Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13 Carmen was getting stronger. But doctors worried about the wound on her leg. They told her she needed to stay in the hospital at least another week. Carmen was tired of lying in bed. But at least she wasn't lonely. Mrs. Grasso came every day with a feast of pasta or lasagna. Mrs. Ortelli brought boxes of cream-filled cannoli and crunchy biscotti she shared with the

nurses. Frankie brought his baseball cards. Teresa and Marie sat on Carmen's bed, braiding her hair over and over. Mr. Lawrence brought books. Carmen missed Mr. Vita. He still wasn't back from Connecticut. But Mr. Pallo stopped by one day. "You have a visitor," Mr. Pallo said. "But she had to wait outside." He helped Carmen out of bed, and to the window. And there, tied up in front of the hospital, was Rosie. "We found her near the stable," Mr. Pallo said. "Or what was left of it." The stable had been destroyed, along with the fire department and almost every other building around that part of the waterfront. Carmen couldn't imagine how upset Mr. Vita would be. But at least his other horses were all safe; they'd

been far from the North End when the flood happened. And now Carmen could see for herself that Rosie was all in one piece. "The cut on her neck is healing up fine," Mr. Pallo said. Carmen opened the window. "It's good to see you, girl!" Carmen called out to Rosie, waving. The horse's ears perked up. She let out a loud, happy whinny. Tears sprang into Carmen's eyes, and not only from the relief of seeing Rosie unhurt. Carmen realized she'd probably never ride Rosie again. Because not only would she be leaving the hospital soon. She'd also be leaving America. Nobody had mentioned that Carmen was going back to Italy. But someone would soon, Carmen was sure. Mrs. Grasso had probably already packed Carmen's clothes. Carmen shut the window, forcing those thoughts out of her mind. She had to focus on

getting better right now. Of all the people who came to visit, it was Tony she looked forward to seeing the most. Tony told Carmen what happened after they were separated. His ride on the broken wagon had been short. He'd been swept out to Commercial Street, where the river of molasses became shallower and shallower. He'd sloshed his way out and wandered around in a daze. "It was terrible," he told Carmen, his face darkening, his voice dropping down to a whisper. The bodies—bent and broken, so covered with molasses that he couldn't tell if they were men or women. People crying in pain. Injured horses. The mothers screaming for their children. Police everywhere. Mrs. Grasso was already looking for him, searching frantically. She'd found him pretty quickly.

"And then we looked for you," Tony told Carmen now, his lip quivering. Mr. Grasso had gone to the Haymarket Relief Station, a small hospital near the North End. That's where the dead were laid out. Men who'd been working around the waterfront. A woman who lived in a house along Commercial Street. Two ten-year-old children who'd been near the tank. But not Carmen. More than 150 people had been hurt—carried away by the river of molasses, trapped in crushed buildings, struck by flying metal when the tank exploded. One man was blasted all the way into Boston Harbor. Injured people were in hospitals all across the city. It was three days before Mr. Grasso finally found Carmen at Boston City Hospital in the South End. Tony told Carmen something else that shocked her, what the molasses company was saying about

why the tank broke apart. "They say someone put a bomb in the tank." Carmen had sat up in bed. "Those liars!" she'd exclaimed, her voice so furiously loud a nurse had peeked in to shush her. But she couldn't believe it! Everyone in the North End knew why the tank shattered—because it wasn't built right. Even little kids knew that. The tank had leaked from the moment it was built! "Don't worry," Tony had said to her. "Nobody believes them." Carmen could only hope Tony was right. On her last night in the hospital, Carmen barely slept. Every time she drifted off, she'd fall into a nightmare. She kept reliving the moment when the wagon almost flipped, when she was drowning in the sticky darkness. When she heard Papa's voice calling to her.