Beautiful Dreamer
	by Allen Morgan
	novel
	no illustrations
	nine chapters - 107 pages

Chapter Five (part 3)

Susie went into the kitchen to cook dinner and Katie went out to help Gale deliver the papers. She told her what Susie had said and what they had to do the next day. Gale thought the whole idea was crazy.

"Your sister's weird," she told Katie.

"She's just trying to help us," Katie said. "Listen, it's better than getting turned over to the police or your mother finding out, isn't it?"

Gale had to admit that was true. "When do we have to do it?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning," said Katie. "Meet me down in my room at ten.

They delivered papers together for the next half-hour and were just getting near the end of the route when Katie suddenly realized what day it was. She grabbed a paper from Gale and looked at the front page just to make sure.

"What's the matter?" asked Gale. "Is there something wrong?" "Nothing's wrong," Katie told her. "I just almost forgot something very important. What time is it anyway?"

Gale looked at her watch. "It's 5:20, why?"

Katie looked relieved. "I still have time," she said. "Listen Gale, I have to go do something at home. Can you finish the papers?"

Before Gale could answer, Katie was racing down the block. She ran into her bedroom, grabbed the lottery ticket and dashed out again. She stopped off in her dad's bedroom to wish on the locket one last time, raced into the living room, and turned on the TV. She was just in time. The draw for the Western Express was about to start.

Katie watched breathlessly as the numbers were chosen. For one wonderful moment she thought she had won. The first four numbers came up exactly right. But then the last two numbers came up exactly wrong. Katie stared at her ticket and shook her head.

"It isn't fair. I nearly made it," she said turning off the TV set. "I almost had a hundred thousand dollars."

She thought about tearing up her ticket, but she couldn't bear to do it. Finally, she went back to her room and put the losing ticket in the cigar box. Then she went down to the kitchen to help Susie finish making dinner.

When Katie was getting ready for bed, she thought about what it would be like taking back all the things they had shoplifted. The more she thought, the more she worried.

"It would be just like me to get caught putting things back," she grumbled as she turned out the light. "They'd never believe I wasn't stealing it. They'd call the cops right away and the cops would call dad and I bet he would be so mad he'd just tell them to take me away to teach me a lesson."

As Katie drifted off to sleep she thought about jail. She knew it must be just terrible but she wondered what kind of terrible it might be ...

Katie shivered. She looked out from the window of the police car and saw the tall grey walls of the jail ahead. The jail looked cold as they approached it along the dark, lonely road. Soon the police car was driving through the gates. A guard looked down at Katie from the top of the outside wall. The hard, white light of a moving searchlight slapped against the barrel of his rifle as the gate slammed shut. The searchlight jumped away from the guard on the wall and knifed across the courtyard in front of the jail. It slashed between the bars of a prisoner's window and down into the cell.

The warden opened the door of the police car and took Katie in to the jail. She led her down a long row of cells where prisoners sat behind heavy metal bars and stared at them as they passed. One of the prisoners was Gale. Katie could see that Gale's eyes were red and swollen from crying.

"I'm sorry," Katie whispered as she passed by. Gale didn't answer. The warden opened the door
to Katie's cell and Katie looked inside. It was a small, dark place with an old metal bed along one wall and no other furniture. There were no sheets or blankets on the bed. There was no pillow.

"In you go, my dear," said the warden, as Katie stepped inside. The warden clanked the door shut and turned the key. Then she left.

Katie listened to the sound of her footsteps as she walked away. The thump, thump, thump seemed to be an echo of her own heartbeat. The sound slowly faded away and then, finally, there was silence. Katie was alone. She knew she was going to be alone for a very long time. She threw herself down on the bed and started to cry. The hard white light of the searchlight outside came slashing past the bars on her window and then everything was very dark again.