Double Digit (A Girl Named Digit) by Annabel Monaghan

Author:Annabel Monaghan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2014-01-07T06:00:00+00:00

EVERYONE SAYS I’M IN DENIAL, BUT REALLY I’M NOT

AND SO BEGAN MAJOR MELTDOWN #1. I was aware that I couldn’t hear my own scream. I was aware that I was being restrained and that if I strained my right arm any harder, my shoulder would dislocate. I was aware that I had been very wrong to be so relaxed. They dragged John out and he caught my eye. It was a replay of when they were going to kill us in that middle school in Brooklyn. That time I saw confidence in his eyes, encouragement. I didn’t know it at the time, but he had a concealed weapon. This time I saw sadness or even a bit of an apology. He did not look like a guy with a plan.

Danny started to freak out. “Digit. They can’t take him. Are they taking him? Digit, stop screaming.” I still couldn’t hear myself screaming.

We were led down a poorly constructed staircase into a damp basement. When the door to our cell was unlocked, I wasn’t entirely surprised to see Adam Ranks slumped over on his bunk. I rushed over to him with that same suspension of reality that you have when you see a celebrity on the street. You feel like you know them so well that you want to run up and say hi, while they have no clue who you are. “Adam!”

“Mr. Bennett!” I heard Danny behind me, terror in his voice.

Mr. Bennett sat upright on the bunk directly across from Adam Ranks. This was the first time I’d ever not been happy to see him. I went over and hugged him anyway. I said, “They caught you. Now they have John.”

He didn’t have to say anything. I saw the pain on his face. He held me for a few minutes and let me cry. How awful, really, to be comforted by a man who’d probably just lost his son. But I was going to take anything I could get. After I don’t know how long, I pulled myself together. A little. “Will they really kill him?”

“I don’t know. He could escape if they don’t kill him right away. But now no one knows where this place is but me. I should have called my wife.” Danny was completely still. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. Reality was sinking in. And reality’s not exactly on my short list of favorite things anymore.

Adam spoke: “Is this the genius? Who’s the kid in the hula skirt?”

“Oh, I’m Danny, Digit’s brother. I would argue that you are the genius between the two of you. I mean, you create beauty, and now money, while she just keeps screwing up.”

“Nice.” Jeez. “Are you okay?”

“I am for now,” Adam answered. “But they don’t need me anymore. I turned over my technology so they wouldn’t kill me. And now they’re going to kill me anyway. Idiot.”

“I love the evergreen. It’s perfect.” I was a little off topic and talking through a stream of tears, but I wasn’t sure I was going to have another chance to say that to him.

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