Margaret Haddix: Among the Free

But Mr. Talbot grinned.

"This is the best chance we have," he said. "Maybe I'll go check out that constitution they're working on…"

He wandered off, and Nina and Trey settled in with Luke, pulling down the signs. The adhesive Oscar's supporters had used was very strong; it was difficult erasing every trace of every hateful word. But Luke and his friends were persistent, working side by side.

"So I'm the only one who didn't go to Mr. Hendricks's house?" Luke asked.

"All our friends are there — and lots of other third children who didn't have anywhere else to go. Your brother's there too," Nina said. "His leg's still in bad shape, but Mr. Talbot said he was in charge of protecting the younger children if anything happened."

If anything happened… Luke shivered, thinking about how easily Oscar's plans could have succeeded. How easily, even now, the new freedom could be stifled if people didn't guard it carefully, didn't use it wisely.

"Mark's disappointed that he never got to come back here and work undercover," Nina said. "He says he missed all the fun."

"Fun?" Luke snorted. "Right. I would have traded places with him in a heartbeat. He could have ridden Jenny for me. He could have stood up on that stage."

"No," Nina said, "he couldn't have. It had to be one of us."

A third child, she meant. In the end, only a third child could have stopped Oscar.

"Weren't you scared?" Trey asked, scrubbing at the shadowy backing left by the sign. 'Admitting you were a third child in front of that huge crowd — in front of the whole country, really—"

"Of course I was scared," Luke said. "But I had to do it, you know?"

He looked at his two friends, and he knew they understood. They had also taken some terrifying chances. They had also risked their lives for freedom. It made the job of tearing down signs seem simple by comparison. Luke wondered if this was how it would be for the rest of their lives: that any other dangers or challenges they might face would pale in comparison to what they'd survived as kids.

We'll have a "rest of our lives" now, Luke thought, surprise ing himself. We will. He'd never dared to think that far ahead before. But now he gazed back out over the vast crowd again, and he could almost see everything he wanted to happen, stretching out far into the future.

He could see his family rushing through the crowd to find him — having seen him on TV, they wouldn't be able to sit at home, waiting, anymore. And instead of whisking him off home to try to keep him safe, they would decide to stay and help. He could see his dad telling the new government how to deal with farmers, his mother telling them about factory workers.

He could see Matthew getting to raise hogs again. He could see himself playing football with Mark again— Mark's leg finally fully healed — and maybe with Jen's older brothers, Brownley and Buellton, as well, when they came back safely to the Talbots' house.

He could see old, abandoned fields reclaimed, resplendent with new crops. He could see roads and bridges and houses all over the country repaired and rebuilt, all the warped framework set right, all the broken windows replaced.

He could see Oscar Wydell and Aldous Krakenaur and all the other Population Police officials caught and tried and sentenced, so none of them could haunt his nightmares ever again.

He could see Mr. Hendricks and Mr. and Mrs. Talbot working in the new government. Maybe one of them would be the new leader — a leader chosen by the people, not just forced into office through brute strength. Maybe someday he or Nina or Trey might even campaign to be elected, and then lead the country that had once said they had no right to exist.

He could see Nina taking care of her grandmother and aunties the way they'd once taken care of her. He could see Trey becoming a college professor someday, and Matthias becoming a minister, and Percy an engineer, and Alia, little Alia — well, maybe someday she'd be a doctor like Mrs. Talbot.

He could see all the timid, odd third children he'd known at Hendricks School getting a chance to lead ordinary lives — or maybe extraordinary lives. Maybe one of them would become a great inventor or a great writer or a great philosopher or… who could say what they might be capable of now?

He could see Smits reclaiming Population Police headquarters as the Grant house again, turning it into a home for children who'd lost their families. And he could see the boy on crutches, the one who'd been beaten by the Population Police, helping out.

He could see himself as a grown man with a farm of his own, married with children of his own — maybe two, maybe three, maybe more. He would take his wife and children and go back for Sunday dinners with Mother and Dad and Matthew's family and Mark's family. And they'd all sit at the same table, all together.

He could see himself and his friends gathering each year at a memorial for Jen and all the other third children who'd died in the rally. He could see himself staying longer than everyone else, bending down over the memorial so he could touch the cold stone and whisper to the ghostly memory of a girl who would never grow up, who had sacrificed everything for her beliefs: Jen, we did it Everyone's free now.

He didn't know if any of those things would really happen.

But they were all possible now.

Margaret Peterson Haddixis the author of many memorable novels for young readers, including Double Identity, The House on the Gulf, Escape from Memory, Takeoffs and Landings, Turnabout, and Running Out of Time. Among the Free is the seventh and final book in a sequence about "shadow children" that began with Among the Hidden. Her work has been honored with the International Reading Association Children's Book Award, ALA Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers citations, and fifteen state award finalist lists. Margaret graduated from Miami University with degrees in creative writing, journalism, and history and has worked as a newspaper reporter and a community-college instructor. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Doug, and their children, Meredith and Connor.