“Time is on my side,” he said, grinning. “We’ve got the rest of our lives in here. One day you’ll wonder
what you ever saw in Jared.”
In your dreams.
I laughed with him, happy he was joking again.
“Wanda? Wanda, can I come in?”
Jamie’s voice started from down the hall and, accompanied by the sound of his jogging steps, ended
right outside the door.
“Of course, Jamie.”
I already had my hand held out to him before he shrugged the door aside. I hadn’t seen him nearly
enough lately. Unconscious or crippled, I hadn’t been free to seek him out.
“Hey, Wanda! Hey, Ian!” Jamie was all grins, his messy hair bouncing when he moved. He headed for
my reaching hand, but Ian was in his way. So he settled for sitting on the edge of my mattress and resting
his hand on my foot. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.”
“Hungry yet? There’s beef jerky and corn on the cob! I could get you some.”
“I’m okay for now. How are you? I haven’t seen you much lately.”
Jamie made a face. “Sharon gave me detention.”
I smiled. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. I was totally framed.” His innocent expression was a bit overdone, and he quickly changed the
subject. “Guess what? Jared was saying at lunch that he didn’t think it was fair for you to have to move
“I’ll bet he did,” Ian murmured.
“So what do you think, Wanda? We get to be roomies again!”
“But Jamie, where will Jared stay?”
“Wait—let me guess,” Ian interrupted. “I bet he said the room was big enough for three. Am I right?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
“So that’s good, isn’t it, Wanda? It will be just like before we came here!”
It felt sort of like a razor sliding between my ribs when he said that—too clean and precise a pain to be
compared to a blow or a break.
Jamie analyzed my tortured expression with alarm. “Oh. No, I mean but with you, too. It will be nice.
The four of us, right?”
I tried to laugh through the pain; it didn’t hurt any worse than not laughing.
Ian squeezed my hand.
“The four of us,” I mumbled. “Nice.”
Jamie crawled up the mattress, worming his way around Ian, to put his arms around my neck.
“Sorry. Don’t be sad.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You know I love you, too.”
So sharp, so piercing, the emotions of this planet. Jamie had never said those words to me before. My
whole body suddenly felt a few degrees warmer.
So sharp,Melanie agreed, wincing at her own pain.
“Will you come back?” Jamie begged against my shoulder.
I couldn’t answer right away.
“What does Mel want?” he asked.
“She wants to live with you,” I whispered. I didn’t have to check to know that.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
”
“Do you want me to live with you?”
“You know I do, Wanda. Please.”
I hesitated.
“Please?”
“If that’s what you want, Jamie. Okay.”
“Woo hoo!” Jamie crowed in my ear. “Cool! I’m gonna go tell Jared! I’ll get you some food, too,
okay?” He was already on his feet, bouncing the mattress so that I felt it in my ribs.
“Okay.”
“You want something, Ian?”
“Sure, kid. I want you to tell Jared he’s shameless.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Go get Wanda some lunch.”
“Sure. And I’ll ask Wes for his extra bed. Kyle can come back in here, and everything will be like it
should be!”
“Perfect,” Ian said, and though I didn’t look at his face, I knew he was rolling his eyes.
“Perfect,” I whispered, and felt the razor’s edge again.
CHAPTER 39
Worried
Perfect,I grumbled to myself.Just perfect.
Ian was coming to join me for lunch, a big smile glued into place on his face. Trying to cheer me up…
again.
I think you’re overdoing the sarcasm lately,Melanie told me.
I’ll keep that in mind.
I hadn’t heard from her much in the past week. Neither of us was good company right now. It was
better if we avoided social interaction, even with each other.
“Hey, Wanda,” Ian greeted me, hopping up onto the counter beside me. He had a bowl of tomato soup
in one hand, still steaming. Mine was beside me, cooled and half full. I was toying with a piece of roll,
ripping it into tiny pieces.
“Oh, come on.” He put his hand on my knee. Mel’s angry reaction was lethargic. She was too used to
this kind of thing to really work up a good fit anymore. “They’ll be back today. Before sunset, without a
doubt.”
“You said that three days ago, and two days ago, and again yesterday,” I reminded him.
“I have a good feeling about today. Don’t sulk—it’s so human,” he teased.
“I’m not sulking.” Iwasn’t. I was so worried I could barely think straight. It didn’t leave me energy to do
anything else.
“This isn’t the first raid Jamie’s gone on.”
