And you promise i wont get in trouble if i tell the truth now?
okay.
so we went up to the box, the big building? the one all the way out at the end of
oh, before that?
okay, so it was cyclin night, the sky was all shimmery like it is every year on cyclin night, and connie and me were up around the bottom of anchor hill and we were talking about the box, and connie said that one time he got all the way to the gravel path that goes up to the box.
yeah, that's what we call it. I know it's not safe but a lot of things aren't safe, you told us that, right? And the walls look strong even if not all of the ceiling is there. Nothing's fallen off of it for a while.
and it's the biggest building any of us ever seen.
and for real, you guys never tell us about it. connie said his dad whooped his tail once just for teasing him 'cause he wouldn't look at it like he was scared of it. But why be scared of a building though? and
so I said that one time he got all the way to the gravel path, and connie said he got all the way up to the sign and tagged the "9", but I think he was lying, he never went that far, I'm pretty sure.
but then I said I ran up one time and tagged the little window on the door, and I know I was fibbing, and i figure he must have known i was fibbing? but I said it, and connie never lets someone be more not scared than him.
but yeah, so we walk all the way across town, maybe for an hour and a half, from anchor hill to where the box is and as soon as he was in sight of it he ran into the box.
and I mean I didn't think he was really gonna go in, you know, but I guess he made up his mind and he went in.
what's that, papa?
i didn't think about it, so I can't tell you what it was like when I went in after him. I felt the gravel, the broke up black rocks under me, and I wanted to keep my eyes shut and just run in but the driveway has so many of those big holes in it that I had to run around them on the bits that weren't all blew up. There's like one path you can use and I knew it was safe cause I watched connie run on it.
and I didn't look at the door or the doorway or whatever you call it when the door got blowed off the hinges but you know that's where you're supposed to go inside, so i can't tell you what that was like. I went and ran and then i was in.
i thought it was gonna be darker? Like a cave, or inside the house when it's night out and mama won't let you keep the candles going? but the ceiling was all missing in a lot of places, and sometimes there were lights and I didn't see where they were coming from. A lot of the lights didn't light up anything but the walls, and everywhere the lights were it just said 19, like it says on the sign out front. And a lot of the other lights were red. Have you ever seen red lights, papa?
okay, I know. I'll ask Grandma to talk about it.
so all the doors in the box were open and and the place seemed empty but I knew Connie was in there so I kept walking. Most of the rooms were empty except for clothes. Like a lot of white jackets and tan pants and there were eyeglasses like Grandma Maria wears but all busted up, but there was glass everywhere too so it was hard to tell it apart.
clothes and bones and dust. That's most of what I saw. And I found this little glass thing in there with words on it? You wouldn't think I could read it but it was like there was light coming out of it or something and the words were lit up.
no, I left it back in the box, papa.
I heard slapping and cussing at one point so I followed the sounds around a corner and went all the way down the hall and connie was there at the end of the hall and he was at where the world stops —
why, what do you call it? It's the line where there's ground and grass and stuff on one side and you can't get through to the other side and there's nothing over there but black. It's where the world stops. but here in the building there wasn't no grass, obviously. there was the hallway, and then there wasn't.
—looking out into the black, where grandma said the stars used to be? he was pounding on the end of the world, the shimmery glass or whatever it is, like he was trying to break through. I dunno, papa. He might have gone a little weird.
and connie looked out to see if this side of the end of the world had stars still like grandma said but he said it didn't and it was just black like it was everywhere else when you get to the end of the world. Just black, and quiet. And it was all shimmery too, like the sky is on cyclin night every year. i guess he was disappointed. He wanted to see something new and he figured that if there was anywhere where something new would be, it would be in the box.
so I help connie calm down and walk him back out where I came in and I saw it was almost dark, and I said some cuss words but not the real bad ones, and connie said what's wrong and I said I came to get him because it was cyclin night and you would whoop me and connie's mama would whoop her too if we missed the cyclin. So he was scared and we started walking back and then you found us and you know the rest.
i mean
well, you're sure i won't be in trouble?
okay, well there's one little fib. I did bring that little glass bit with the words back with me and connie, and i hid it in a little hole outside our house. you want me to get it?
i mean, i read what it said, but maybe you can figure out what it m—
YOU CAN IGNORE THIS SECTION FOR NOW, IT SHOULD LOOK PRETTIER LATER (IF THIS EVER GETS FINISHED):
TO: MARIA JONES, EVACUATION DIRECTOR, SITE 19
FROM: O5-1
RE: FINAL ORDERS
- EXPERIMENTAL UNIT SRA-MORNINGSTAR IS TO BE INSTALLED ATOP SERRANO HILL, 8 KM SOUTH OF SITE 19.
- EXPERIMENTAL UNIT SRA-MORNINGSTAR WILL RECHARGE ITS PRIMARY BATTERIES ON ITS OWN AND FUNCTION NORMALLY IF SUPPLIED WITH EITHER POSITIVE HUME FIELD OR A LARGE SOURCE OF ELAN-VITAL ENERGY (EVE) FROM ANY AVAILABLE SOURCE.
- THE CONTINUATION OF THE HUMAN RACE DEPENDS ON THE FUNCTIONING OF EXPERI
so went back to anchor hill where everyone else was and the fires were lit like they always are for cyclin and everybody was eating the real meat, like every year, and then josie's grandma, you know, grandma Maria? did the whole talk she does every year about sack of rices and the keeping the anchor powered and how only levelfives kids get picked to be sack of rices and folks were crying and she stuck her hand in the bowl
and said "the sack of rice given for recycling this year is oliver kondraki!"
and right at that second I went hooooooooo boy was I glad I got connie back because if he got picked to be the sack of rice and I let him get lost then he would have been so cranky at me.
he got to go up anchor hill with the other sack of rices and be with rennie and cog, my other friends who got picked to be the sack of rice in other years. I guess they have too much fun up there but I know it's dangerous if you don't get picked out of the bowl by grandma maria. That's what you said and I know I'll get whooped good if I go try to play with them.
hope we get new kids here soon though. I play with the levelfour kids and levelthree kids but the leveltwo kids all look at me weird, like hey, it's not my fault my papa is a levelfive and I'm either gonna grow up to be a levelfive or go play with rennie and cog and connie and be a kid forever, one or the other is fine.
d'you think momma has lunch ready yet?