Little Lion by Ann Hood Read Free Book Online

burlap bags of rice and dried beans.
    â€œHello?” Maisie called.
    Even though the door had been unlocked, the store appeared to be empty. Outside, behind the store, Maisie could see a large enclosed yard. But it, too, was empty.
    â€œMaybe someone’s upstairs,” Felix said, pointing to a stairway near where they’d entered.
    They went upstairs and opened another door at the top. In a large office, a teenage boy sat on a stool at a high desk, writing with a gray feather pen in an enormous open book.
    He didn’t notice them.
    Maisie and Felix waited. The boy had reddish hair, high cheekbones, and what their mother would call a strong chin. He looked very serious bent over the book like that.
    Maisie cleared her throat.
    Slowly, the boy looked up from the book to Maisie and Felix. His violet-blue eyes swept over them, sizing them up.
    â€œYes?” he said finally.
    â€œI wonder,” Maisie began.
    The boy climbed off his stool and walked boldly toward them. He wasn’t very tall, only a few inches taller than Maisie. But he had such confidence that he seemed to be much taller.
    â€œYes?” he said again, standing in front of them now.
    Maisie swallowed hard. The boy made her feel all discombobulated.
    Felix glanced at his sister, startled. She was blushing! He had never seen any boy make her blush before.
    â€œCould you please tell us the date?” Felix said, taking over.
    The boy laughed. “You’ve come in here to find out the date?”
    â€œYes,” Felix said.
    â€œIt’s October the second. 1772.”
    â€œ1772?” Felix said, his mind racing. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.
Four years from now
, he thought.
    â€œYes,” the boy said, curious now. “Have you been away at sea?”
    â€œYes!” Maisie said, delighted. “We have! How did you know?”
    He pointed at Maisie’s blue jeans. “You’re dressed like sailors,” he said. The boy folded his arms. “You’ve been away at sea and landed here on Saint Croix because . . . ?”
    â€œSaint Croix!” Maisie said, even more delighted. She didn’t know anything at all about Saint Croix except that it was somewhere in the Caribbean.
    â€œHave you landed in the wrong place?” the boy said.
    â€œYes.” Maisie laughed. “You could say that.”
    â€œWe have ships that go all over the world,” the boy bragged. “Perhaps I can help you get where you need to be.”
    â€œReally?” Maisie said. “You can rescue us?”
    The boy puffed up his chest. “I can do anything,” he boasted.
    â€œWho are you that you can do anything at all?” Maisie said.
    â€œAlexander Hamilton,” the boy said proudly, as if it meant something.

Alexander Hamilton
    This guy is so full of himself
, Maisie thought. Even as she thought it, her stomach did a funny little tumble. Ever since first grade, when Felix announced he was in love with Tamara Berkowitz and intended to marry her, Felix could not help getting crushes on girls. Sarah Thacher from the Bleecker Playground. Adrienne Stone from the Carmine Street Pool. Charlotte Weinberg from Little League. And, Maisie suspected, that girl Lily from his class now.
    But Maisie found boys mostly annoying, sometimes smelly, and, very rarely, fun to hang out with. So why in the world did this Alexander Hamilton, who strutted like a rooster, make her stomach do this tumble and her hands get kind of clammy? Was this what Felix felt for all those girls?
    â€œI’m Felix Robbins,” Felix was saying, “and this is my sister, Maisie.”
    â€œWhere did you two come from?” Alexander asked.
    Felix waited for Maisie to answer. She always had something to say. But she just stood there, looking a little pale and a lot confused.
    â€œUm . . . Rhode Island?” Felix said.
    Delight filled Alexander’s face. “The