“You tell me Mom’s dead, and you say you saw her and Alex saw her,” Miranda said. “So I have to believe you. But you didn’t see my baby and Alex didn’t see my baby, and I heard her cry the way newborns do. The next thing I know, they’re plunging a needle into my arm and I wake up here. What if she isn’t dead, Jon?”
“Maybe you’re right,” Jon said. “Maybe she is alive. But she’s so deformed it’s just a matter of time before she dies, and they didn’t want you hanging around at the hospital, so they lied about it. I’m not saying clavers don’t lie. They do. But if they did lie, it was to protect you.”
Miranda looked away.
“Lisa says the baby was deformed because of the work you did in the greenhouse,” Jon said. “The chemicals you handled. Miranda, if you and Alex leave, you’ll be able to have a healthy baby. This one died. Mom died. People die all the time. You have to accept it and move on.”
“Jon, I killed Julie,” Miranda whispered. “This is my punishment.”
“I know about Julie,” Jon replied. “Carlos told me. That’s why I was so angry with you. But I never thought you’d be punished. Not like this. Do you know what Mom would say if you told her that? She’d kill you!”
Miranda managed a slight smile.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. “Physically, I mean.”
“A little weak,” she said.
“I think we should do some more walking,” he said. “You need to get your strength back before you go to White Birch.”
“I feel so hollow,” she said. “I feel like everything I love has been torn out from me.”
“It hasn’t,” Jon said. “You have Alex and me and Matt. You even have Lisa and Gabe if you want them. Come on. Let’s walk some more, and then I’ll make you something to eat. I’ve become a pretty good cook, you know. Sarah made me.”
Lisa came into the bedroom where Miranda and Jon were sitting. “Miranda, they’re expecting you at the greenhouses on Wednesday,” she said. “You’re going to have to go home tomorrow.”
“Good,” Miranda said. “I miss my job. And if I’m busy, I won’t think so much. But I don’t know how I’m going to get home. How am I supposed to get to the bus terminal if I’m not allowed to walk in Sexton?”
“I’ll call Sarah,” Jon said. “She takes a car into White Birch in the afternoon. She could give you a lift to the clinic. You can walk home from there.”
“I’d like that,” Miranda said. “The school’s just a few blocks from the clinic. It’s like Mom’s buried there. I know it’s not the same, but I need to say good-bye to her, and that’s as close as I can get.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Lisa said. “I still ache because I couldn’t say good-bye to my parents. Jon, call Sarah and see if she can give Miranda a lift. Maybe she’ll be lucky and Alex will be the driver.”
“Alex,” Miranda said, and for the first time in days she looked almost happy. “At least I’ll be with Alex again.”
“Ready for the match Sunday, Evans?” Ryan asked at lunch.
“As ready as you are,” Jon said. “Not much.”
“Me, either,” