Theres nobody else to film. Nina directed her video camera right at our face, giggling. I groaned and pulled our covers over our head. You move a lot in your sleep, you know that?
No. The blankets muffled my words. And I dont need cinematographic proof, thank you very much.
Ninas camcorder really belonged to Emalia, who had accidentally broken it years back. Nina had unearthed it in a cabinet, and Ryan had fixed it. Since then, Addie and I woke far too often to a camera lens hovering above our bed, filming the apparently fascinating movie of Addie & Eva Asleep.
The video camera was enormous and heavy, but that didnt seem to dissuade Nina. She and Kitty had gone through two Super 8 film cartridges already, keeping them in our dresser drawer in hopes Emalia might go through with her promise to develop them. I didnt have the heart to tell her that Emalia would probably wait months before deeming it safe enoughif she ever did.
Eee-va. Nina drew out my name on a two-toned pitch. Come on. Get up. When I didnt move, she sighed. Fine. Ill just look through Addies sketchbook, then.
This jerked Addie into control. Nina
This jerked Addie into control. Nina
Nina pulled the sketchbook from the nightstand drawer and flipped it open with stubborn glee. After years of hiding her drawings, Addie still disliked people looking through her sketches.
Whos this? The sketchbook had fallen open to a picture of a young boy, light-haired and eager-eyed.
Lyle. Addie slipped from our bed and crossed to Ninas. The younger girl leaned against us, like it was automatic.
Whys he dressed like that?
Our lips crooked in a smile. Addie had drawn him in a soldiers uniform right out of one of his spy-and-adventure novels. Because he always wanted to have adventures. For a while, he was convinced he was going to be a soldier when he grew up. He taught himself Morse code and everything. By the time he moved on to the next thing, Id practically memorized it, too.
Do you still remember it?
Addie nodded. Nodding was easier than speaking around the sudden lump in our throat. She picked up the pencil and reached for her sketchbook, drawing a line and a dot; then two dots; another line and dot; and finally a dot followed by a line.
N-I-N-A, she said, and tapped the letters out with the pencil.
Nina stared down at the pattern, her own fingers moving slowly. Can you teach us the whole alphabet?
Addie grinned wryly. Sure. Numbers, too.
Nina tapped out her name again, a little faster. Whats Kitty?
Addie wrote and tapped it for her. Funny how we remembered it even better than I thought we would. Mom and Dad had learned a few words, too, but we were the ones Lyle tapped messages to after we went to bed, rapping on the wall between our rooms long after he was supposed to be asleep. He never stopped until Addie tapped something back.
Addie shut her sketchbook and slipped off the bed, pulling Nina after us. Come on, have you eaten breakfast?
Nope. I was waiting for you. Ill make you pancakes, if you want.
That would be great. Addie smiled as Nina grabbed her camcorder and headed for the kitchen.
We glanced, one last time, at the map stuck to the ceiling.
The world maps wed studied in school had always come with the disclaimer that they were old, made before or shortly after the Great Wars began. World War I and World War II, as Henri called them.
The Great Wars had always smashed through our history classes like a giants fist, leaving the rest of the world fragmented, unworthy of mapping. Wed been told country lines were muddled, contested to the point of being barely existent. They shifted constantly, as some desperate people attacked another and were assaulted in turn.
Lies. So much of it lies.
World War I and World War II seemed so neat in comparison.
Wars can destroy a country completely, Henri told us. But they can also shape it, push it forward. Some of the world was destroyed. Some was shaped. And some was pushed forward.
What do they have that we dont? Id asked. Flying cars?
Henri laughed. No, no flying cars. But faster cars. And cell phones. Internet.
Wed never heard of them. He told us about tiny, cordless phones everyone carried around in their pockets, so widespread that pay phones were all but extinct. He tried to describe some sort of information network that connected computers, allowing one to instantaneously send data to another. He kept running into words he didnt know how to translate, and the entire concept baffled Addie and me, who could count the number of times wed even sat down in front of a computer.
He told us mankind had been to the moon.
I laughed. Youre kidding.
But he wasnt.
He said it had only happened once, a few decades ago, but after the end of the Second World War. It was a show of power by one of the countries that had emerged least scathed from the years of combat. The project had proven too financially costly to attempt again, though there were other countries still eager to try.
There were also satellites floating out there in the blackness, orbiting our planet. Henri showed us one of his devices, a satphone that seemed more miniature computer than phone. Using these satellites, the phone allowed him to both send information and make calls to his headquarters overseas.
