The Infinity Code by Emma Young

Author:Emma Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2010-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

22

Grodno. Vilnius. Rezekne . . . The train stop-started its way east, ever farther away from home, ever closer to St. Petersburg and the unknown.

At first, Will’s sleep was dreamless. But as dawn broke, he woke suddenly, ears pounding with his blood. His fists were clenched, the left around a handful of his sweater, the right around the cricket ball in his pocket. That same old dream.

What was there? After his father put on his boots and went outside, what came next?

“Bad dream?”

Gaia was lying on her side. Beside her, Andrew was fast asleep, snoring quietly. Through the window came the first early light, pink and orange. A pale, rosy glow filled the compartment, turning Gaia’s skin an unnatural color. The light, and the regular motion of the train, made Will feel a little better.

“Yeah,” he said at last.

“What were you dreaming?”

He hesitated. He could tell her he didn’t remember. That would be easiest. But he felt a peaceful sort of tired, too tired to lie. “I was dreaming about my parents. I often have the same dream. I’m at home. Mom’s reading at the table in the kitchen. Dad’s putting on his boots. He’s about to go outside to burn off garbage in the garden. Then it stops. I always wake up.”

“It doesn’t sound like a bad dream,” she said.

“No,” Will conceded. “I think—I think maybe it’s a memory and something happens next. But I don’t know what it is.”

“Something bad?”

“Maybe.” Will pulled his hand from his pocket, leaving the cricket ball in place.

“Do you always carry that ball with you?”

He raised his head slightly, surprised. He hadn’t realized anyone had noticed.

“I saw you with it at Andrew’s house,” she said, as though she’d read his thoughts. “Did your dad give it to you?”

“Yes.”

There was a long silence. “I used to have a gold chain that belonged to my mother,” she said eventually. “After she died I wore it all the time. I never took it off.”

“What happened to it?”

Will soon felt bad about his curiosity. “I lost it,” she said, and met Will’s gaze. “I don’t know how. It must have fallen off and I didn’t notice. I thought it was the end of the world. So the next week, I took all the things she’d left and I packed them up and got rid of them. I gave some to my aunt. I gave some to a charity shop. We’d been hoarding all these things, Dad and I, for seven months. And—he was really angry. At first. Then I think he thought I’d done the right thing.”

“You didn’t keep anything at all?” Will said. And at the back of his mind, he realized that though it ought to feel strange talking to Gaia about this, about these things, it did not.

Gaia shook her head. “I thought about my necklace when I saw your cricket ball. If I were you, I’d get rid of it. You think you’re carrying your dad with you, but you’re not. Not in a thing, anyway.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.