Plans

Chapter 6

I was surprised when the conductor woke Fern and I up. We quickly shuffled off the train into Chicago. I knew the city was large but it was much bigger than I had ever imagined. The buildings towered above us, floor to ceiling windows marking every floor. People stared at us as we moved through them, me shoving people out of my way, Fern gracefully following behind, apologizing for my rudeness.

"Are we going to stay in a hotel?" Fern asked.

"It would be nice, but we don't want to waste all of our money on that. We didn't have that much to begin with and the train tickets to get here were expensive. What we need to do is find a safe place to sleep tonight." I answered as we turned down a deserted alley. Setting my bags down, I looked at Fern.

"If we're going to be sleeping on the sidewalk like we're hobos, can't we do it where people can see us so that maybe we could get some money out of it?" She asked in a sarcastic tone.

"We probably will eventually." I smiled grimly and opened up my backpack, getting out a small bag of chips. "Let's eat. We should take inventory of what we have too."

"Okay." Fern said and got out her own small bag of chips to eat.

We ate in silence, sorting through our bags and writing down everything we have left on a napkin. All together we had enough food for about 10 more days. Our money was running low. Only $120 total. We would be begging for money sooner than I thought. If we stayed alive long enough to spend it all.
It was starting to get dark when we finished eating and taking inventory. Cars were turning on their headlights and fewer people were passing by the alley. The night air was cooler here than back home. We each got out our blankets and put on sweatshirts, yet we were still cold. I let Fern fall asleep first while I stayed awake to watch for any danger. I guess I was really tired because soon enough, I was asleep too.
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"AHHH!" A shrill scream woke me up. I was still tired but something told me I should check to see what had happened.

"What's wrong Fern?" I groaned, sitting up even though my whole body ached.

"A RAT! THERE IS A RAT UNDER MY BLANKET!" She shrieked in answer to my question.
I opened my eyes and saw that Fern was standing across the alley, pointing at her blanket which was moving around slightly. I sighed and picked up her blanket, revealing a brown rat who scurried away. Fern took the blanket from me and stuffed it into her bag. She started walking away so I grabbed my stuff and followed.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Home." She said matter-of-factly.
"I don't think so. It's too dangerous." I grabbed her arm, turning her around to face me and I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Lily will kill you."
Fern sighed and looked around at the people staring at us as we stood in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking their way. After a few seconds, she looked back at me.
"Fine. But if I find one more rat in my blanket, I'm going home whether Lily is going to kill me or not."
"Thank you." I said and we started walking again.

The day went by slowly. We wandered the city, trying to figure out where to go next. At lunch, we sat down against the side of a building and leaned against one another as it started to snow. A few generous people gave us some spare change, but not enough to make much of a difference. We snacked on some food later in the day when the hunger became unbearable. That was when we saw the parking garage and knew how we would get farther away from home.