The Wonder Test by Michelle Richmond

Author:Michelle Richmond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2021-06-07T19:35:25+00:00

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Two houses in Florida share a back fence, yet the residents must drive more than seven miles to go from one house to the other. In 250 words or fewer, describe how this situation reflects both the most significant advances and the greatest challenges in urban planning over the past century.

It’s a quarter past midnight on Friday morning when I get home. Mister Fancy is sitting on the porch. I leave the front door open, but he doesn’t follow me inside. When I return with a bowl of milk, he gives me a dismissive look. If I could hear him speaking again, I imagine he would tell me to get my head in the game.

Rory is asleep beneath a blanket on the living room sofa, television on. I shake his shoulder gently to wake him. “You’re home,” he mumbles. The way he says it, I realize he was worried about me.

He sits up, making room for me on the couch. “Mom, I keep looking at that last text Caroline sent me. Don’t worry, Friend. All is well. It doesn’t sound like her, it’s not something she would say. Tonight, when I was rereading Martin in Space, I realized it’s a line from the book.”

“It is?”

He pulls the blanket around his shoulders. “At one point, Martin has dinner in Stockholm. One minute he’s eating potatoes with chives and sour cream, and the next minute he wakes up alone in an unfamiliar room. The room is all white and it has no door, no windows. There’s just a bed, a chair, and a desk with a note on it. The note says: Don’t worry, Friend. All is well.”

“Was Caroline reading Martin in Space too?”

“I gave it to her a couple of weeks ago. The book is so long, so strange, the line didn’t stick out until I read it again. What could it mean? Do you think Caroline was trying to send me a message? Is it some kind of code?”

I don’t know what it means. But it gives me chills. I put my arm around Rory’s shoulders. “We’ll find her.”

“Do you promise?”

“I promise.” And I realize, as I say it, that it’s the first time I’ve made a promise to Rory I’m not sure I can keep.

A few hours later, over a breakfast of bacon and biscuits, Rory complains, “I’m so tired of the Wonder Test.”

“Just do your best.”

He looks up and gives me a look I can’t read. “Like my life depends on it?”

When I get home from dropping Rory off at school, our street is crowded with parked cars. I realize the culprit is an open house three doors down. A Mercedes is blocking my driveway, so I double park and walk up to the open house.

The grass is so green, the trees so manicured. Everything is almost too perfect. A woman with long black hair greets me at the front door. Her suit is well cut but revealing, more automobile expo than high-end real estate. I’m about to

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