Handsome & Egret

Chapter 2

The next day tasted of stale cereal. Handsome tried not to let it get to him. Just yesterday, stale cereal had seemed like a good thing—hopeful almost, but today it was a disappointment. What would he do when Egret asked him? He could say it was a broccoli day, but then the day would play out like cereal and she'd know he'd lied. That would be worse than the look of disappointment he was sure to see when he told her straight off.

When they'd returned from Treasure Mountain yesterday afternoon, his parents had been happy with their find, just as Handsome had anticipated. The needles would fetch a decent price, he knew. But the pills were the big score. His mom's heavy-lidded eyes had opened wide at the site of them. Having attended school for several years, Mama was the only one of the family who could read. Mama and Da exchanged a knowing glance and Da slipped the container into his pocket.

That night as they'd waited for him to return, Mama had been so hopeful, she'd bought a small loaf of bread from a neighbor and shared it with them. Hands shaking with nervous energy, she ran a comb through Egret's hair, tying it back with pieces of string used to wrap up the dark red bricks Da delivered for Boss.

The three of them sat up late, staring at the splinters of wood breaking up the bottom of the door, knowing any minute, Da would be coming through it with good news.

Da never showed, not with good news or any other kind. Mama went to bed first, her back turned away from the disappointment the rest of the house signified. Soon Egret slumped against Handsome, her breath grown even. Gingerly, he lay her down in the bed, scooching her over so there was room for him too. Giving the door one last look before blowing out the candle, he climbed in next to his sister.

It seemed no time passed at all before the next stale cereal day had dawned.

Da returned soon after the family woke, his expression difficult for Handsome to read. His brow was creased in anger, but it had been set that way so often, those lines were permanent etched there. It was impossible to determine if this was a new layer of anger or just the same old one.

He kept his gaze down at the floor. "Everyone, come with me."

#

Much to his relief, Egret didn't ask Handsome if this was the broccoli day they'd been waiting for. She knew better. Just like she knew better than to ask Da where they were going and why. The children trailed silently behind their father, Mama taking up the rear of the group as they traipsed through the narrow streets. Even Mama seemed hesitant to ask what was happening. She'd been hoping for a broccoli day just as the children had.

Mama grew up just about all broccoli. She'd been a hoverer, like her daughter, only her family started off richer so there'd been no need to turn her out for work. She'd done her three years of school and then her parents pulled her out so she wouldn't be too educated to make a suitable wife. Her hovering ability made her desirable, but it wasn't an ability that carried through to adulthood. Most hoverers stopped floating by the time they were thirteen, and mama's parents knew she'd be no different. They'd had no choice but to offer her hand early on.

When Mama heard she was to wed the owner of a line of kitchenware three times her age, her dreams of becoming a teacher died, and with them, her broccoli days. Three nights later, she left her parents' house in the middle of the night, crossing over the wall from Green Terra into the Maze, and that very night met Handsome's Da as she wandered the tangle of streets wondering what to do next. Da was already working for Boss by then; he knew what she could do. She was almost twelve after all. Old enough. When they found out she was a hoverer, though they put her to use doing the same sort of work Egret did now. But her abilities didn't last and neither had her job.