The Registry Read Free Page A

hold.
    Mia starting polishing faster, but Whitney didn’t appear to buy her explanation. Mia should have known Whitney would figure her out; she was too smart and too observant to fool.
    “Are you thinking about running?” Whitney nearly shouted.
    Mia leaped to put her hand over Whitney’s lips.
    “No! Of course not.”
    “Good; that would be stupid. You’d get yourself killed or worse.”
    “I was just curious about Canadian husbands.”
    “Women aren’t allowed to travel alone. You’d get picked up right away and who knows what the hooligan who found you would do. Maybe you’d be lucky enough for a RAG agent to recover you, but then your father would kill you. The government would reappraise you and mark you as a runaway, and no husband would want you. It would be me and you as government servants right off the bat, working in some factory or cleaning up buildings. Maybe even the government wouldn’t want you.”
    “I’m not running to Canada; just drop it.” Mia shook her head.
    She thought of Corinna. Her husband had done more damage to her than any hooligan would, and RAG agents didn’t scare Mia, not since she’d seen Corinna’s article. Young women are trained to think their captors are protectors, and the pseudonym for the government agency that hunts them, Recovery of Abducted Girls, tricks the people into thinking agents are heroes when they are nothing but Registry gofers.
    “I wouldn’t try Canada, either.” Whitney started polishing again. “They deport all girls right back home.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “My father’s not as strict as yours. He didn’t have to worry about wasting an investment, so he taught me some practical things,” Whitney said. “Sometimes I think he wants me to run.”
    Mia looked away. Whitney was always so negative about herself. After her mother died her father had moved them here. He clearly had no plans to make any money off of her. Mia thought he was the reason for Whitney’s intelligence. She was pretty but had never really learned how to present herself. She would have been a prime candidate for finishing school, but her father wouldn’t hear of it. Still, Mia was surprised Whitney had appraised so low; it didn’t seem right.
    Mia’s thoughts returned to her escape and she felt her world crushing down on her. Canada seemed like the safest option. There was no Registry up there. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.
    “Now, Mexico, that’s a possibility,” Whitney said, not looking up from her work. “Of course the trip is longer and more dangerous.”
    Mia whipped her head back. “How long?”
    “I don’t know. I might have more knowledge about the world than you, but I’m not exactly worldly.”
    Mia took a long, deep breath and tried to think about how she could make it to Mexico. She knew she needed help. “Come with me.”
    “Sure, but your mother will be mad if we don’t finish in here first,” Whitney said. “Your father’s won too many farming awards. I didn’t even know they had this many.”
    “No.” Mia reached out and grabbed Whitney’s arm. “Come with me to Mexico.”
    Whitney burst out laughing but started to slow down when she realized Mia was not joining her. The two girls stared at each other in awkward silence till Mia spoke.
    “I can’t live this life. I don’t want to marry a stranger. I’ve seen it with my sisters. The last time I saw or heard from any of them was the day they got married.”
    Mia’s parents had sworn her to secrecy. It killed her that she couldn’t share Corinna’s fate with Whitney, but Mia wasn’t sure she could even convey the poor shape Corinna had been in, let alone show Whitney the anti-American words hidden in her room.
    “Well, when they got married they became the property of their husbands. And it’s not like you were close with your sisters before they wed.”
    “What about you and me? We’re close. I don’t want to lose you.”
    “Maybe you’ll get a