The Island Read Free Page B

don’t look back when Colin calls after me. I don’t want to hear the note of sadness in his voice, his evident pain upon learning that father has died. It will only make me waver and doubt myself. Because deep down, I am just as upset as my brother.
     
    ***
     
    Mara is still in the laundry house, stuck up to her elbows in drab, soapy water. She’s washing out a pair of brown pants. The smell of wet wool and lavender soap pervades the room.
    “Hey,” I say, casting a pitying look at the enormous pile of laundry still waiting for her. “You know where Andy is?”
    Mara wipes her forehead. “He mouthed off to Ben because of me. And with consequences, I might add. He has to fight Max and Cal tonight.”
    I blink in disbelief. “ You mean both at the same time?”
    “Yes.” Mara’s bottom lip starts to quiver and she bursts out in tears when I put my arm around her shoulders. “It’s not fair.”
    My stomach turns. We really have to get out of this place. Saul is destroying everyone with a soul. But where should we go? Should we seek refuge with the parents?
    “Come on,” I comfort her. “I’ll help you out.”
    I work hard, pushing t houghts about confronting Saul to the back of my mind. Once Cal and Max have knocked Andy around tonight, the last thing on his mind will be talking to me about The Book, Saul and his lies.
    We rinse all the clothes and blankets thorou ghly and hang them on the line without speaking.
    At last, Mara breaks the silence. “I wonder where Andy went.”
    I shrug. “I don’t know. Gathering strength, I guess?”
    “So it’ll take them a bit longer to beat him to a pulp?”
    I nod hesitantly. “ Yes. Something like that.”
    My best friend bites her lip. “Leia... something’s wrong with this place. It makes me scared.”
    I think of my encounter with Saul and nod quietly. I know exactly what she means.

 
    -5-
     
    IN OUR camp, bedtime is when the sun sets.
    Sometimes I stay up after dark. I ’ll sit in the library and read books by candlelight, but not often. By now, I know the few books we have by heart, and it’s nothing to write home about. Some volumes about edible plants, hunting tactics, how to sheer the sheep and ways to build huts and catch fish. In front of me right now is a different kind of book that I’ve read many times as well. A book containing imaginative stories called ‘fairytales’. Even in a fantasy world, parents are not to be trusted – the stories of Snow White and Cinderella make that perfectly clear. The mothers in those tales didn’t love their children either.
    I close the fairytale book with a sigh and stare at the flickering candle in front of me. Real reading is out of the question. I can’t get the images of the fight earlier this evening out of my head. Of Andy taking a beating by Cal while Max was holding him from behind. Of the youngsters who were all forced to watch. Some of them had averted their eyes. Some of them had seemed relieved that it wasn’t their turn this time.
    Some had enjoyed the spectacle.
    Mara ’s right. This truly is a place to be scared of.
    My gaze drifts across the room toward the door in the back of the library. That’s the room where Saul keeps The Book. Every week, he takes it out to read to us during assembly on the lawn in front of the manor house.
    Saul always tells us how each and every one of us has to feel the Force within and shouldn’t be dependent on anyone. The Fools, separated from us by a Wall, believe that help will come from afar. That salvation lies beyond the horizon, away from our island. That’s why they put so much energy into building ships, and that’s why they sail so far away that they never return. But we don’t. We are strong – and stand alone.
    When I look around me, I suddenly notice I am the only one left in the library. But I can still hear noise. Downstairs, in the hallway, I hear raised voices.
    Curious, I tiptoe through the hall and down the stairs. I can make out more