The Wall Between the Worlds by Ruth Fox

Author:Ruth Fox [Fox, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - young adult
Publisher: Hague Publishing
Published: 2020-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight:

Higher Frequencies

Jake, Daniel and Aaron head off together. Keira vanishes in the other direction. I know we need to hurry, but I can’t help pinching the elbow of Sharna’s jacket to hold her back for a moment. ‘How did you do that? Keep your head? Geez. We never would have gotten out of there if you hadn’t . . .’

She jerks away from me, her eyes flickering with anger.

‘Don’t!’ she says. ‘This was a stupid mistake. I can’t believe we did that – that I –’

She chokes on a sob, then turns and starts to walk.

I start to go after her, but she’s walking fast, and a car passes us, the headlights washing over the footpath, and I see that Sharna has vanished.

I duck my head and run for home.

***

I get a text from Keira at eight o’clock the next morning. ‘Meet at the gate.’

She’s chosen the gate, of course, so that Daniel can join us before we go into school. We all look tired and worn out when we reach it.

‘Where’s Sharna?’ I ask, but Keira shrugs. ‘I sent her the text.’

I see her a half-second later, walking quickly across the parking lot with her head down. I wave to her, but she keeps walking. She can’t have not seen us, and, besides, Keira sent her the text, too.

She’s ignoring us. Or maybe just me.

‘Okay,’ Keira says. ‘So, that didn’t work.’

‘Obviously.’ Jake sounds bitter. I can tell he hasn’t slept at all.

‘I don’t think it would have worked anyway,’ I say. ‘The sound wasn’t right.’

‘I think I know what you mean,’ Aaron says. ‘There was too much containment.’

‘The walls of the live room are designed to trap sound and funnel it into the computers,’ I say. ‘And if you think about building a real bridge, well, the music – the song – can’t be focused inwards, right? It needs to project outwards in order to make the connection.’

‘Oh,’ Keira says. ‘So, how can we do that?’

‘We could get all our stereos and hook them up together!’ Daniel says.

Jake snorts.

‘Actually, that’s not such a bad idea,’ I say. ‘I mean, we could use some high-voltage amplification equipment.’ I grin at their blank faces. ‘Big speakers. Really big speakers.’

‘Really?’ Daniel says, clearly impressed with himself. ‘There’s a music store in the mall.’

‘Huh,’ I say. ‘The manager . . . doesn’t like me.’

I always get dirty looks from the storeowner, Ron, every time I go in there. He doesn’t like me because I’m always looking at stuff and playing the guitars but I never buy anything.

‘He doesn’t like kids. We can’t go there by ourselves.’

‘You can call Mrs Henders!’ Keira says to Aaron. ‘She’ll take us, won’t she? Get her to meet us after school.’

Aaron agrees. ‘She won’t mind. I told her all about last night, and she was very sorry that it didn’t work.’

It’s weird to think of an adult being okay with us breaking into the school, but she’s the only adult who knows – and believes – what’s really going on, so I guess that makes all the difference.

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