Ten Thumb Sam (14 page)

It took Sam a moment to find his voice. “Both of us? We could both go?”

“What about Loki?” Harriet asked.

“Katrina has invited Loki too,” said Irene. “You know how she loves animals.”

Martin punched his brother lightly on the arm. “I'd take the offer and run if I were you, Sammy.”

“But what about you guys?” Sam asked, feeling a lump form in his throat at the thought of leaving his family.

“Oh, I think we'll manage to hold down the fort somehow,” Irene said.

“And you won't be away from us forever,” Max assured him. “We'll call you at least once a week, and you can catch up with us on the road at the beginning of every holiday. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, summer vacation—you'll be so sick of us, you'll be counting down the days until you're back in Ottawa.”

“Well?” asked Uncle Albert. “What do you think?”

Sam looked over at Harriet. Her eyes were suspiciously shiny, but she was smiling and nodding her head.

“Well,” Sam said, taking a deep breath, “I guess I could give it a try. When do we leave?”

Rachel Dunstan Muller was born in California and immigrated to Canada when she was two. With the exception of a year in Northern Ireland, she has lived on the west coast of British Columbia since childhood. Rachel has been an English tutor, a ferry worker, a newspaper columnist and a training consultant, but writing fiction is her favorite occupation. Her first book with Orca was
When the Curtain Rises
. She currently lives on the edge of a small Vancouver Island community with her husband, four daughters, and an ever-changing assortment of cats, rabbits, birds, rodents, amphibians and fish.