plates and pulling. I clap my hands over my ears, huddled behind the big bush I found. Adults laugh, and the sound is deep and scary, like Dad’s laugh.
Closing my eyes so hard I see stars, I breathe and grip the apple I managed to snatch before people started looking at me. A big man tried to say something to me, and I bolted.
I shouldn’t have left my room. I know I shouldn’t have. But I’m hungry. And I wanted cookies. It smelled like cookies today.
As I was escaping, a big group of people who looked like my dad’s friends started coming down the hall. I knew they’d see me if I tried to leave, so I ducked behind a big plant.
Looking around the big pot, I scan the rest of the room. No one is looking at me. It makes me loosen my fingers on the apple so I can no longer feel my heartbeat in them. There’s a plant inside? This hotel is so big. It’s scary. I don’t like it. Plants shouldn’t grow inside.
But I’m hungry. So hungry my tummy sounds like a train.
So I take my apple and run.