A Thing As Good As Sunshine Read Free Page A

lifetime of keeping out of the way,
sharing rations, and hoarding secrets could not be dismissed. But that's not
how it had been between Sheng Tian and me. With him I'd always made up my own
mind, made choices without having to ask permission. It had made me feel
grown-up, and now I felt like a toddler screaming to please, please be allowed to
run just one more lap around the deserted tubes before bedtime.
    When Momma
looked at me I saw my Momma in her face again; tender, smart, loving. But there
was a new thing, too. I saw some of the respect she showed when she and Auntie
talked in hushed tones, late into third shift when they thought I was already
asleep in our bunk. She reached over and touched my flushed cheek. "Can't
stop the sun from rising, now, can I?"
    "No,
Momma." I knew it was horrible to think such untrustworthy thoughts, but
in my heart I knew if she forbade us from seeing each other I would disobey her
and find Sheng Tian as soon as I could.
    "Give
me a few shifts to figure this out," Momma said. "We need to answer a
few more questions. I'll get word to you when it's safe," she said to him.
    "You'd
better get back to class," Auntie Pria said as she tugged at his shoulder.
"I'll be in touch. In person, no Coms."
    Sheng
Tian kissed the top of my head and let Auntie lead him away. When the door slid
shut Momma turned to me and said, "There's a chance that young man is even
better than sunshine."
    For some
odd reason that made me well up. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around
Momma, grateful for things I'm sure I didn't even understand. She hugged me
back and said the most shocking thing: "I'm sorry, Honey-Girl."
    "Sorry?"
I asked; face still buried in her shoulder.
    She
pulled back. "This isn't going to be easy."
    When I
looked into Momma's eyes I saw strength battling with doubt. I wanted her to
know everything was going to be okay. "I'm good at keeping secrets,"
I said. "The best."
    She sat
me down on the folding chair and rolled the stool up in front of me. "How
much of all that did you understand?"
    Thanks,
Momma. I knew that I wasn't the smartest person on the Rock, but I didn't
like being reminded of how little I'd really understood in their exchange. I
rolled my eyes at her and she stepped away from me, angry.
    After
she took three deep breaths she said, "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at
me." But her pointy finger shook at me. "But right now I can't handle
you acting like a little punk."
    I knew that
voice, it was her dealing-with-little-punks voice, and she was dead serious.
    "You're
a smart girl — but book smart, not people smart. Your time to be a child is over.
There's more than you can guess riding on every choice you make from here on
out."
    Book
smart, not people smart. I felt shame that Momma saw me that way, but I grudgingly
agreed. I'd really only interacted with a dozen real people in my whole life, but
Momma's TechPad had always been there. Most of what I knew in life had been
conveyed by electrons.
    For the
first time it occurred to me that I had done something really wrong by falling
for Sheng Tian. I knew engaging in conversation with him in the laundry pod was
the opposite of the agreement I'd made with Momma when I convinced her to let
me go out on my own. The way my body reacted when he touched me told me there
was a chance it was actually bad. But bad like the things in Momma's thin
Ledger were bad, not bad like Perseus Two had been knocked out of orbit and was
about to ground itself into Saturn bad. But that's how solemn Momma's face
looked.
    Frustration
at not comprehending things fought inside me with the fear of what it might
mean to understand. My instinct was to let the fear win; to bury my head back
in Momma's shoulder and let her take care of things. But Momma said my time as
a child was over, and I knew in my belly that meant no more hiding from the
truth.
    I
climbed back onto Auntie's exam table as Momma re-settled in the corner chair, and
we waited. This time Momma's