Saladin Abdullah was nearly forbidden from visiting the market with Madam Kamila, Prudence Painter, and the two other children. It had all started with a misunderstanding about what constituted the “hotel grounds” in Madam Kamila’s instructions that he “not leave the hotel grounds.” Sali had concluded that this meant the building proper, the landscaped patio area behind the hotel, and all of the other buildings on the block which shared the landscaped patio area.

And so his day’s explorations had ended up with him trapped in a narrow basement dug beneath a bakery, where he had had to yell up through a gap in the floor at the baker’s wife, nearly scaring the old woman to death. The baker had dragged the boy back to the hotel by his ear. Madam Kamila had not noticed Saladin...

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