Running Out of Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

than usual.
    "I wasn't supposed to save these, but I always thought there might come a time ... I wish I hadn't been right," Ma said as she opened the bag.
    Ma reached inside and pulled out a pair of trousers made of fabric Jessie had never seen before.
    "Blue jeans," Ma said.
    "Are these Pa's?"
    "No, they were mine. In the 1980s, everyone wore blue jeans—men and women and children. ... I just hope they're still 'in' in 1996."
    Jessie and Ma both stared at the pants. They had pockets with shiny brass rivets that reflected the light from Ma's lamp. At the front, two rows of metal teeth peeked out from behind a cloth flap. Jessie reached out and felt the bottom where the pant leg flared out slightly. The material was softer than it looked, maybe because the blue jeans were made for a woman. Jessie had never heard of women wearing pants. But these trousers were so odd that Jessie began to believe the world outside Clifton was truly very different. She trembled, afraid. Before, she could half believe that Ma was making up the whole story. But these pants were proof, alien compared with everything Jessie was used to in Clifton.
    "They look so strange, now!" Ma said, with a laugh that caught a little and sounded sad. "In the 1970s, everyone wore something called bell-bottoms, where the legs really opened out, but by the time we came into Clifton, legs were narrower again. Oh, I hadn't thought of bell-bottoms in years! It seems like another world. . . ."
    She was crying again, but brushed away her tears.
    "You'll need to wear the jeans and this T-shirt"—Ma pulled out a strange-looking shirt—"to go outside Clifton for help."
    Somehow, in some part of Jessie's mind, she had known Ma was leading up to that. But Jessie still felt dizzy. She would have been a little scared of leaving Clifton even if she still thought it was 1840. But now . . . even Ma couldn't tell her what 1996 was like.
    "Ma—" Jessie was ashamed that the word came out as a whimper.
    "I know. If you're too scared—"
    "I'm not!" Jessie said.
    Ma smiled sadly. "I'm scared enough for both of us, then. Jessie—sending you out of Clifton is our last resort. We've tried everything else. We thought the quarantine signs would force Clifton's men to get us medicine before the tourists could see the signs. But they just ordered us to take the signs down, and threatened us."
    "Clifton's men?"
    "The ones who are on his side. Seward, the doctor, a few others."
    Jessie considered that.
    "Well, if they don't want these tourists finding out, and the tourists are watching us all the time anyway, why don't people just start talking about the sickness and needing medicine, and—"
    Jessie was wound up, but Ma shook her head.
    "We never know when the tourists are here and when they're not. We can't run the risk of being so bold, because— Jessie, I believe they might kill, rather than have their secrets out."
    A chill crawled down Jessie's back.
    "What if they catch me?" she asked in a small voice. It was hard dark in the woods now. Jessie stayed a little outside the lamp's glow so Ma wouldn't see how terrified she was.
    Ma shook her head.
    "Don't get caught." Ma looked down, then back at Jessie, her eyes burning. "I hate doing this to you. I've been turning this over in my mind all day, trying to think of another way. I wanted to go myself, but I can't fit in my old clothes anymore, not after having Andrew and Nathan and Bartholomew and Katie. I squeezed and squeezed trying to pull them on. So did Mrs. Ruddle and Mrs. Webster. We're all too fat—any of us who might go. And we'd be spotted in an instant in our Clifton clothes outside. So—that leaves you."
    In spite of the danger, Jessie felt a rush of pride, that her mother trusted her instead of Hannah or anyone else.
    "Won't everyone know I'm missing?" Jessie asked. "If I'm not at school tomorrow—"
    "I thought of that. I'll just tell people you and Katie are both sick. I won't even tell Pa the truth. Pa"—Ma's