The Scavenger's Daughters (Tales of the Scavenger's Daughters, Book One) Read Online Free PDF Page A

with the second child but Rose was fed broth right from their supper pot. That was all that they had at the time and it was given with a spoon, a few drops at a time. Since then there had been many more children and they had learned to keep a small amount of milk powder locked away in the cupboard, ready for emergencies.
    Benfu reached over and lifted the pitcher of cold water from the counter and added an inch or so to the bottle. He shook it, then hurried over to his wife.
    Calli held the baby close to her body, rocking and humming to her. She had pulled her chair as near to the old coal stove as she could. She took the bottle from Benfu and as soon as it touched the baby’s cheek, the tiny girl frantically bobbed her head back and forth, instinctively rooting for the nipple. Calli slid it into the open mouth and everyone around breathed a sigh of relief when the baby successfully began to suckle. Calli and Benfu would take the baby to see the neighborhood doctor later in the day but she had learned over the years that the children had the best chance of survival if she worked to stabilize them at home first.
    Peony, Ivy, and Jasmine crowded around their Nai Nai, watching the baby suck the lumpy mixture. Lily—Ivy’s twin sister—sat at the table, listening intently to what was going on around her. Even Maggi stretched herself as far as she could from her perch on the bench, trying to get a glimpse of the baby’s face.
    “Nai Nai, do you think she misses her mother?” Peony asked pensively. She was the next to youngest in the group and usually the most vocal and probably the sassiest, too, Benfu would say. There was no doubt that Peony was of mixed blood and by the streaks of auburn in her hair and the slight rounding of her golden-colored eyes, Benfu suspected her father was Caucasian. At nine years old, Peony still remembered her own mother and even recalled the day only a few years ago that she was told good-bye and set on a bench outside the train station. Her mother told her to wait and someone would be along to take her to have the peach-sized lump removed from her head. She said they’d be together again when she recovered.
    Lucky for her that someone was Benfu and he had begged and borrowed to get the money for her surgeries. To make things harder for the child, postcards had started to arrive for Peony soon after her first treatment. Obviously the woman had been watching to make sure her daughter was found and had followed them home to see where they lived, always staying elusive enough to avoid being discovered.
    Before the end of the three freezing treatments and final procedure for Peony, two more postcards arrived. They were brief, only a line or two, and while there was never a return address, the sender claimed to be Peony’s mother and said she was watching the girl from afar and wanted her to know that when her circumstances changed, she’d be back for her daughter. He and Calli had agonized over whether to give the girl the postcards or not but in the end, Calli reminded him that they’d always been totally honest with their daughters. They hadn’t wanted to start keeping secrets. Since the first postcard, Peony had started acting quite ornery. However, Benfu was gentle on the girl because he knew she was hurting inside.
    Benfu didn’t know if the woman would ever really come forward and claim her child, but he did know that the postcards were a thread of hope that Peony clung to with all her might. She even slept with them under her pillow, taking them out one by one and gazing at the scenery on the fronts as she probably tried to imagine where her mother was. He only wished he had a way to find the woman and reunite the two, even if it would be painful tolose the girl. It never failed to sadden Benfu when Peony talked about the gentle kiss her mother had given her before walking away.
    “
Bushi!
She doesn’t miss them. They are cruel for leaving her in the cold with barely any clothes on.