“That makes me feel so much better.” Again with the sarcasm. Melanie was right—I really was
overusing it.
“He’s got Jared and Geoffrey and Trudy with him. And Kyle’shere. ” Ian laughed. “So there’s no way
they’ll get into any trouble.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.”
He turned his attention to his food and let me stew. Ian was nice that way—always trying to give me
what I wanted, even when what I wanted was unclear to either of us. His insistent attempts to distract me
from the present anxiety excepted, of course. I knew I didn’t wantthat. I wanted to worry; it was the
only thing I could do.
It had been a month since I’d moved back into Jamie and Jared’s room. For three weeks of that time,
the four of us had lived together. Jared slept on a mattress wedged above the head of the bed where
Jamie and I slept.
I’d gotten used to it—the sleeping part, at least; I was having a hard time sleeping now in the empty
room. I missed the sound of two other bodies breathing.
I hadn’t gotten used to waking up every morning with Jared there. It still took me a second too long to
return his morning greeting. He was not at ease, either, but he was always polite. We were both very
polite.
It was almost scripted at this point.
“Good morning, Wanda, how did you sleep?”
“Fine, thank you, and you?”
“Fine, thanks. And… Mel?”
“She’s good, too, thanks.”
We were… sort of happy. Both Melanie and I.
And then, a week ago, Jared had left for another short raid—mostly to replace broken tools—and taken
Jamie with him.
“You tired?” Ian asked.
I realized I was rubbing at my eyes. “Not really.”
“Still not sleeping well?”
“It’s too quiet.”
“I could sleep with you—Oh, calm down, Melanie. You know what I meant.”
Ian always noticed when Melanie’s antagonism made me cringe.
“I thought they were going to be back today,” I challenged.
“You’re right. I guess there’s no need for rearranging.”
I sighed.
“Maybe you should take the afternoon off.”
“Don’t be silly,” I told him. “I’ve got plenty of energy for work.”
He grinned as though I’d said something that pleased him. Something he’d been hoping I would say.
“Good. I could use some help with a project.”
“What’s the project?”
“I’ll show you—you finished there?”
I nodded.
He took my hand as he led me out of the kitchen. Again, this was so common that Melanie barely
protested.
“Why are we going this way?” The eastern field did not need attention. We’d been part of the group that
had irrigated it this morning.
Ian didn’t answer. He was still grinning.
“Ian, I’m not in the mood.”
“You said you had plenty of energy.”
“To work. Not to play soccer.”
“But Lily and Wes will be really disappointed. I promised them a game of two-on-two. They worked so
hard this morning to free up the afternoon…”
“Don’t try to make me feel guilty,” I said as we rounded the last curve. I could see the blue light of
several lamps, shadows flitting in front of them.
“Isn’t it working?” he teased. “C’mon, Wanda. It will be good for you.”
He pulled me into the low-ceilinged game room, where Lily and Wes were passing the ball back and
forth across the length of the field.
“Hey, Wanda. Hey, Ian,” Lily called to us.
“This one’s mine, O’Shea,” Wes warned him.
“You’re not going to let me lose to Wes, are you?” Ian murmured.
“You could beat them alone.”
“It would still be a forfeit. I’d never live it down.”
I sighed. “Fine.Fine. Be that way.”
Ian hugged me with what Melanie thought was unnecessary enthusiasm. “You’re my very favorite person
in the known universe.”
“Thanks,” I muttered dryly.
“Ready to be humiliated, Wanda?” Wes taunted. “You may have taken the planet, but you’re losing this
game.”
Ian laughed, but I didn’t respond. The joke made me uneasy. How could Wes make a joke about that?
Humans were always surprising me.
Melanie included. She’d been in just as miserable a mood as I was, but now she was suddenly excited.
We didn’t get to play last time,she explained. I could feel her yearning to run—to run for pleasure
rather than in fear. Running was something she used to love.Doing nothing won’t get them home any
faster. A distraction might be nice. She was already thinking strategy, sizing up our opponents.
“Do you know the rules?” Lily asked me.
Absently, I bent my leg at the knee and grabbed my ankle behind me, pulling it to stretch out the
muscles. It was a familiar position to my body. I stretched the other leg and was pleased that it felt whole.
The bruise on the back of my thigh was faded yellow, almost gone. My side felt fine, which made me
think that my rib had never really been broken.
