Read Among the Hidden - Adaptive Page 1



  Among the Hidden

  By: Margaret Peterson HADDIX

 

  Chapter 1

  Luke is a boy who lived in the woods with

 

  his mother, father, and two brothers. His

 

  brothers’, Matthew and Mark were both

 

  older than he was. One day as Luke was

 

  outside playing, he watched a tree fall. His

 

  mom yelled, “Come in the house now”!

 

  When he got inside he thought to himself, “I

 

  might not ever get to go outside again in my

 

  life”. Luke wanted to know why his parents

 

  was selling the woods. The woods was the

 

  one place he was allowed to go and play on

 

  most days. When Matthew and Mark would

 

  go to school, Luke’s mom would let him go

 

  outside and play in the woods as long as no

 

  one was around. See, Luke had to live an

 

  invisible life. The only people that knew

 

  about him, was his mom, dad, and two

 

  brothers. No one was allowed to talk about

  Luke

  him, or even mention his name when they

  went outside. He was never to be seen by

 

 

  other people. When people would come to

 

  their house, Luke had to run fast upstairs

 

  and hide, and his mom would rush to put

 

 

  away everything that belong to Luke. No

 

  one was never to know that he lived there.

 

  Luke always knew he was different, but he

 

 

  did not know why. Luke loved the woods

 

 

  and was happy when he was able to go

 

  outside. and play. For this reason, he had to

 

  know why. One day, the family was sitting

 

  at the kitchen table, Luke asked his question.

 

  “Why are you selling the woods”? His dad

 

  tried to explain to him, that the government,

 

  those people that control the city, made them

 

  do it. Luke didn’t like the government

 

  because he felt like all the government did,

 

  was yell at people and tell them what they

 

  can and cannot do. Luke got up from his

 

  chair, and went to the window to look

 

  outside. He tried to imagine rows of houses

 

 

  where the trees use to be. This made Luke

 

  ask another question? “So when people start

 

  to move in, will I have to stop looking out of

 

  the window”? Luke’s dad, hit his hand on

 

  the table very hard. This question made him

 

  angry and sad all at the same time. He yelled

 

  at Luke and said “You are not to be looking

 

 

  out the window starting right now”! Luke

 

 

  always wondered what would happen to him if someone ever saw him.

 

 

  Chapter 2

 

  The laws, rules made by the government,

 

  was the reason why Luke had to be in

 

 

  hiding. There was a law that said “families

 

  can only have two children”. It was called

 

  the population law. The population law meant that you can only have a certain

 

 

  amount of people in a certain area. They

 

  even had the Population police to enforce

 

  the law. For example, if the police found out

 

  that a family was getting ready to have a

  3rd

  third child, the family was told they could

 

  not have the baby. So when Luke’s mom

 

  found out she was pregnant with him she

 

 

  kept it a secret. This made things very

 

  different for the family. His brothers

 

  couldn’t have friends over to play. They

 

 

  couldn’t have a birthday party with their

 

  friends either, because the parents’ feared

 

  other people would find out about Luke and

 

 

  tell the population police. This sometimes

 

  made his brothers angry with him. Because

 

  new people were going to be moving in,

  Luke was not going to be able to help

 

  with the outside chores. His brothers would make smart remarks to him about not

 

  helping with the chores. Their mom would

 

  tell the boys Stop being mean to Luke,

 

  because it was not his fault that he wasn’t

 

  allowed to help do some of the chores. Luke

 

 

  didn’t really understand the law and thought

 


  things would change when he got older.

 

  He wanted to be to go to school, have

 

  friends, and play outside just like his other

 

  6th

  two brothers did. On Luke’s sixth birthday

 

 

  his mom made him a cake. As he was

 

  staring at his cake, he had begun to think

  6th

  about Mark’s sixth birthday. Mark

 

  6th

  complained a lot on his sixth birthday,

 

  because he wanted to have friends over and

  was told no. This just made Luke want to

 

  ask his mom why. He wanted to know why

 

  he was so different from his brothers and

 

  why he had to hide when people would

 

 

  come over to their house.

 

  Several days after his birthday Luke decided

 

  to ask his mother the one question that had

 

 

  been bothering him. Mom, he says, “When

 

  will people be able to see me”? His mother

 

 

  was standing at the sink washing dishes. She

 

  dried her hands and said “can’t you just

 

  accept the fact that you are different?” This

 

  just made Luke ask, but “Why am I different

 

 

  from my brothers?” his mom began to

 

  explain to him, that when she was pregnant,

 

  she was very happy. She also wanted to

 

  show him off to everyone because she felt

 

  that he was a miracle to their family. Luke,

 

  began to feel confused and sad because, all

 

  he could remember was that his mom would

 

  hid him when people would come around.

 

  His mother continued to explain to him, how

 

  him being hidden was not as bad as he

 

  thought. He was always able to be outside

 

  playing in the woods, climbing the trees

 

  when no one was around. He was allowed to

 

  go into the farm and play with the baby

 

  pigs while his brothers were at school. He

 

 

  even got special hugs, and reading time with

 

  his mother when the brothers were not

  around.

 

  Luke was starting to feel like being invisible

 

  wasn’t so bad after all. That is until they

 

  took the woods away from them.