The Switch by Roland Smith

Author:Roland Smith [Smith, Roland]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2022-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

Henry took the Market Street exit off Sunset, because that’s what almost everyone else was doing. His plan, which he had to admit wasn’t much of a plan, was to ride through downtown on his way back to the farm. It wasn’t the most direct route, but he had this wild hope that he might see Derek on the way. Derek would know what to do and could probably get him back to the farm faster than he could on a bicycle.

His hope vanished when he reached the top of the exit. He got off his bike. Gort sat. They both stared. There were throngs of people buying and trading at sidewalk stalls and inside stores that hadn’t been burned out. It was like a street festival.

This is just the edge. It’s thirteen blocks to the Willamette River. Imagine what it’s like the deeper you get into the city.

Caroline knew the city better than he did. She hung out downtown on weekends, or at least she used to. The smart move was to get back onto the freeway and head south, pedaling as fast as he could back to the farm. But the busy scene across the street intrigued him. The people were nothing like the people living in the tunnel. There was a lot of hand shaking, laughing, and smiling. It was almost like the farm. The switch was horrible, but it hadn’t really altered their fundamental cheerfulness. “The world is what it is,” his mom was always saying. “We do not panic. We respond. We deal with it. We adjust.” The people across the street appeared to have adjusted.

He watched a half-dozen cyclists jump off their saddles and walk their bikes into the crowd because there wasn’t enough room to ride through it. Two old cars exited the ramp and turned left, as if they weren’t allowed to drive onto the street where the stalls were.

Henry decided to cut through the market and make his way down to the river. If he didn’t spot Derek, or Derek didn’t spot him, he could catch Interstate 5 from Front Street and head south to the farm. He pushed the zebra bike across the street, with Gort nervously bumping his left leg. He wasn’t used to crowds.

Neither are you.

He squeezed his way through the crowd, ignoring the people trying to sell him everything from toilet paper to gold necklaces.

“You need a dog collar? Only one silver!”

“Books here! Books here! No mildew! Read ’em and weep!”

“Aspirin! I got aspirin! Sealed bottle! Fifty count!”

“Disposable razor! Good shape! Twenty shaves! Maybe more!”

Every fourth or fifth building was more or less intact, meaning it wasn’t a burned-out husk. The street floors had been turned into shops, and he guessed the upper floors had been turned into living quarters, because there were a lot of people hanging out the windows, shouting down to people on the street.

“Anybody got a roll of toilet paper for sale?”

“We need candles and matches!”

“We have apples and pears up here!”

A couple of blocks in he started to get a little panicked.

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