Cleo Porter and the Body Electric by Jake Burt

Author:Jake Burt
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Angie led the way, the bucket swinging at her side and her knees cracking with every step. And even though the woman was slow, Cleo had trouble keeping up. She was dizzy, and she couldn’t help but stop every few steps, peering over her shoulder to see if the structure was still there.

“Is … is it much farther?” Cleo asked as the path widened. The grass had given way to a proper trail, one that was littered with chunks of crumbly black stones displaced by the cresting joints of tree roots.

Angie swung around. “How much longer you think old Angie can walk? No. We’re close. About a quarter mile down this road, we’ll hit the driveway. Not that anybody’s driving on it.”

Cleo squinted. She couldn’t see anything but more green ahead. And her home? It appeared no bigger than her fist behind her.

“I’ve … I’ve never been so far…”

“From home?” Angie guessed.

“From anywhere,” Cleo replied softly.

Angie smirked. “Welcome to the world, Cleo.”

Cleo huffed and lifted her chin, taking a few steps forward. Her heart fluttered, however, and she couldn’t help but look back again.

Her building was still there, though it seemed like the earth was swallowing it, bit by bit.

“I … I need to rest,” she admitted, leaning against a sturdy tree. Flakes of its greenish-gray bark tumbled to the ground at Cleo’s feet, revealing the white of the trunk beneath. She closed her eyes for a moment and pressed her forehead to the wood, taking comfort in its texture. Her fingertips slid along the grooves and chips in the bark, and she imagined it as a wall—a solid thing, continuous and regular, unmoving and unchanging and predictable. But then a breeze whirled its way down the path, setting the trees to dancing, and the trunk groaned.

Gasping, Cleo stepped back. Her eyes flew open, and she looked up. Thousands of broad green leaves played against one another, and they mingled with those of the tree next to hers, and the next, and the next, in a wave of unending movement that extended as far as Cleo could see. How many leaves were there? And how many trees? Millions? Billions? All connected and kinetic and alive …

… like people used to be, Cleo thought suddenly, and she swooned.

Angie poked at her shoulder with a knobby finger. “You fixin’ to pass out, kid?”

Cleo closed her eyes again, shaking off the rush of vertigo. She tried to summon the words to explain to Angie how she felt, but all she could manage was, “It’s … it’s just so big…”

Angie’s mouth twisted to the side, and she shot a glance down the path.

“Yeah, well, take a deep breath, because it’s about to get even bigger. C’mon.”

Cleo brought her pillowcase to her chest and hugged it close. “Bigger?” she whispered.

But Angie didn’t hear her. She was already weaving down the road, kicking little clumps of black stones out of the way with her rainbow shoes. Only when they reached a sharp split in the road did Angie stop.

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