Neptune's Children by Bonnie Dobkin

Author:Bonnie Dobkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2008-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

WAITING

The next few days crawled by. At first, Zoe could barely function. She wandered back to the beach on the afternoon the Scouts left, staring across the lagoon until she fell into an exhausted sleep. She repeated this the next day, and the next, as though by standing watch she could keep Hamim safe.

Josh remembered his own long-ago vigils in the hospital, and he left Zoe alone. With Maddie and Devon’s help, he got the kidlets fed and off to school each morning, then lost himself in his assignments at the Living Oceans.

He hoped they’d been right to send the Scouts. But he, too, had finally accepted the fact that they couldn’t all stay on the Islands forever. Like Zoe and Tish said, more systems would eventually break down, or supplies would run low. On the other hand, if Outside was the horror show he’d seen in his dreams, maybe it was better not to know that for a while.

On the fourth day after the Scouts left, Josh and the kidlets were sitting at the midday meal, grinning at a pompous speech being delivered by the dragon head, when Zoe walked in. She was hollow-eyed and exhausted, but to Josh’s relief, she seemed more herself. Sam let out a whoop and ran over to her. He hugged her around the waist, then backed off, frowned, and punched her arm.

“Where you been?” he demanded. “Josh said you were on a special ’signment for the King, but I think he’s a big, fat, stupid liar.”

“Real nice,” said Josh. “See what happens next time you want to go visit Lop-Ear.”

“Sorry, Samster,” said Zoe, crouching down and pulling her brother in for another hug. “I just needed to do some things.”

“Well, don’t do ’em again!” he said.

“Deal.” She looked up at Josh. “Sorry I freaked out,” she said.

“It’s okay.”

“No. It wasn’t fair to you. And you’re just as worried as I am.”

“I said it’s okay.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. Then he started, realizing what he’d done. He felt his face burn.

But Zoe just smiled, then looked back at Sam. “Okay, bud. No work today. No school, either. I’m all yours until dinner. What do you want to do?”

Sam pursed his lips, thinking. Then his face brightened. “Let’s go to the collie place!”

“The what?”

“The collie place! Neptune said they’d be playin’ soccer there today!”

“He means the collie-see-um,” said Maddie patiently, with the air of someone much older and wiser. Josh had noted with amusement that the more obnoxious Sam got, the more mature Maddie tried to act. “They been practicing there. Getting ready for the ’lympics next week.”

“It’s our team today, too,” said Sam, fiercely loyal. “So we gotta go.”

“Perfect,” said Zoe. “Okay. The collie place it is.”

“And Josh’s gotta come, too. And Maddie and Devon and …”

“We’ll all go,” said Josh. “Giz and Shana, too. We’ll have a real family day.”

Sam’s suggestion turned out to be the perfect antidote for the tension of the previous week. They entered

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