Values & Virtues
I was happier than I had been for a long time.
Everything was crashing down around Dana. Finally I was getting some justice. But I wanted a bigger
helping, this wasn't enough. I had to do something.
I went into the washroom and dug a marker out of my pencil case. I drew a box and a couple of circles with lines for a flash going off on the outer wall of the first cubicle. No one would be able to miss it. It didn't look exactly like a camera, but it would do. And for the finishing touch I wrote SMILE DANA, with a happy face right beside it.
The chute opened and Nellie hit the threshold to the maze at a full run, body gliding like a snake, eyes alert for movement, any shadow that looked too dense or too oddly shaped. Once inside the small entrance lobby she paused, pivoting side to side in the gloom, one hand hovering at the stun gun in her belt, but the maze's opening section remaining quiet, nothing to be seen or heard except the sledgehammer thud of her heart.
"So, what do you say?" said Peter. "You guys ready to put a stop to it?"
"Put a stop to it?" said Whisper. "Are you kidding? You've been watching too many Bruce Willis videos, man. What can the four of us do?"
"They must be punished," said Birgit quietly. "And it will be a warning to others. Word will get around. It will no longer be the law of the jungle. It will be law and order, decency and dignity."
"You're out of your mind," said Whisper.
"No, I'm not. I know I'm right."
"So we're to be, what? A high school SWAT team? A hit squad?"
I followed them into the living room and was met by a mass of people. My sudden courage seemed to deflate. How could I ever get this many people to leave?
Just then I heard the sirens.
Mark pulled out his phone. "Her name's Casey. She's almost four." He looked at the image on the screen for a long moment, his mouth twisted into a crooked smile. "Your half sister."
I took the phone from him and stared at the photo. A round-faced girl, smiling, with short dark hair and big eyes. My stomach was full of something much squirmier than butterflies, and my throat was getting all tight.
"Must be hard to be away from her," Mom said.
"It is," Mark said. His voice sounded funny, like he really meant it. Like he could hardly stand to be away from his precious little girl.
I sucked on my bottom lip. He'd been away from me, his other daughter, for my whole life and he hadn't cared at all.
I looked at his driver's license. He was five foot nine, 150 pounds and had blue eyes. What do you know? Same as me. I almost laughed. Funny how we could be so much alike and so different at the same time. Andrew Ashbury got everything he could ever want and I got nothing.
How did that happen? I stared at his face. What was so great about him? He was no better than me.
Miré su licencia de conducir. Medía cinco pies nueve pulgadas. Pesaba 150 libras y tenía los ojos azules. Qué coincidencia, igual que yo. Casi me dio risa. Era increíble cómo podíamos ser iguales y a la vez diferentes. Andrew Ashbury tenía todo lo quería y yo no tenía nada.
¿Cómo suceden esas cosas? Me fijé en su cara. ¿Qué tenía de especial? No era mejor que yo.
It's a bundle of blankets. I pull back the top layer cautiously, and there it is. Not a raccoon or a cougar or anything that belongs in the woods.
It's a baby.
