ants on an ant pile, inspecting the loaded car and trailer. The Plouffs from downstairs were there. And so were the Johnsons, the young couple from across the street with the new baby. Even old Madame Laframboise was there, leaning on her broom, her hair still in curlers.
At the last minute, Marcie came running up the street, her long braids bouncing behind her.
“Sophie!” she said, breathlessly. “I have something for you. Something really special.” She shoved a package into Sophie’s hands. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. “It’s a sort of going away present. Sorry I couldn’t find any fancy paper.”
“And I have something for you.” Sophie gave Marcie the parcel she’d wrapped in leftover birthday paper.
“Don’t open it until you leave,” said Marcie. “It has to be a surprise.”
“And don’t open mine either until we’re out of sight.”
The neighbours kissed everyone in the LaGrange family on both cheeks and shook their hands. Then the family piled into the car. Sophie got to sit in front beside Maman and Zephram while her three older brothers were stuffed into the back seat with bundles of blankets and pillows. They argued about who’d get the window seats.
“Just because you guys are older, it’s not fair that you get to sit beside the windows,” said Arthur.
“You sit in the middle for now,” said Joseph, in his deep voice, “then we can switch when we stop for gas. Okay, Henri?”
“I guess,” said Henri.
Sophie patted the butterflies in her stomach and smiled to herself. She got, not only the window seat, but the front window seat all the way to British Columbia.
As Papa started up the car and tipped his new fedora to the neighbours, they shouted, “Good-bye! Au revoir! See you soon! Don’t forget to come back and visit!”
And the LaGrange family shouted back, “Come and visit us in B.C!”
When Sophie looked out the rear window, she caught a last glimpse of Marcie as the car turned the corner. Marcie’s pink cheeks were shiny with tears. Sophie felt like crying too, but she didn’t want to be teased. She bit her lip and blinked fast.
She undid the string around the parcel Marcie had given her and slipped her fingers into the wrapping. She pulled the paper away. There in the parcel was—she couldn’t believe it!—the special Star Girl Reviewl A copy of the exact same comic she’d given Marcie. Madame Tussaud must have had two!
She knew Marcie would be her best friend forever, no matter where she went.
Before Sophie had finished reading the entire Star Girl Review for the third time, her legs were twitchy and her back was sore from sitting.
“Are we there yet?” she asked.
“We’re barely out of Montreal, Chérie,” said Papa. “We still have a long, long journey in front of us. We’ll soon be out of Quebec, then we’ll drive across Ontario, then through the prairies, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. And finally we’ll cross over the Rocky Mountains and we’ll be in British Columbia. We’ll have covered six out of Canada’s nine provinces.”
Sophie felt tired just thinking about such a long journey. And they hadn’t even left Quebec yet!
She stared out the car window. Farm house after farm house whizzed by in a blur. The spring thaw had come early this year. Already there were bits of pale green and brown showing between islands of grey snow in the farmyards. There was lots of mud, especially in the pastures where the cows stood around munching last summer’s hay. She curled up under Maman’s arm and read her comic again.
After a while she saw a sign at the side of the road. “You are leaving Quebec,” she read. Then there was another one, “Welcome to Ontario.” She felt a small buzz of excitement.
“But where’s the border?” she asked craning her neck to look at the ground beside the trees at the side of the road. “I don’t see any border.”
“There’s no actual line on the ground between the provinces,” Maman said. “Borders are just lines on the map.”
After they’d driven steadily all day, stopping only for gas and a quick lunch which Maman had packed, they reached the outskirts of Kitchener, where Sophie’s Uncle Thomas, Maman’s brother, lived.
The car bumped into a deep pot hole and jolted everyone awake including Zephram, who howled angrily. Papa stopped the car. Sophie and her older brothers tumbled out to see what was wrong.
“A flat!” said Papa. “Good thing we’re near a garage.”
Sophie saw a garage with a blinking sign just ahead.
Papa and Joseph took the flat tire off and put on the spare. Then Papa drove to the garage to have the flat repaired. When they drove closer, Sophie saw the sign said “Miller’s Garage.”
Papa said, “This will probably take some time, so you may as well come out and have a stretch.”
“I’ll telephone Thomas and see if he can come and pick some of us up,” said Maman. “The sooner I get Zephram in bed, the better.”
“You’d better get your suitcases then. I don’t know how long this will take.” Papa opened the trunk and unloaded everyone’s suitcases.
Sophie got her own suitcase and followed Maman, who was carrying a fussy Zephram into the shop beside the garage. Joseph, Henri, and Arthur grabbed their baseball gloves and a ball and started playing catch.
While Maman used the telephone, Sophie looked around the shop. She had a nickel left from her allowance and it was clinking in her pocket against a flat stone with a white wishing ring around it.
The shop was lined with shelves of chocolate bars, Double Bubblegum, black jawbreakers, and home-made crafts like bird houses and knitted baby sweaters and booties. But, in a corner, she saw a stack of comics!
She thumbed through them. They were all new with crisp, shiny covers. Some Little Lulus, some Archies, even some Supermans, but no Star Girls. Little Lulu was good though. Sophie sat on her suitcase to read. She read through one, then another, and another.
At the bottom of the pile she found the latest Star Girl comic, March, 1949. It cost ten cents so she couldn’t buy it, but she could read it.
After a while, she noticed things had become strangely quiet. She couldn’t hear her brothers shouting to each other outside anymore. She couldn’t hear Maman talking to Mrs. Miller, telling her how the family was enduring a long trip across Canada. All she could hear was a steady hammering from the workshop.
Sophie grabbed her suitcase and raced to the door. She stared outside. The car was gone! Papa’s car was gone!
She dashed out, her suitcase bumping against her leg. The car wasn’t in front of the pumps. It wasn’t anywhere!
“Papa! Papa!” she shouted as she ran down the road, dragging
