As I approached the door, I could just make out that what was hanging on it was a piece of notebook paper. It was tacked up with a nail.

I tore down the paper and lit the lighter. It was a note:

refuse Morgan

That's all it said. Just two words.

What the hell? Such a weird phrase. What did that mean?

At first, it seemed like this was some strange, mean-spirited comment about Morgan. I almost started to cry again. Why would someone write something like that? The Home Guard hadn't been there yet, so the note had to have been written by someone in the Underground.

But after I cleared the cobwebs of grief from my rational thought processing, I saw that the note couldn't have been just some random disparaging comment about Morgan. I didn't recognize the handwriting, but I could tell it wasn't Ian's. I wondered if maybe Chris had written the note as some kind of code, warning Ian that Morgan had progressed to stage three.

But even that didn't make sense. As far as I knew, Ian had been with Chris at the granary all day. Why would Chris have needed to leave Ian a note?

Was the note for me?

I turned the paper over. Nothing was on the back. I read the two words on the front again.

Refuse Morgan.

I had no clue what the message meant. It had to mean something, but I couldn't afford to hang around at the granary trying to figure it out.

I folded the paper, stuffed it into my pocket, and started making my way through my dad's alfalfa fields toward the bend in the highway and my date with Jason.

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