The Greats by Deborah Ellis

The Greats by Deborah Ellis

Author:Deborah Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Published: 2020-07-21T21:39:52+00:00


17

Jomon stays quiet for a long time after Dev finishes talking.

The only thing he says is, “I’m going to call you Angel.”

He needs to think.

It’s all so strange.

There is Hi’s name, Hiram Jomon Fowler, so close to his own, Jomon Hiram Fowler. There is the way both Hi and Angel know the Soothing Song. They both look like him — the position of their ears, the shape of their foreheads and chins — and they seem to be able to read his thoughts.

Most strange of all is Angel’s story. It is familiar to Jomon. Parts of it, anyway. He can’t remember where he heard it, but he knows he’s been told bits of this family story before.

Maybe they are just like Scrooge’s fragments of underdone potato, when he first sees the ghost of Jacob Marley.

Or maybe they are real.

Jomon winds his fingers through the bars in the window and leans his head on the door.

They don’t know me. If they knew me, they would know I’m not worth bothering about.

“Why aren’t you?” asks Angel.

Jomon hears the voice right behind him. He turns to see Angel and Hi inside the cell with him. Angel is sitting as far away from Hi as possible, which isn’t far in that small space.

“Why aren’t you worth bothering about?” Angel asks again.

Jomon shakes his head.

“Just tell us,” says Hi. “What makes you so unworthy? What horrible thing did you do?”

“It’s what I didn’t do!” Jomon spits out. He slumps to the floor with his back against the cell door.

“Tell us,” says Hi.

Jomon can’t get the words out.

“If you could do one thing better,” Angel says. “What would it be?”

Jomon answers without hesitation. “I would say goodbye to my mother.”

He starts to cry. He lowers his head, ashamed to be crying in front of the other two boys.

When he finally looks up again, he is all alone in the cell.

The sounds of the night take over, and Jomon sleeps.



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