My Name Is Not Easy by Edwardson, Dahl (the red fox clan .TXT) 📕

Th

ere are worse things than bandages, Amiq thought. Th e

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T H E M E A N E S T H E A T H E N S / S o n n y a n d A m i q whole thing made him feel angry and voiceless. He wanted to shout some sense into them all. Instead he just grabbed Luke by the shoulders as he walked by and made him tell exactly what they’d done to him. Th

at’s how he found out

about the iodine-131. Th

ey were making kids drink it. Amiq

didn’t know exactly what iodine-131 was, but there was no way in Hell he was going to drink it.

Sonny wasn’t quite sure what to think about this whole testing thing. Th

e way Father Flanagan had explained it in class

seemed odd. And the way he’d said the word test gave Sonny the willies. But it was only the kids from way up north who had to get tested. Not him, and not the Pete boys. Not Rose and Evelyn, either. Part of him was real glad that it wasn’t his people. Th

e other part was . . . well, it was complicated.

He tried to sort it out as he headed back to his room.

Father Mullen had told Sonny and O’Shay that they could skip class while the other kids got tested because they’d been such good guides. Th

e way he said it made Sonny squirm.

But it was okay to have a few moments of freedom, even if it was almost lunchtime. Maybe they could eat lunch with the general, Father had said, smiling that cold smile of his.

O’Shay had warmed to this idea because O’Shay liked being a big shot. O’Shay, in fact, was already on his way down to the cafeteria. But Sonny had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and when he thought of eating lunch with the general, that feeling got heavy as a rock. Maybe he’d skip lunch today.

Th

en he thought of his mom and how proud she’d be to see 123

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M Y N A M E I S N O T E A S Y

him eating lunch with a real live general, and he decided that he’d just go back to his room for a few minutes fi rst.

He saw Amiq as soon he turned the corner. Amiq was

standing by the entrance to the dorm wing. He was acting funny, tucked up inside the dorm hallway, his back pressed up against the wall, not moving. Not hardly breathing, even.

Not acting at all the way that little loudmouth usually acted.

Down the hall, the general was advancing like a tank. He had a stack of papers in his hands, and his head was bent so far into those papers, he didn’t even see Amiq. Amiq looked like he wanted to disappear, but there was no place to hide, and the general was closing in fast—but he was studying those papers so hard, it looked like he might walk right on by Amiq without even seeing him. And you could tell for sure that’s exactly what Amiq was counting on.

All of a sudden, Sonny realized that he was counting on the same thing, holding his breath right along with Amiq. As if he, too, were standing there right next to Amiq, hiding from the general. Th

e general walked by Amiq and kept right on

walking, walking without even looking up. Like he couldn’t even see Amiq standing there, trying to act like a wall. Th en,

without any warning, the general stopped short and looked up. Like a hunter who’s heard the sudden crack of a branch.

Something about the idea of the general as a hunter was really creepy and without thinking about it, Sonny started to walk fast. Toward Amiq. He could hear the general’s voice now.

“Aren’t you one of the Eskimos?” the general was saying.

“Aren’t you supposed to be there with the rest of them?”

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T H E M E A N E S T H E A T H E N S / S o n n y a n d A m i q Sonny couldn’t ever remember seeing Amiq get speechless, and if it weren’t for the wolfi sh look on the general’s face, he would have enjoyed it. As it was, Amiq’s silence felt suff ocat-ing.

Without knowing he was going to do it, Sonny smiled right at the general and said in a loud, fi rm voice, “It’s okay.

He’s my brother, sir.”

Th

e general turned, surprised, but when he saw who it was— his Indian guide—he smiled real big. Sonny smiled right back at him with what Sister Mary Kate always called his million-dollar smile.

Amiq stood there by the wall, practically gasping. Like a fi sh out of water.

“Th

is one’s no Eskimo, sir. He’s my brother . . . my kid brother,” Sonny added for emphasis, grinning down sweetly at Amiq. Even though they were about the same age, Amiq was still nearly a head shorter than he was.

Amiq was starting to revive now, and Sonny half expected him to get mad about being called a kid—and by Sonny, too—but instead he just grinned up at the general with that big, goofy grin of his.

“Yes, sir,” Amiq said. “Just waiting here for my big brother.”

He gave Sonny a look.

“Father Mullen gave us permission to write home,” Sonny added, because it was the fi rst thing that came into his