Ridiculous. He was almost eleven. What did they think he was, an infant? Charlie thought he was a rat. He thumped around on his mattress for a while, digging the heels of his shoes deep into it, then he put his feet deliberately on the paper and began to walk up the wall with a heavy tread, as if he were a man weighing two hundred pounds. Now even Rosie liked her. Rosie sat on her feet and turned her back on him. As Charlie also had. Adam hoped his mother would hear him and holler at him for putting his dirty shoes on the wall. He wanted her to holler at him, but he couldn’t say exactly why. Charlie was wrong. He didn’t care if he had to share his father with Sproggy. Not even if he was just getting to know his father all over again. He didn’t care. You lie, a voice said in his head. You lie. Adam put his hands behind his back and pretended his legs were in chains. No. His hands were chained behind him and his feet were his only tools to freedom. He was being held captive in a dungeon surrounded by a moat filled with alligators.
