“Is that what you want?” Mr. Garner asked.
Danny pressed his lips together.
He set his fork on the table. He wasn’t hungry anymore. He leveled his eyes with Mr. Garner. They were a mean shade of blue, like dark waters. Danny imagined if Mr. Garner were in a storybook, he’d be a terribly rude pirate. Except that pirates were cool sometimes. An ogre was more like it. Danny didn’t want to cry in front of Mr. Garner, but he felt his lip tremble, so he kept quiet and thought of the one person who made him feel brave: Pili. Long gone, runaway Pili.
Mr. Garner sighed. He ran his fingers through his thinning hair and sank into his chair. “I don’t want to be the bad guy, Danny. But you can’t keep behaving this way. You’re lucky we took you in.”
Danny knew he wasn’t the lucky one. He knew the reason the Garners kept him around, and it wasn’t because they wanted to make their family bigger. He’d heard Mr. Garner talking about the check he’d get for Danny. The thing was, that money should have been used for Danny’s care and clothes and food. Instead, it seemed to go to the bills piling up on the rickety table at the door entrance.
“I’m sorry,” Danny said to the twins, even though he knew he’d done nothing wrong. One day, he’d be far away, and Freddy and Teddy would wish they’d been nicer to him.
In a matter of seconds, Mr. Garner went back to his sports section and Mrs. Garner started cleaning up and Freddy and Teddy started fighting over the last Pop-Tart in the box. Danny washed his plate and set it on the drying rack. It was the least he could do to help Mrs. Garner. Then the bus beeped outside their house and, as usual, Danny was the first one out of the house.
He hopped onto the bus and handed Ms. Esposito his permission slip. Everyone usually called her Ms. Explosito because she always looked like something had exploded around her. Her short, light brown hair stood on end and her makeup was always smudged around her eyes from rubbing them when she was nervous or forgetful or stressed (which was always).
“Good morning, Ms. Esposito,” Danny said, and took his seat in the front row. No one likes the front-row seat of the bus, but it was better than sitting anywhere near the twins and their friends, who liked to take turns putting gum in Danny’s hair or putting things down the back of his shirt.
The twins ignored Danny as they took their seats somewhere in the back. Unless they were using him as target practice, they didn’t want to be associated with their foster brother, and that was all right with Danny.
The bus doors hissed closed. As he settled in, he noticed a shadow stretched on the ceiling. For one moment, it seemed to detach itself and take the shape of a person. Danny froze. The last time he’d seen something like that was with Mrs. Haydenson at the library. His imagination, his belief, had gotten him in so much trouble. It had to stop. Danny shut his eyes and counted backward from ten. He repeated the words he’d learned with Mrs. Contreras. There are no moving shadows. There is no such thing as magic. He was so full of missing Pili, he was imagining something that wasn’t there.
When he opened his eyes, the shadows were still. Ordinary. Just like him. Danny clutched his backpack and stared out the bus window all the way to Manhattan.
THE YELLOW BUS PULLED up right in front of the New York Public Library. It was the grandest, most magnificent building Danny had ever seen. There was nothing like it on Staten Island.
Ms. Esposito let everyone out and they gathered in front of the bus. Hundreds of people walked on the street around them. Tourists took pictures in front of the great big lion statues and on the steps. There was a green lawn right next to the library called Bryant Park, where people were spread across the grass, or clustered around metal tables and chairs. Other kids his age seemed to be on a similar field trip, and they lined up through the front door. Danny craned his neck, but the buildings just kept reaching toward the sky. The air smelled like car exhaust but also food from nearby hot dog and pretzel vendors. He could even smell popcorn wafting on the breeze from the theaters in Times Square a few blocks away.
Mr. Garner always talked about how much he hated Manhattan, but Danny buzzed with excitement. Nothing, not even Freddy and Teddy moaning and groaning as they filed off the bus, could put a damper on today.
As they ascended the library steps, Freddy had his eyes narrowed in Danny’s direction. Freddy smirked in a way that told Danny the twins were up to no good. Last time they had schemed like that, they covered his seat with clear glue and Danny got stuck to his chair. Danny hoped being out in public would make the twins behave, but he wasn’t going to hold his breath. He followed Ms. Esposito.
This library was unlike any he’d ever seen. The surfaces were a tan, polished stone. In the lobby, two giant archways created a doorway to what looked like the library stacks Danny was used to. He craned his neck back to get a good look at the chandeliers and intricately carved ceilings. Danny thought that this was what a palace might look like. Though he’d never been to a palace in his life.
They were met at the entrance by a young librarian with blue hair and a dress covered in lemons. She had deep brown skin and a diamond piercing on her nose.
“I’m Anjali Singh and I’m your tour guide for the day,” she said as they gathered in a corner. “Today I’ll be taking you into some of our special rooms, like the latest rare-book room and our collection of city maps. Before we get started, do you have any questions?”
“What makes a book rare?” Kelly Park asked. She had shiny black hair and kind black eyes that crinkled at the corners when she smiled, and she smiled a lot.
Anjali grinned and her nose ring caught the light. “Excellent question. Things that are rare are hard to find. They’re one of a kind, unique, and oftentimes irreplaceable. We’ve had texts found in desert caves, abandoned author homes. Our latest acquisition was found in Central Park, but that one is still being restored.”
Danny started to consider what a strange place a park would be to find an irreplaceable book, but his eyes kept finding different things to be distracted by. He’d never seen so many people in a library before. Tourists were taking photos in front of plaques and the large doors. People looked like they had traveled from all over the world to be here. That filled Danny with a sense of wonder. Usually the twins made fun of him for liking the library, but in that moment, he didn’t feel so strange and out of place for loving books. Speaking of his foster brothers, Freddy and Teddy and their friends were taking turns testing their echoes, which bounced in the long stairwells.
“Follow me and stay together,” the tour guide said, and led them toward the special rooms and exhibits on the second floor.
As they climbed the stairs, Danny caught sight of a girl about his age, zigzagging her way through the lobby. She carried a stack of books up to her chin. The books looked like they might topple over at any second, but she somehow balanced them all as she went through one of the archways and out of sight.
The hair on the back of Danny’s neck prickled. He grabbed hold of the railing and glanced around. His mind went straight for the memory of the moving shadows on the bus. He searched for another explanation. The library was ancient and probably had lots of drafty corridors. He’d left his sweater on the bus.
Just then, Danny felt a force against his shoulders. The air left his lungs as he flew forward. He caught himself right before he fell on the floor.