Chapter 2

2: 2

2.

She pulled out a yellowed letter.

My chest tightened. That was the one that never reached me.

So she'd intercepted it.

David pointed to the postmark. "Look closely, Sophie. This is stamped from the family housing compound. My dad checked the address. Everyone living there is a decorated hero, and one of them, a man named Dickerson, is Amy's father."

The more he talked, the prouder he sounded.

As if he were the great man's own son.

"The postmark can't be faked, Sophie. The address doesn't lie. I shouldn't have kept it from you all these years. My dad was afraid I'd affect the rest of you, so he told me to say nothing."

"But now, his, his health..."

She sobbed, playing it all as if it were real.

"The name. I want it written down."

She bit her lip, the picture of reluctance. "Sophie, this, this..."

"What? If I don't have the name, who am I supposed to go find?"

David rounded on me, out of patience. "Haven't we told you already? There's only one decorated man named Dickerson."

I ignored him. "I only want a name. Otherwise, give me back my acceptance letter."

While we stood there deadlocked, Thaddeus Fox came over, working his pipe.

"Sophie, Old Mr. Dickerson earned his honors. His daughter deserves special treatment. Now that he's gravely ill, no matter how you look at it, that spot should go to Amy."

When I still said nothing, he tapped his pipe. "Sophie, you want to go to college, but the acceptance letter alone isn't enough. Your city-return approval form is in my hands. If Amy can't go back and the old hero dies with that regret, I'll strike your name off the return list."

I heard the threat in it, and I put on a frightened face.

"Mr. Fox, this is all my fault. Don't make things hard for Sophie. I suppose my father won't live to see me after all. It's my own failing, my own unfilial luck, that I couldn't earn a college spot."

Thaddeus flared up. "Sophie, you've spent three years in this village. The village has never treated you unfairly. And now you can't even contribute this one small thing?"

"Old Mr. Dickerson performed a great service. Amy deserves the special treatment."

I looked at him and smiled. "Mr. Fox, I gave her the letter long ago. I never said no."

His eyes crinkled at once. "I knew it. You're a good girl."

"But I want to know the great man's name."

He drew on his pipe. "Amy, your father kept it from everyone all this time because he didn't want you treated differently. You'll be heading back soon. Go on, tell her."

She opened her mouth and spoke a name I knew all too well.

"Which three characters? Write them down for me."

When she wrote out the name Edward Dickerson,

I knew she'd been planning this a long time.

She thought that intercepted letter, that address she'd dug up, and this name

would be enough to prove she was the great man's daughter.

Fine. If she wanted to use that identity to go to college and return to the city,

then I'd let her have it.

"No more problems now, right, Sophie?"

Thaddeus pressed, as if afraid I'd change my mind.

"I have one last condition. If she agrees to it, I'll give the spot to her."