There were satellites beaming information around in outer space. There had been men on the moon. I had never known the world beyond the Americas borders, but there were people out there whod experienced life beyond our very planet.
How terribly insignificant we must all seem from the moon. Our battles. Our wars.
Addie sighed and pulled our blankets straight, tucking in the edges. The map was a comforting reminder of the rest of the world. One that included countries where hybrids like us werent vilified, werent feared or hated or locked away.
But sometimes, those bright, colorful countries seemed to mock us with their distance.
The phone shrilled, and Addie hurried into the living room to answer it. Hello?
Hey, a voice said. This is Sabine. Did I wake you up?
I was awake, Addie said. Nina watched us with obvious curiosity, arms cradling a mixing bowl.
Good. I wouldve called later, but Im about to leave for work. Do you want to meet up with me and a couple friends tonight?
Addie frowned in confusion. Sorry?
I wanted to introduce you to some people. Sabines voice dropped a little. You can sneak out, right? We can meet you right at the end of your block. Theres a fast-food place thats open until two a.m. Can you be there at one thirty? Therell be five of us; six if you get Ryan to come.
Would Ryan go? He hadnt been the warmest to Sabine and Jackson yesterday. But I thought about all the weeks of boredom crushing down on him, hour after hour, and I said <Hed go.>
<Are we going to go?>
Six weeks of barely stepping foot outside the building, and now we were thinking about sneaking out twice in as many days, not to mention the Emalia-sanctioned trip last night.
<Yes> I said.
<What if we get caught?>
<We wont get caught. Its not like Emalia checks on us in the middle of the night.>
<I dont mean by Emalia. Jenson said security was going to go up> Addie reminded me.
<Its summer break. A group of us, out at nightwhy should that be suspicious?>
Still, Addie hesitated.
<Addie, we have to go. Do you want to tell her we cant go because were afraid we might be caught?>
<Its a legitimate concern.>
But when Sabine asked, You still there? Can you guys come? Addie sighed and said, Yeah. We can.
<What about Hally and Lissa?> I said.
Great, Sabine said before Addie could bring them up. Ill see you and Ryan at one thirty, then. Ive got to run.
Who was that? Nina asked as soon as Addie hung up. She stood barefoot in the kitchen, on the other side of the counter.
Just Sabine. Addie swung around to the kitchen doorway. It was nothing. Come on, werent you going to make pancakes?
Nina frowned. For a moment, I thought she might press harder. But then her expression cleared, though her eyes didnt leave ours. Yeah. I cant find the baking soda.
Did you check in the top cabinet? Addie walked past her to look.
I tried not to think about the deliberate way Ninas frown had disappeared. As if shed forced it away, along with her curiosity. As if, even at eleven, Nina had learned that her life would always be full of other peoples secrets, and some were dangerous, and sometimes it was better not to know.
Maybe that was good, since there wasnt anything that could be done, anyway. Should Addie and I have lied about Sallie and Val? Or at least told Kitty we didnt know?
I was so terrified of doing something wrong. I wanted, so badly, for Kitty and Nina to have a life where they didnt need to worry about these sorts of things at all.
SEVEN
Ryan and Hally came downstairs a little after noon, just in time to help Kitty and me polish off that mornings leftover pancake batter. Hally fooled around with Kitty in the living room, laughing and striking poses while Kitty filmed her on the old camcorder. I kept them both in the corner of our vision as I told Ryan about Sabines phone call.
You said youd go? Ryan kept his voice to a murmur. What about Hally and Lissa?
She didnt mention them. The pancake batter glopped onto the oiled pan. I prodded at it with our spoon, spreading it out. They could come, Im sure. Maybe she just forgot to invite them.
Addies skepticism was tangible. <She didnt forget.>
She said she wanted to show us around town?
Yeah. And have us meet her other friends.
Ryans gaze stayed on our face, but I felt his focus stray. Whatever conversation he and Devon were having, it distracted him.
Id learned a lot about Ryan since our escape from Nornandthat he was a morning person, that he didnt have much of a sweet tooth. That he and his sisters used to play at being soldiers when they were little and lived in the country, fighting wars that sometimes his sisters won because he and Devon let them and sometimes because the girls were really very vicious when things got down to it.
But I hadnt learned what he was like around other peoplepeople who werent me or Kitty or his sister or adults. There hadnt been much room to make friends at Nornand, and wed never hung out at school. Was he curious about Sabine and her friends the way I was?
You wouldnt have that much trouble sneaking out, I said. Ryan and Devon slept in the living room, where Henri had a foldout couch. Hally and Lissa had appropriated the spare bedroom. I dont think