Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender

Author:Kacen Callender
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

As I walk home, I think more about Kalinda’s anger. I would be angry too if she told me she was leaving this world for another that may or may not exist, so flippantly and easily, like I didn’t really matter to her at all. Of course she matters to me. She’s the first friend I’ve ever had. The one person who’s made me feel like I deserve to be alive. I love her.

I decide that since she’s helping me find my mom, I should at least tell her the truth. She deserves to know that she’s loved by someone. It isn’t fair, to keep such a large secret away from her. But telling her—saying the words out loud … I don’t think that’s something I can do.

I’ve never been afraid to speak my mind before in my life. That’s what feels worse than anything else. Silencing myself, when I’ve so often fought to be heard against people like Missus Wilhelmina and Anise Fowler and her hyenas. They aren’t telling me to shut up now. I’m telling myself. I’m a traitor to my own voice.

I lay on my bed, on my back, with my arms spread like I’m on the cross, staring at the cracks in my ceiling. Those cracks have been made from the earthquakes this island has. There are hundreds of earthquakes every day—that’s what my mom told me—but we can’t feel them all, because they’re so small. But those earthquakes send cracks up through the dirt and into the concrete. I watch those cracks now, watch them good, like I’m daring them to crumble this house on top of me and bury me alive.

The cracks don’t dare to do any such thing. I roll onto my stomach and pick up the purple journal that’s been resting at my bedside since the night I threw it like I meant to throw it out of this world and into another. Pick it up and stare at the blank paper, and as I stare, words start falling across the paper.

It’s not a letter to my ma at all. It’s a letter to Kalinda. And it’s telling her the things I’m too afraid to say out loud. It says:

I love you, Kalinda, and I wish that we could one day be married and live together for the rest of our lives. I would love to wake up and see you in the morning, and lie down for bed at night and have you be the last thing I see before I close my eyes. You have brought me joy, and I thank you for that, and I wish that I could continue to feel this joy every day for the rest of my life. I know that we could not live as husband and wife, but that wouldn’t matter, because I would be with you, and you would be with me too. It’s painful that I cannot have this. I wish I could have both this and my mother, and I

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.