Read Online The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - Free Book Online

whisper. “I don’t care if you boss me. And she probably won’t shut you up, now you’ve got crutches and all.”
    “Everybody thinks I’m nasty, back home. They think I’m some kind of monster.”
    “They don’t,” Jamie said, but he turned his face away. “They won’t.” He started crying in earnest, muffling his sobs in his pillow. “You’ve got crutches!” he said.
    “Crutches don’t change my foot!” I said. “It’s still the same. It still hurts. I’m still the same!”
    Jamie said, through sobs, “At home I know the words for things.”
    I knew what he meant. I knew how overwhelmed I felt sometimes, going into a shop full of things I’d never seen before. “There’s nothing good at home,” I said. “You were hungry. Remember?”
    “No,” said Jamie. “I wasn’t ever hungry. I never was.”
    If he wasn’t, it was only because I gave him most of the food. “I was,” I said. “I was hungry, and I was alone, and I was trapped, and right now, no matter what, you have to do what I say. You have to stay here with me. I’m the person who keeps you safe.”
    Jamie’s sobs slowed. He looked up at me, his brown eyes still brimming with tears. He rolled over onto his back and I pulled the sheet up to his chin. I patted his skinny shoulder. “Is this safe?” he asked.
    It didn’t feel safe. I never felt safe. “Yes,” I said.
    “You’re lying. I know you are.” Jamie flopped onto his side, turning his back to me. I lay flat on my back, breathing in the honeysuckle-scented air coming through the open windows. The curtains fluttered against the pale blue walls. I wasn’t hungry. I fell asleep.

The next time we went into town, we saw an enormous poster pasted to the brick wall near the train station. Jamie stopped to stare. “What’s it say?” he asked.
    Miss Smith read it aloud, tapping the words with her fingers as she went, “‘Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution, will bring us victory.’”
    “That’s stupid,” I said. “It sounds like we’re doing all the work.”
    Miss Smith looked at me and laughed. “You’re right,” she said.
    “It should be, ‘our courage,’” I said. “ Our courage, our cheerfulness, our resolution, will bring us victory.”
    “Absolutely,” Miss Smith said. “I’ll write the War Office and suggest a revision.”
    I couldn’t tell if she meant it or not. I hated when I didn’t understand her.
    “I shouldn’t underestimate you, should I?” Miss Smith went on.
    How should I know? I scowled.
    “Oh, come on, you cranky child,” she said, touching my shoulder lightly. “You can help me pick out the veg.”
    Jamie was tugging on my arm. He pointed across the street, to Stephen White holding on to the arm of a very old man. Actually, I saw, it was the old man holding on to Stephen.
    “A friend of yours?” Miss Smith asked.
    “No,” I said. “It’s Billy’s brother.”
    Miss Smith nodded. “You can go and say hello.”
    I felt funny doing it, but I did want to know why Stephen hadn’t gone home with the rest of his family. I made my way across the street.
    Stephen saw me. He stopped, and when he did the old man stopped too, turning odd milky eyes toward me.
    Stephen gestured toward the crutches. “Good,” he said. “You should have had those before.”
    I thought of him carrying me to the station, and my face went hot.
    “Who’s this?” barked the old man. “Who’re you talking to? Somebody new?” He was looking straight at me, the old coot.
    Stephen cleared his throat. “It’s Ada,” he said, “from our lane. Ada—”
    The man said, crossly, “That’s not the way you do a proper introduction. Haven’t I taught you?”
    “Yes, sir.” Stephen took a deep breath. “Sir, may I present Miss Ada Smith, from London. Ada, this is Colonel Robert McPherson, British Army, retired. I live with him here.”
    The old man stuck one of his hands into the air. “And now you shake my hand, Miss Smith,” he