Sleepers by Darcy Pattison

Author:Darcy Pattison [Pattison, Darcy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781629440774
Publisher: Mims House
Published: 2017-07-11T04:00:00+00:00

Ferry Ride

It was a week of worry. Jake waited for Mt. Rainier to explode. Or, perhaps there would be a massive fish kill in Puget Sound. Maybe the paparazzi would finally find him, and his photo would go worldwide. Instead, the week dragged by, slow minute by slow minute.

Finally, Friday afternoon arrived. He was scheduled to visit Sir’s dental office in Seattle. One problem of being Risonian on Earth is that he had to get his teeth pulled constantly: Risonians teeth grow rapidly, and an adult Risonian sheds teeth about every 2-3 weeks. If Jake let that happen on Earth, people could start to notice. He went to Sir’s dental office a couple times a month to take care of it.

After school he walked quickly to the ferry station. With a sense of adventure, Jake followed the queue of people to board the afternoon ferry. It was his first time to cross Puget Sound by himself; Easter had always gone with him, but she was busy today, and he had insisted that he could do it himself. He climbed the steps to the upper deck and found a seat outside facing Mt. Rainier. It was cold and windy, but Jake loved the open air. He shrank into his hoodie and stuffed his hands into the hoodie’s front pocket. Slowly, the ferry chugged away from Bainbridge Island and headed toward Seattle. Jake slouched, pulling his hoodie down to meet his sunglasses and closed his eyes.

“Look!”

Jake opened his eyes and jerked upright. “What?”

White smoke—clearly, it WAS smoke, not just a cloud—rose straight up from Mt. Rainier’s crater. It didn’t drift around; it was pouring out of the crater fast enough to rise quickly, making a thin column of smoke.

Jake tried to take it in, tried to understand.

“The volcano is going to explode!” someone yelled.

Now, the upper decks were crowded with people who lined the rails, cell phones in hand, snapping pictures and videos to send out to friends. Within minutes, the world would turn its focus to Mt. Rainier. And if Captain Hill or his associates blamed the Risonians—

Quickly, Jake shoved aside a kid, snapped his own picture, and sent it to his mother along with a text: They will blame us.

She didn’t answer.

He sent it to his Dad. They will blame us!

He didn’t answer.

People were hugging each other and crying: “The end of the world.”

No, Jake thought perversely. It was Rison that was dying, not Earth, and no one cared about that. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe the panic at their own world dying would give them sympathy for Risonians. But no, if they blamed the “Sharks,” it would only make things much worse.

The wind whipped through coats, sweaters, jackets, and hoodies, penetrating and chilling everyone to their core. While they were trapped on the ferry, the crowd had remained calm. As the ferry pulled into the dock, though, people rushed down the stairs toward the exit, which was blocked off with a chain until the ferry was fully docked.

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