Above by Leah Bobet

Author:Leah Bobet
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9780545296700
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2012-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

When I get upstairs, Whisper’s perched in the attic bedroom in a pile of skirts and tumbledown, eyes reddened and living. She looks up at me from the center of a circle of paper scraps that radiates out like a summoning sign. Doctor Marybeth’s spare bed’s been moved to the side, and underneath it is dust and dust that goes on for half an age.

Dust is old skin, I remember; Atticus’s teaching. Could be Corner’s dust. I step out of it and wrap my arms around my chest, like Doctor Marybeth did, to hold out the sudden cold.

“It’s done,” I say low, so to not disturb her ghosts. “I need to go get Ari.”

Whisper nods once, face bleak as the night sky Above, before turning back to her pictures.

“Bring that one to the left,” she says, and Jack looks up from the circle he’s pacing round Whisper’s scrap-heap fortress, shifts a flick of paper to where she’s pointing.

“What’re you doing?” I blurt, all knees and elbows, and Whisper settles another curl of scorched notepaper a precise finger sideways.

“I’m going to call out Atticus,” she says simple, and the hard, frowning concentration that’s normal Whisper, regular Whisper with a broken pipe or food shortage, is back in her face. “It’ll take half an hour. Close the door.”

The sun’s already going down. Ari’ll be mad at me for sure now. Bea might be too; I told her I’d be back before dark for bottles, and Bea I owe Sanctuary and don’t want to displease. But I’m sworn to keep Safe. To do my best for Safe.

I’m sworn to be here now.

So, “Why?” I ask.

“Because, Teller,” Whisper says, like I’ve just asked her why rock is hard. She inclines her chin downstairs, touches a finger to her nose. Doctor Marybeth. She doesn’t want Doctor Marybeth knowing.

There’s a tight seam about her eyes that says more: Because I need Atticus.

The frown surfaces before I can turn away. I know she sees it because she draws her shoulders up and looks at me until I close the door behind me. “It’s her house,” I say. Jack keeps up his pacing. He don’t say a word.

“She sent Violet away,” Whisper replies, and Jack’s frowning now too, but he shakes his head once and lets be. I look over Whisper’s head at him. We need to talk, me and Jack. Somewhere we don’t need warnings. Somewhere quiet.

But now he stoops down and moves one last finger of paper just so, and Whisper spreads her hands for us to give her a good lot of room. I back right up to the door, feel for the handle — too high, at my side. If Doctor Marybeth comes upstairs, I can warn them, or her. I can get it open quick, or keep it shut.

There’s a funny feeling in my belly at the thought of the ghost of Atticus.

“Maybe I should go back down —” I say, and Jack quells it with a look. I know he knows what I really mean: I don’t want to be here.

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