Wanderers by Kim Susan

Author:Kim, Susan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperTeen

Another person in the restaurant was wide awake.

Asha sat alone on a soft, cracked seat that dripped stuffing. Unlike Aras, she had paid no attention to the strange story. Instead, she played with the tattered remains of blinds that covered the window and stared openly at Esther and Kai.

She had watched as the baby nestled in Esther’s arms, as his hands reached up and explored her mouth or got lost in her hair. Although Esther kept her attention on her strange friend, Joseph, she never stopped soothing the child, stroking his cheek, bouncing him gently. Without even knowing she was doing it, Asha copied her exact movements in the air.

Soon, Kai was nearly asleep and Esther lowered him into her lap. Asha did the same thing. She held her thin arms by the elbows in her lap, creating a cradle. Then she began to rock it.

“Shh,” she whispered, “shh,” for her baby was crying.

Across the room, Eli had watched Asha watching Esther. Now he came over and sat across from her.

“What’s your baby’s name?” he whispered.

Asha looked up, surprised she had been seen. Yet she wasn’t embarrassed.

“Asha,” she said, after a moment’s hesitation. Then she frowned. “No, that’s not right. That’s my name.” She glanced around, and her eye fell on a dusty object stuck to the wall above the table. It had a broken glass panel and a push-button alphabet in the middle.

“What’s that say?” She pointed at its name.

Eli squinted at the squiggly script, sounding out the letters under his breath. “Crosley,” he said at last.

“Crosley,” she repeated. “That’s my baby’s name.” Then she resumed her rocking.

Eli smiled. He had noticed Asha’s interest in Esther before. But he had not understood how far it went, until now.

Asha imitated Esther not simply because she wanted to be the other girl. She did it because she wanted to be older—as old, in fact, as she really was.

And what could be more grown-up than having a child?

“Shh, Crosley,” Asha said to her baby. “Shh.”

Asha seemed natural as a mother. Yet no matter how much she yearned to have a real child of her own, whether she could handle it was another question.

She could not do it alone.

Eli didn’t know what his future held. His life, already short, was ever more precarious. But he was only fifteen; perhaps he would live another three or four years. For as much as he disliked Aras, Eli had to admit the guide was far more competent than he ever would have imagined.

Maybe he could get them to Mundreel, after all.

And yet, Eli couldn’t help glancing at Esther. In the flickering light cast by the fire bowl, her face glowed, and for the thousandth time, his heart ached. For Eli had always loved her, ever since childhood. He had protected and helped her when the town turned against her; he had even asked her to be his partner. But she had turned him down, choosing Caleb instead. And now that Caleb was dead, she seemed to have space in her heart only for his child.

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