The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

Author:Allegra Goodman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: speculative fiction
ISBN: 9781595141958
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: 2008-09-04T05:00:00+00:00

TWO

THEY WERE CAREFUL, THE TWO OF THEM. THEY PRACTICALLY tiptoed around the house. Quintilian still looked for their parents. He looked in all the closets and under the beds, but Honor told him they wouldn’t come if he screamed and cried. He played quietly while Honor washed the dishes and separated the recyclables into their ten bins. On Errand Day he helped Honor take the dirty clothes to the laundry machines. They washed Will’s and Pamela’s clothes as usual and set up the racks in the living room as usual to hang the clothes to dry.

They took the bus to the City, and Honor bought milk and bread and cans of fish with her coupons. Quintilian didn’t say anything about candy because Honor had warned him. She’d told him what would happen if he made a fuss. “Do you want us to be orphans?” she’d asked him. “You have to listen to me, or they’ll make us live at school.”

Honor was afraid at first that Quintilian wouldn’t listen to her, but as the days passed, he lost his stubbornness. He just looked tiny and scared and did exactly what she said. Every night he tried to wait up, but every night their parents didn’t come, and he fell asleep holding Honor’s old bear in his arms.

Honor did everything right. She got Quintilian to the bus on time. She did all her homework. She kept the house neat, although not as neat as it had been before. At night she pushed Quintilian’s toys under the furniture. When mail arrived, Honor stacked it neatly in the closet. She never opened the envelopes.

At bedtime Honor told Quintilian his favorite bedtime story. It was a story from one of the books in the school library, the tale of Dorothy and how she fell asleep and dreamed of the land of Oz. Honor told that story every night. Eventually Quintilian drifted off, but Honor stayed awake for hours. Where were they? Where had they gone? How had she allowed this to happen? She asked those questions over and over again. But the questions that really frightened her were simpler than that. Why did no one ask about her parents? No one came looking for Will and Pamela from work. No one said anything at school. The mail came as usual. New Directives piled up. The Neighborhood Watch, which was supposed to notice everything, never came to call. It didn’t feel as though her parents had been taken; it felt as though they’d never existed in the first place.

She became exhausted because she couldn’t sleep at night. Honor couldn’t keep her eyes open on the bus, and once she even drifted off in class. Ms. Lynch stood right over her and clapped in front of Honor’s face.

“Heloise!”

Honor started back in surprise. The other girls covered their mouths with their hands.

Honor’s classmates were quiet. They acted almost the same, and yet none of them, not even Helena, was quite as friendly to Honor as before. The girls did not come up to Honor and start conversations.

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