Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory

Author:Daryl Gregory
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781466852716
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2015-04-06T03:19:59.487237+00:00

13

This seraph-band, each waved his hand,

No voice did they impart—

No voice; but O, the silence sank

Like music on my heart.

I could hear the students singing in the language of the Dwellers. I put my hand against the auditorium door, and before I could change my mind, I walked inside.

The singing stopped. Mr. Montooth, standing at the podium, glanced up from his book. Mr. Waughm’s mouth dropped open. The students, almost as one, turned to look at me.

I scanned the rows. So many pale faces under dark hair. And then I saw Lydia.

I walked to her row. The boy sitting on the end, the tall boy with the slab-like forehead, looked sideways at me. Then he realized that I wanted to sit down, and he pulled back his knees. I scooched along sideways, my big backpack bumping against the students.

No one said a word. Not even Principal Montooth.

Lydia stared up at me with those huge eyes—and this time I was sure that she really was surprised. She was sitting next to Flora, the girl with the red lipstick. I gave Flora a significant raise of the eyebrows, and she moved over a seat. I put my pack on the floor and sat down.

“Hi, Lydia,” I said.

She glared at me and whispered, “What are you doing?”

Mr. Montooth looked around at the students and smiled. “Let’s finish with ‘Rise, Oh Rise!’ Page twenty-eight.”

Flora shared her book with me. On the page were bars and staves as in a normal piece of music, but instead of the usual whole-, half-, and quarter-note symbols, the measures were filled with blobs, triangles, stars, and one shape that looked like an eye. And as for the words, they were written in a strange alphabet of jagged lines.

I tried to hum along anyway. Lydia sang without looking at me.

At the end of the song, the students closed their books and set them on their seats. Mr. Montooth said, “We are one day closer. You may go to your classes.”

Everyone filed toward the exit. Just as I reached the door, Mr. Waughm called me over. The vice principal swiveled his head, looking at me with one eye, then the other. “So,” he said. “What brings you to Voluntary?”

“I was just curious,” I said. “I’d heard the singing, and, well…”

“That made you so curious you had to disturb all the other students by coming late?”

“Sorry about that,” I said. “I meant to come early, but I was up so late reading.”

“I thought you looked a bit tuckered out,” Mr. Montooth said. He’d walked up behind me, and now he put a hand on my shoulder. “Everything all right at home?”

I realized he knew about the swim in the lake, too. Lydia was right: It was a small town.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Good, good. Any news about your mother?”

“We’re still hopeful,” I said.

“We all worry about our mothers,” Mr. Waughm said.

Montooth frowned at Waughm and then said, “I’m glad you came this morning, Harrison. But I have to tell you, Voluntary may not be the best fit for you.

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