When he spoke again, his voice was lower, like he was telling her a secret. “It’s harder now that Roger is back in jail. I’m not sure why, but his visits helped level her out.”
Lily tried to think of something to say. It wasn’t her place—she was just a kid. Lily desperately wanted to help. “If there’s anything my family can do, Mr. Yettin… We all feel bad about what has happened, and…”
She didn’t get to finish the thought. The door was finally all the way closed.
Lily picked up her bike and walked it back out to the street.
[ Winding ]
Lily walked her bike along the shoreline. It was tough going, but it gave her time to think. Nobody ever took her seriously. When she attacked a problem, she could make real changes, but nobody ever believed in her enough to let her help. She was too young, too skinny, and too blond. Mr. Yettin had just closed the door in her face. Why should he listen to a little girl’s ideas about his niece?
The worst part was that Ms. Yettin had been one of the few adults who had believed in Lily. They had tackled the cat shelter problem together, and that had been all Lily’s idea. Together, they had saved the lives of countless cats and helped a couple of families understand how they could help control the stray cat population. Everyone had won. It never would have happened if Ms. Yettin hadn’t believed in Lily, but it also never would have happened if Lily hadn’t kept pushing. Now Ms. Yettin was the one who needed help and there was nobody who would believe in Lily enough to help.
She stopped her bike.
A group of three kids—mushroom heads—were squatting on the grass, feeding the ducks. Lately it seemed like most of the Summer Kids were mushroom heads. It was Sarah’s term for those kids who had big round bowls of hair on top of their heads. These kids looked like they were wearing helmets of hair.
“Not too much,” Lily said. The three kids had a whole loaf of bread in a bag. Her sister Elizabeth said that ducks were too stupid to know when to stop eating.
“Too much what?” the girl asked. Lily was lucky. She was able to talk to the Summer Kids without them sneering at her. If Sarah or Jenny tried to instruct the kids, they would have been quickly dismissed. Lily had been born less than ten miles from Kingston Lakes, but she would always be “From Away.” Some families were locals and some were From Away, and the two were never confused by Summer Kids. Lily didn’t know how they detected it, but they always did.
“Too much bread,” Lily said. “It’s good to give them a little bread—maybe a slice or two—but if you give them the whole loaf, it can be bad for them.”
“They’re stupid,” one of the boys said. Lily nodded.
“Is it true that these ducks are the ones they have for dinner?” a boy asked.
“No,” Lily said. The Kingston Village Inn restaurant was famous for its duck dinner. “No, those ducks come from up the road. There’s a farm on the left as you’re headed up towards Farmington.”
“Those are turkeys,” the girl said.
“They have ducks there too,” Lily said. Maybe it was the fact that she was willing to talk to the Summer Kids—maybe that’s why they didn’t sneer at her. The only time Sarah talked to Summer Kids was when she was taking their ice cream order. She would have never talked to these kids. Sarah probably would have never even walked along this part of the shore. This was a place where people vacationed. Sarah stuck to more practical places.
One of the boys snatched the bag of bread and that seemed to break the spell. The mushroom head Summer Kids all ran back around the building to find their parents. Rooms at the Kingston Village Inn were small, but nice. Lily couldn’t even imagine how much their parents were paying for the privilege of staying there in the height of summer. With all that money, they should be able to afford a nanny to watch the kids and make sure they didn’t
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