Vanquished Read Free Page A

been away for training off and on ever since.
    I let out a laugh, hoping my cheeks aren’t turning red. I don’t want her to know I thought the medic was cute and caring. “Not exactly, even though I think he’s forgotten me. I haven’t heard from him in at least two weeks. He never even responded to my letter about my mom’s diagnosis.” We have really great mail service these days. Letters can travel between cities by train within a couple of days. Our teachers tell us about something called email. They say it had traveled around the world in seconds, back in the Early Days. That would be so great.
    “He probably just doesn’t know what to say,” she says. “If he was here he’d have the perfect words for you, but from far away he isn’t sure. And he’s busy training for his occupation. He’ll write soon.”
    “I guess so,” I say, but I’m not really sure of it. Why would he ignore my letter about Mom? We’ve been inseparable since we were little. I thought he’d be the first to comfort me when I wrote him a few weeks ago, and instead he’s the one person I haven’t heard from.
    She gives me a stare down. “He’ll write, Hana. He will.”
    I sigh and nod. “I know. It’s only been two weeks. And he’s training for the future.”
    Jamie nods. “Exactly. A future with you.”
    “Besides, you’ll be busy training too, after the Test. It’s only three weeks away,” she says in a sing-songy voice.
    “Can you talk about something else to distract me?” I don’t want to think about how little I’ve heard from Keegan any more.
    Jamie smiles at me. Her eyes twinkle. “Of course.”
    I nod and we close our eyes. Meditation is a requirement, although it doesn’t make me feel better. I really need the soothing affects after Mom’s diagnosis, the questions about chemo drugs, and Keegan’s silence on it all.
    We breathe in and out. Deep, slow breaths, just like we’ve been taught.
    “I’ve been seeing Easton,” she says between breathing exercises. Easton goes to our school, and Jamie’s been talking about changing her Test answers to reflect interest in agriculture, because that’s what Easton wants to do. I told her it’s crazy, and they’re bound to get caught. My dad is the dean of the agriculture college, and while we don’t always agree, he’s not stupid. Our Tests determine what our optimal occupation is—or how we can best serve our small country. Faking on the Test is like letting the whole country down, and that is not a good thing. Besides, Jamie couldn’t even grow a bean sprout for our third grade science project.
    “What do you mean you’ve been seeing him?” I ask. “Like outside of school?”
    “Yes.”
    I stop to stare at her. “Jamie, is that a good idea?”
    “I think I love him.”
    “Jamie!” Hanging out alone with the opposite sex is against the law. It’s the Greaters’ form of birth control. “What do you do when you see each other?”
    She gets back into position and closes her eyes. “Sometimes we meet at the levies. We just sit and talk and watch the river.”
    I study her for a minute, frowning, but then take her lead and go back to my meditation pose. “Don’t do anything, you know, stupid.”
    She stays silent for so long I can’t help looking at her.
    “Jamie?”
    She sighs and opens her eyes. “I won’t, Hana. I promise.”
    I study her another moment, just to make sure she means it. We both shut our eyes and go back to meditation, but my mind wanders. I can picture them sitting on the levy, watching the murky water of what used to be the mighty Mississippi River, but now is more of a sluggish trickle.
    We finish up and then study for an hour. After that, it’s time to head to the hospital. I have to get there and back home before dark, because being out in the city after dark isn’t allowed.
     
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    The hospital lobby is empty and dim again, but I don’t need the signs to find the stairs. The buzzing of the long bulbs on