I’d seen my face while I was cleaning mirrors two weeks ago. The scar forming on my cheek was dark
red and as big as the palm of my hand, with a dozen jagged points around the edges. It bothered Melanie
more than it did me.
“I’ll take the goal,” Ian told me, while Lily fell back and Wes paced beside the ball. A mismatch.
Melanie liked this. Competition appealed to her.
From the moment the game started—Wes kicking the ball back to Lily and then sprinting ahead to get
around me for her pass—there was very little time to think. Only to react and to feel. See Lily shift her
body, measure the direction this would send the ball. Cut Wes off—ah, but he was surprised by how fast
I was—launch the ball to Ian and move up the field. Lily was playing too far forward. I raced her to the
lantern goalpost and won. Ian aimed the pass perfectly, and I scored the first goal.
It felt good: the stretch and pull of muscle, the sweat of exertion rather than plain heat, the teamwork
with Ian. We were well matched. I was quick, and his aim was deadly. Wes’s goading dried up before
Ian scored the third goal.
Lily called the game when we hit twenty-one. She was breathing hard. Not me; I felt good, muscles
warm and limber.
Wes wanted another round, but Lily was done.
“Face it, they’re better.”
“We got hustled.”
“No one ever said she couldn’t play.”
“No one ever said she was a pro, either.”
I liked that—it made me smile.
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Lily said, reaching out to tickle Wes’s stomach playfully. He caught her fingers
and pulled her closer to him. She laughed, tugging away, but Wes reeled her in and planted a solid kiss
on her laughing mouth.
Ian and I exchanged a quick, startled glance.
“For you, I will lose with grace,” Wes told her, and then set her free.
Lily’s smooth caramel skin had taken on a bit of pink on her cheeks and neck. She peeked at Ian and
me to see our reaction.
“Not my business. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s not a secret—how could anything be a secret here, anyway? It’s just really… new to me.
It’s sort of your fault,” she added, smiling to show that she was teasing me.
I felt a little guilty anyway. And confused. “What did I do?”
“Nothing,” she assured me. “It was Wes’s… reaction to you that surprised me. I didn’t know he had so
much depth to him. I was never really aware of him before that. Oh, well. He’s too young for me, but
what does that matter here?” She laughed again. “It’s strange how life and love go on. I didn’t expect
that.”
“Yeah. Kind of funny how that happens,” Ian agreed. I hadn’t heard him return. He slung his arm around
my shoulders. “It’s nice, though. You do know Wes has been infatuated with you since he first got here,
right?”
“So he says. I hadn’t noticed.”
Ian laughed. “Then you’re the only one. So, Wanda, how about some one-on-one while we’re waiting?”
I could feel Melanie’s wordless enthusiasm. “Okay.”
He let me have the ball first, holding back, hugging the goal area. My first shot cut between him and the
post, scoring. I rushed him when he kicked off, and got the ball back. I scored again.
He’s letting us win,Mel grumbled.
“Come on, Ian. Play.”
“I am.”
Tell him he’s playing like a girl.
“Playing like a girl.”
He laughed, and I slipped the ball away from him again. The taunt wasn’t enough. I had an inspiration
then, and I shot the ball through his goal, guessing it would probably be the last time I got to do it.
Mel objected.I don’t like this idea.
I put the ball back at center field. “You win, and you can sleep in my room while they’re gone.” I
needed a good night’s rest.
“First to ten.” With a grunt, he launched the ball past me so hard that it rebounded off the distant,
invisible wall behind my goal and came back to us.
I looked at Lily. “Was that wide?”
“No, it looked dead center to me.”
“One–three,” Ian announced.
It took him fifteen minutes to win, but at least I got to really work. I even squeezed in one more goal, of
which I was proud. I was gasping for air when he stole the ball from me and sailed it through my
goalposts for the last time.
He wasn’t winded. “Ten–four, I win.”
“Good game,” I huffed.
“Tired?” he asked, the innocence in his tone a bit overdone. Being funny. He stretched. “I think I’m
ready for bed myself.” He leered in a melodramatic way.
I winced.
“Aw, Mel, you know I’m joking. Be nice.”
Lily eyed us, mystified.
“Jared’s Melanie objects to me,” Ian told her, winking.
Her eyebrows rose. “That’s… interesting.”
“I wonder what’s taking Wes so long?” Ian muttered, not taking much notice of her reaction. “Should
we go find out? I could use some water.”
“Me, too,” I agreed.
“Bring some back.” Lily didn’t move from where she was half sprawled on the floor.
