Lost in London Read Online Free PDF Page A

said. “And a helicopter pad on the roof for people traveling from really far. Later this year they’ll let people bungee from off the side of the building.”
    I narrowed my eyes.
    He grinned. “Okay, you got me. I made that one up. Don’t call the Exaggeration Patrol. But the others aretrue, and if I made a suggestion about the bungee, I bet they’d make that happen too.”
    “Maybe you should.”
    “Maybe I will,” he said, playfully pushing my shoulder.
    “We should find Caroline,” I suggested.
    “Good idea,” Sam said. “Let’s round up the gang and play a game of Slip Away.”

7

    “What’s Slip Away?” I asked.
    “We use the whole store. One group flees and the other searches. Every fifteen minutes the flee-ers text the searchers a clue about where they’re hiding.”
    “It sounds like hide-and-seek.”
    “Hide-and-seek is for tots. This is way more.”
    Sam clicked at his phone, which he called a “mobile” (with a long i , so it rhymed with “pile”), as we approached the landing of Formal Wear and Kids’ Dress-Up Department on the tenth floor.
    “They’re on their way,” he said.
    A minute later the golden double doors of an elevator opened. Out walked Caroline, carrying multiple big white shopping bags with the Daphne’s logo. Ellie and Gordo came out behind her, each also carrying a bag or two.
    Did I miss the shopping?
    “Game on?” Gordo asked. His hair had been gelled up like a rock star’s, and I think he’d put on eyeliner. They’d gone to the salon! I had missed it.
    Sam nodded and gave his friend a fist bump.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” said Ellie, examining her cuticles. “I was hoping for a manicure.” Oh, me too! Maybe I could go home with long elegant nails.
    Gordo said, “You can get a mani any day. In fact, I’ll come back with you tomorrow if you want.”
    “Okay, then I’m in,” she said.
    Caroline sighed. “Fine. But I’ll need to find a locker.”
    Gordo took her bags from her hands. “I’ll take care of that for you. There’s some by the loo.” He disappeared down a hallway with a restroom sign.
    “What are the teams?” Ellie asked. “Last time I fleed and this time I want to search. I could be like the captain of the searchers.”
    “Let’s do the coin method,” Sam said. “It’s the most fair.”
    Gordo reappeared. “Good plan.”
    Sam reached into the pocket of his baggy jeans and handed a coin to everyone. “Odd years are searchers. Even years are flee-ers.”
    I took the coin Sam gave me and looked at the date: 1970. “Even,” I said.
    “Odd,” said Gordo and Ellie. They moved next to each other.
    “Even,” Sam said.
    Caroline didn’t say anything but moved to our even team.
    “It’s three versus two.” Sam, Caroline, and I were going to hide.
    Gordo said, “You better run. You only have two minutes.”
    Sam took off.
    “I love to search. You guys better watch out,” Ellie called after us. “I’m coming after you!”
    Caroline tried to keep up with Sam and me, but with her high-heeled boots, running didn’t come easily. I almost crashed into a group of women wearing colorful belly dancing pants trimmed with small metal discs that jingled as they moved out of my way.
    “Sorry,” I said, not losing pace.
    We stopped near the tuxedos and huddled. Sam said, “Okay, Caroline go to Toys. J.J., you go to Linens.”Linens? I wasn’t going to be able to search for a new look in Linens.
    “J.J.?” Caroline asked, forgetting, or not noticing, that I’d changed my name earlier.
    “That’s what my friends call me.” I waited a beat for her approval. I didn’t get it. It felt like a sting.
    Caroline left without much of a run.
    Sam said, “I’m going to Garden.” He went to the escalator.
    “Wait,” I called. “Which way to Linens?”
    He pointed to the “lift” and held up six fingers.
    “And what do I do when I get there?”
    “You text a clue about where you are, like, ‘Cover me up, I’m cold.’ ” And