Team Human by Justine Larbalestier

Author:Justine Larbalestier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Clues over Cantonese

“I can’t believe you didn’t even get to see the zombies,” my little brother, Lancelot, said scornfully at dinner that night. “That’s such crap.”

“Lance,” Mom said, her voice stern.

We were all sitting down to a proper Cantonese meal. My dad’s only third-generation American, and occasionally he has fits of guilt about us kids being raised not knowing about our heritage. My mom’s family has been here since the Gold Rush and she’s a lot more easygoing, but if Dad wants to cook us a ton of Cantonese dishes, she’s not going to turn that down.

Mom is always very keen on someone else doing the cooking.

Normally, I wouldn’t turn it down either. But today my gai lan—Chinese broccoli, so much better than normal broccoli—in oyster sauce didn’t look as good as usual. I might’ve read too many zombie pamphlets.

Or it might have been the memory of Cathy’s face, distressed but still totally determined to do something that would destroy her.

Or maybe Kit’s face, pale and sick, talking like he had no other choice.

“I can’t believe Cathy didn’t take one stupid picture,” Lance continued. “She’s always said I was like her own little brother. What good is that, if it doesn’t score me one lousy picture of a zombie with its eyeball on its cheek?”

“Lancelot!” Dad exclaimed. “We’re trying to have a nice meal and celebrate our heritage. Celebrate it now, or celebrate it at Cantonese classes over the summer. It’s your decision.”

Lance planted his face in the honey-garlic spareribs.

“You’ll be doing the dishes for that,” put in Mom, looking pleased. Any excuse to not do them herself.

“But, seriously, how was the whole business down at the ZDU?” Mom asked, deploying her chopsticks to steal a massive wedge of the flowering chives stir-fry. “I hear it’s pretty rough on the younger ones who go down for the first time.”

“Yeah. A boy I know got sick,” I said without thinking. “But Cathy was fine.”

Mom clicked her tongue against her teeth. “I don’t know what Valerie is thinking.”

I raised an eyebrow. My mom and Cathy’s mom weren’t exactly friends: They’re not each other’s kind of people.

My parents used to have dinner with Anna’s, though.

“Valerie was down by the courts investigating the laws related to vampire transitioning,” Mom said. “She told me Cathy had asked her to sign the permission forms for transition. The idea is crazy. Cathy’s got her whole life ahead of her. There’s no need to let her rush into a decision. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to transition before eighteen. Except the underage terminal patients, of course.”

“In some states, you can’t transition until you’re twenty-one,” Dad said. “I think that’s fair, myself. Why should you be able to drink blood before you can drink alcohol?”

“They’d never pass something like that in Maine,” Mom said, rolling her eyes. “Not in the vampire state.”

Mom and Dad swung into a debate about the laws controlling vampirism. I passed the time by grabbing a hank of Lance’s hair and lifting him off the spareribs.

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