Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata

Author:Cynthia Kadohata
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Chapter Thirteen

That night Jaden sat by his open bedroom window after Penni and Steve had fallen asleep. He thought about the day. For Akerke and the director, it was perhaps just another day. But for his family, it was one unlike any they’d ever had. The idea of accepting a baby after a single minute was plain nuts. He thought of Bahytzhan and his bug-bitten face. Now he would grow up German instead of American—his whole life changed because of a choice that took place in a single minute.

Jaden held some bread close to his chest without particularly feeling like eating it. Far away, he saw a shepherd and some sheep strolling in the steppe under the full moon. The wind was blowing hard, and even as high up as Jaden was, he could feel occasional pings on his face from the dust. Finally he had to close the window. Then tears fell down his face as he squeezed the bread to his chest. He didn’t know exactly why he was crying. What was he doing here, how did he get here? How? So he was born. So he lived with his mother. So he was brought to a group home. So he went to America. So now he was here.

He thought about what he’d felt earlier, when he had lost his way. He hadn’t expected to feel upset about being lost. Was feeling lost also in a way feeling that he belonged somewhere? That he belonged with Penni and Steve?

Unh, it was like torture to try to figure all this out. Instead he tried to think about electricity. Before anyone really understood electricity, there’d been entertainers who’d performed tricks with electricity for the amusement of the public. Like, they could make audience members hold hands and then discharge electricity to one person, which would make everyone in the chain jump at the same time.

Jaden knew that even today, there were many things about electricity that people didn’t know. He thought electricity held the secrets of the universe. The electricity in the bodies of the living was always moving and shifting. Every thought people had was electric. When humans understood electricity, they would be immortal.

But even that couldn’t distract him just now. Jaden thought of his mother and how he couldn’t remember what she looked like. He could only remember that he’d once remembered. And even if he could remember, so what? What good would it do him? Still, he felt that if he ever saw her again, he would have an attachment to her, such as he didn’t have with Penni.

If they took Ramazan home, he might possibly never ever know what his mother looked like. Was this fair to Ramazan? Was this right?

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