“Lucky was fooling around behind the school last October. You know, bouncing a tennis ball against the back wall. So anyhow, one time the ball got past him. When he was looking for it, he noticed this round place in the ground. He’s always finding stuff. Anyhow, he decided to check it out. He got a stick and started poking around. Guess what he found?” I shrugged. “Not a clue.” “There was this manhole cover. He called me over and we got it up. Guess what we found?” I just shrugged again. “A pipe,” Torchie said. “This big old tunnel. I guess it was a drain or something. We followed it. I didn’t really want to go, but I wasn’t going to be a chicken if Lucky went. It doesn’t go far, but—get this—it comes out on the other side of the fence, down at the bottom of the hill.” He paused, I guess to let me fully appreciate the meaning of that. It was the perfect way out. Since the fence was ten feet high in back, nobody ever checked to see if kids were there. They locked the front gate in the evening when the guard left.
