The Disappeared by C.J. Harper

Author:C.J. Harper [Harper, C.J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780857076991
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2013-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

A few nights later it’s Saturday again and Kay and I sneak into ‘Rex’s Room’ – namely, the toilets next to the salon – for some privacy. Only Reds are allowed in here but they’ll all be heading for Making Hour in a minute. Kay is writing words using pieces of string to shape the letters, this way if anyone comes in we just bunch up the string and there’s no evidence. She shapes ‘Academies suck’ and looks at me with a smile. This would be a good time to talk to her about the escape plan, but I’ve found myself putting that off. Even before I had a definite date, every time I tried to talk about leaving Kay kept changing the subject. It’s like she doesn’t believe it’s going to happen.

The six o’clock buzzer sounds, which makes me think of something else I’ve been meaning to say. ‘I wanted to ask you about Making Hour again.’ The words tumble out of my mouth.

Kay raises her eyebrows. ‘Do you want to Make with me?’

‘No! I mean, it’s not that I . . . I just wanted to know what it’s all about.’ King Hell. Why can’t I have a conversation with Kay about this without turning into a babbling idiot?

‘Blake, I told you they—’

‘I know what they do, I wanted to know why . . . I mean, I know why, but why is the Academy encouraging them?’ Once again my face is purple.

‘Come with me,’ she says and leads me out of the toilets. ‘The Leadership says we need factory workers. To make the workers they need Academy Specials.’

I nod. Everybody knows that the factory workers are vital to our economy.

‘They need lots of Specials. So they get Specials Making more Specials in the Making Hour. They say, “Do it for your country” and all like that.’

That bit, I didn’t know. Even if factory workers are important, I can’t believe that they encourage teenage girls to get pregnant. At the Learning Community they taught us that sex and relationships must wait until we’d completed our education. At the Academy they’re telling them they can serve their country by having sex. It seems like another way that everyone is being pushed into believing something without questioning it. ‘Are you sure you’ve got this right? Are you sure that the Leadership even knows about Making Hour?’ I ask her.

Kay shrugs.

‘Does the Making Hour happen in all Academies?’ I ask when we get on to the main corridor.

Kay frowns. ‘I don’t get you, Blake. You’re a brainer, yes?’

‘Don’t call me that. I’m smart, okay?’ But actually I’m not even sure about that any more. ‘Well, at some things anyway.’

‘So why don’t you know all-things? You know about old things like Long War, didn’t they teach you about things that are . . . now?’

We did learn Topical Issues at the Learning Community. It’s only now that I realise that what we covered was pretty narrow and, again, we were never taught to question what we were told.

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