The Paper House Read Online Free Page A

dump and away from the little boy as fast as she could.
    â€œWait for me!” called Chidi.
    Safiyah did not stop or slow down. But Chidi stuck close as she headed for the place where she had found the magazines yesterday. She tried to ignore the gusts of stinking wind as she climbed higher and higher. Although Chidi kept up an endless stream of chatter, Safiyah did not bother trying to make him go away. She knew he would come buzzing back again just like a mosquito.
    A flock of birds soared and screeched above her head. At each step, something crunched under her feet or rolled away. The stench of rotting garbage stuck in the back of her throat. The hazy air made her eyes sting as she headed for a bright patch of red. But it was just an old cloth, torn and ragged and stinking of smoke. Nearby lay a wad of sopping wet newspaper, the print all smudged. It might do for stuffing into the holes in the walls, but today she wanted pictures for her mural.
    Safiyah yanked a metal bar out of the garbage. She used it to help her climb across gullies of swampy water and oil, over heaps of tangled old clothes.
    Only the tiniest children were up this high. They raked through the garbage, calling back and forth to each other whenever they found something. Their voices sounded like the birds gathered on the power lines along the train tracks, and in the branches that hung over her house in the village.
    Safiyah stared into the distance. If she looked hard enough perhaps she could see all the way to her village. If she were a bird, how easy it would be to fly home again.
    But she wasn’t a bird. And between here and the home she missed so much were the crowded shacks of the slum and the endless maze of buildings and alleys of Nairobi. Beyond Nairobi were roads that ran in all directions, like dark snakes.
    â€œHow about this?” Chidi held up a magazine cover with TIME written in big white letters across a man’s forehead. “That’s Mr. President of America,” Chidi told Safiyah as he handed it to her. He bent down to pull another handful from under a broken box.
    After lots of digging and sorting, Chidi and Safiyah had as many old magazines as they could carry. As the sun glared overhead, they clambered back down, each holding armfuls of paper.
    Safiyah was very thirsty. She looked around, but there was nowhere to buy water, even if she could pay for it. A big square can stood outside a hut. She dunked one hand in to scoop up some water but before she could bring it to her mouth, her hand was knocked aside. “Hey!” Water splashed onto her legs and made dark marks as it landed on the dirt.
    Blade glared down at her. His face shone with sweat and his eyes flashed.

Chapter Eight
    â€œWhy did you do that?” asked Safiyah. “I’m thirsty.”
    â€œYou should know not to drink water unless you know it’s clean, you stupid girl.”
    She stepped backward. “Stay away from me.”
    Blade grinned down at her. “I’ve been looking for this scrawny thing everywhere.” He grabbed Chidi’s shirt and hauled him off the ground. The little boy’s legs dangled in the air. “Why aren’t you in school?” he asked.
    â€œI’m going, Rasul. I am,” said Chidi.
    â€œHe followed me,” Safiyah told Rasul. “He’s a pest.”
    â€œSee. Everyone thinks you’re a pest,” Rasul told Chidi as he gave him a shake.
    â€œLet me go!” Chidi kicked his feet as he tried to get free.
    â€œDo I have to take you to school myself?” his cousin asked.
    â€œI’m going.” Chidi squirmed out of Rasul’s grasp, dropped to the ground and raced away without looking back.
    Safiyah watched him go. She knew she should run away too. But instead, she asked, “Why do they call you Blade?”
    Chidi’s cousin frowned down at her. He rapped her shoulder with his hard knuckles. “Don’t call me that! I’m Rasul to