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?” I couldn’t imagine Melons having any fun at all.
    “We go bowling, and skating, and we go out for dinner—”
    “And we go on vacations once in a while too,” added Mrs. Buckworth. “You’d probably love that.”
    “Last year we went to Disneyland.”
    Whatever Diznee-land was I didn’t love it at all.
    The Buckworths were quiet and so was I, for once.
    “Oh, you probably don’t understand all of that, do you,” said Mr. Buckworth.
    “Are we talking way too fast?”
    “Sorry, Babo.”
    Mrs. Buckworth started talking slowly, as if she had sweet potato mush stuck in her throat. “We heard ... that you speak ... excellent English, but—”
    “I understand,” I said quickly. “America is happy. You are happy. You love Diznee-land. Lucy has Big Mouth.”
    Auntie Moo gave me a sly look out of the corner of her eye. I still couldn’t believe she had told the Melons anything good, anything at all, about ME.
    “And my family live ...” I folded my arms across my chest and stuck my nose in the air. “Here. Happy.”
    Mr. and Mrs. Buckworth gazed at each other before Mrs. Buckworth said, “Well, we really want to ask—if you think you could be happy in America too?”
    “Would you like to—to come to America, Babo?”
    The two of them, sitting on that log, looked awfully hopeful.
    I poked at a rip in my special occasion dress and said, “America is too big. I will get lost.”
    Sister Baroo inhaled until I thought she was going to fall over, but the Buckworths just laughed.
    “We wouldn’t let you get lost, Babo,” said Mr. Buck-worth.
    “We promise.” Mrs. Buckworth smiled.
    But promises from Melons didn’t mean much. Melons had promised to make our country better. They had promised to help us, not to steal us away.
    The Buckworths kept talking and laughing and asking me things for a whole bunch of time. I knew I didn’t give the right answers. I was trying to make the Buckworths choose another leftover kid, but as it turned out, they liked ME. It wasn’t supposed to go like this at all.
    How were my real mama and dad supposed to find me in America?

The Buckworths and a Boom
    SOON I ALMOST forgot about those Buckworth Melons and I was sure they forgot about me. They probably picked a pretty kid with two good eyes. They probably picked a kid who really wanted to go to America. Or a kid who didn’t have a Big Mouth. Or a younger kid who could play with their puppet-head kid and wouldn’t get into big trouble.
    But a couple of months after their visit to the circus camp, Sister Baroo came running up the dirt path from the village. She was waving around an envelope.
    Good luck or bad luck, it was hard to say. I thought it was probably very, very bad luck.
    I didn’t understand exactly how it happened, but the Buckworths called an agency in their country, and the agency mailed the thick envelope to Sister Baroo at the Mission, and the Buckworths wanted to adopt me.
    It all happened way too fast. I’d be leaving for America in just two days.
    The leftover kids squished into a huddle as Auntie Moo and Sister Baroo held out the pictures. In one picture, Mr. and Mrs. Buckworth stood smiling in front of a funny-looking tree. In another, a little girl was wearing red shoes with wheels on the bottom. Auntie Moo said that this was Lucy. My new little sister. She was missing her teeth, so Toro asked Auntie Moo if Lucy lost all her teeth in the war. Most of us were missing at least a few. But Auntie Moo said there was no war in America; Lucy’s teeth fell out by themselves.
    “Scary,” said Toro.
    “Why do they need me then, if they already have a kid?” I scrunched my face. It really didn’t make any sense.
    “Maybe they want another one,” said George.
    “They seem like very nice people, Babo,” said Auntie Moo.
    She had already told me about ten times that the Buckworths wanted me even though I was old. Melons usually think that older children are mean and angry, much more wounded from the