Izzy at the End of the World by K.A. Reynolds

Author:K.A. Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Signals

MY MOM RAISED ME TO SEE LIBRARIES LIKE OLD friends. A quiet place to be yourself. To know you aren’t alone. So, when I saw the white mist in my peripheries, when I heard her speak, I knew the ghost-spirit was my mom. That even when I couldn’t see her, she was with me. And I was never truly alone.

“Izzy?” Raven dropped his stack of books with a smack on the table and came after me. “What happened?”

The word she’d said to me wedged in my head and wouldn’t let go. Open just kept rerepeating on a loop. My mom had given me a message, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. Open—open what? Akka scratched the ground my mom just drifted past. Raven stared at me, waiting for an answer, but I was deer-in-the-headlights stunned. My processing disorder sometimes made it hard to answer questions, especially when I was taken by surprise—and seeing my mom’s ghost definitely took me by surprise.

“Um. Sorry.” I shook off the sighting of my mom and focused on the books I’d dropped. They were scattered everywhere. Raven helped me pick them up. “I thought I saw someone,” I finally answered. “Over there. But—”

Raven shuffled off to duck down aisles but came right back. “I couldn’t find anyone.” He crouched over to catch his breath. Dust blew hard through the broken window downstairs. The stink had gotten worse; it was like breathing fumes. “Should we check the rest of the library?”

Me, Raven, and Akka weren’t looking so good.

“No, it’s all right.” I smiled. “I might’ve imagined it.” My chest clenched inside that lie. I knew without a doubt I’d seen and heard my mom.

“Okay then.” Raven tightened his mask. I adjusted Akka’s, too, before he wandered toward the next aisle. “Let’s compare notes and check out these books.” His eyebrows flipped up. “Get it? Check out the books. Because this is a library?”

I paused, so amazed at his dad joke, I laughed till I coughed. “Wow. I didn’t know you were such a fungi.” I pointed to the book on top of his stack—Fungi from Around the World.

Raven cringed. “I guess I had that coming.”

Akka returned—maskless—with a book in his mouth. “Akka! What? Where’s your mask?” Akka ambled over real slow, dropped the book, and woofed. Raven and I read the title together: Cosmic Dust, and the Clouding of Earth.

We looked at each other like, Whoa. “Nice find, Akka.” I ruffled his head, then opened his book. “Okay. It says cosmic dust, space dust, and/or extraterrestrial dust falls to earth every day from stars, meteors, and comets. This dust can grow new stars, create new planets, and even . . .”

“What?”

“Help a dying star or planet die quicker.”

“That’s . . . not good.”

“No.” I twisted my hair and bounced my leg. “What if the black dust is here to eat earth? It’s already changing the air, killing plant life, and—” I glanced at Raven’s red eyes and coughed. “What if it’s trying to kill us, too?”

My mouth tasted like blood.

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