Read Online Taken by Edward Bloor - Free Book Online

he hadn’t? What if it had been pure stupidity on his part? Just a stupid, dumbass mistake. What would Dr. Reyes do to him for that? Would the dark boy get treated any better than the guy who had fallen asleep in the front cab? I didn’t think so.
    Anyway, my moment of opportunity soon vanished when the dark boy returned. He sat down without a glance toward me, picked up the two-way, and joined in the Creole conversation.
    I sat there for a good ten minutes, mentally kicking myself, feeling myself a coward for not trying to get help on the two-way. Patience would have tried it. Most kids I know would have tried it, with the possible exception of Hopewell.
    That’s because most kids had never been taken. Only Hopewell and I knew what it was really like to face kidnappers; to try to remember our training; to try to survive.
    So I forgave myself. I told myself that I was doing the right thing. I forced myself to concentrate again on the events of December 22.
             
    The Highlands guard pulled the van into a church parking lot near the center of Mangrove. He let the engine idle while he contacted the local police on a securescreen.
    Mangrove was an interesting place to me. It was as different from The Highlands as it could possibly be. The town had a combination of dirt roads full of deep ruts and asphalt roads full of potholes. The roads were lined on both sides with brightly colored cinder-block houses—green, pink, orange. The houses had rusty room air conditioners sticking out of the sides and ripped screen doors in front.
    Something must have been wrong, because we sat at that church for a long time. While we waited, Patience and I quietly played a game called Syllogisms. It’s a logic game that you can use to prove or disprove any point (naturally, we learned it from Mrs. Veck). There are different types of syllogisms to choose from. For example, the Categorical Syllogism says that everybody in a category has the same thing.
    I started the game by stating the first premise: “All members of the Dugan family have coarse hairs sprouting from their noses.”
    Patience then stated the second premise: “Pauline is a member of the Dugan family.”
    I stated the conclusion: “Therefore, Pauline has coarse hairs sprouting from her nose.”
    Then we switched, and Patience began: “All girls who wear the same white shirt to satschool and to cheerleader practice have pit stains.”
    I added: “Maureen wears the same white shirt to satschool and to cheerleader practice.”
    Patience concluded: “Therefore, Maureen has pit stains.”
    I started a third one: “All mammals have spines.”
    Patience opened her mouth to respond; then she stopped and glared at me.
    I suggested, “Hopeless does not—”
    But she cut me off. “What? What are you saying? My brother doesn’t have a spine?” She looked like she was about to punch me.
    Patience had been getting very impatient with Hopewell jokes, especially after the attack by the Dugans. I leaned back and muttered, “Uh, sorry.”
    “Do you really think that? Because it’s not true.”
    “No. I just said it for fun.”
    “Fun?”
    “Yeah.”
    She continued angrily, “Fun? Really? From you? Isn’t your idea of fun to follow your maid around the kitchen?”
    Now I was the one who was offended, but I responded meekly: “I said I was sorry.”
    Patience’s eyes bored into mine. “And don’t call him that stupid name anymore.”
    “I won’t. Take it easy.”
    “No, I won’t take it easy! That’s when people attack you, when you take it easy. That’s why the Dugans thought they could attack Hopewell, because even
I
was going along with it. I was treating my own brother like a joke. Well, I’m not doing that anymore.”
    “Okay. I get it. I’m sorry.”
    She finally mumbled, “Okay.”
    After that, we sat in awkward silence until the van started to move. We left the parking lot of the church, a Catholic one called La Iglesia de la Natividad, and turned