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One evening after dinner, Mr．and Mrs．William called a family meeting．“We’ve had to make a difficult decision．” Mr．William announced．．
“You see, your mother has been offered a post as co-director of a television in Chicago．Unluckily, the station is not here．After thinking long and hard about it, we’ve concluded (下结论) that the right decision is to move to Chicago．”
Peter looked shocked, while his sister Amy breathlessly started asking when they’d be moving：“It’s surprising, but exciting!” she said．．
Peter simply said, “We can’t go －I can’t leave all my friends．I’d rather stay here and live with Tommy!”
Mr．and Mrs．William hoped that by the time they moved in August, Peter would grow more accustomed (习惯) to the idea of leaving．However, he showed no signs of accepting the news, refusing to pack his belongings (物品)．
When the morning of the move arrived, Peter was nowhere to be found．．
His parents called Tommy’s house, but Tommy’s mother said she hadn’t seen Peter．Mrs．William became increasingly worried, while her husband felt angry with their son for behaving so irresponsibly (不负责任)．
What they didn’t know was that Peter had started walking over to Tommy’s house, with a faint idea of hiding in Tommy’s attic (阁楼) for a few days．But something happened on the way as Peter walked past all the familiar landscape of the neighborhood：the fence that he and his mother painted, the tree that he and his sister used to climb, the park where he and his father often took evening walks together．How much would these mean without his family, who make them special in the first place? Peter didn’t take the time to answer that question but instead hurried back to his house, wondering if there were any moving cartons (纸板箱) the right size to hold his record collection．
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