Grow by Carrie Vaughn

Author:Carrie Vaughn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

* * *

Sweaty and exhausted, Maryam got home on foot, hopped the low brick wall into the back garden, dumped the wadded-up tent by the door, and snuck inside. She was able to get upstairs and into the bath to clean up before anyone saw her, and strolled back down the stairs with a magazine in hand as if she’d been in her room reading all afternoon.

Turned out she didn’t need to wait for the news—a special broadcast was already playing, and the whole family was gathered to watch. When Maryam appeared in the front room, her parents and siblings looked at her, wearing expressions of pure shock that she’d never seen in her life.

“What?” she said, though a chill passed over her.

Her brother pointed weakly at the television, and Maryam watched. A now familiar style of impromptu video was playing, the viewpoint maybe half a street up from the new hospital’s front doors. And there Maryam was, striding into the frame, followed by screaming, and something like a stampede. The image shook, jostled by people running past. The person with the camera seemed to be torn between fleeing themselves and staying to record the moment.

Then giant Maryam turned toward the camera, exposing a clear view of her face, framed by a fall of black hair. The newscast froze this image and put it in the background while the very serious newscaster read from her page.

“The Towering Teenager, as she is now being called, has been identified as Maryam Shahidi, of Horsforth, near Leeds…”

Beside the image from that afternoon’s hospital opening, a second photo appeared, an innocuous black-and-white school picture, in which she was wearing a white shirt and necktie and a stupid, toothy smile. The two were very clearly the same girl, and very clearly Maryam.

“Authorities now believe this was not an assassination attempt against Prince Edward as initially believed, but may be nothing more than a schoolgirl prank. In any case, police are looking for Maryam Shahidi, and anyone who has any information should contact—”

That was when the knocking at the door started.

She stared back at her family and wondered if it was too late to simply run as far and fast as she could and never come back.

Her father got up to move toward the door.

“Don’t answer that!” Maryam called. Meanwhile, her brother and sister were pulling aside the curtains to look out the front window. Gasps followed.

“Look at that!” her brother announced, laughing a little.

The front street was filled with cars, vans, and a seething crowd, all pointed toward the Shahidi house. Once the name was out, Maryam wasn’t at all hard to find, it turned out. Noticing the curtains parted, dozens of people with cameras lunged through the front shrubbery to put lenses up to the glass.

“Close those curtains!” Maryam said. Miraculously, her brother did so, and the room went dark, except for the television, where the video footage from the hospital was playing over again. This time, there was a clip of Prince Edward being escorted to his waiting limousine.

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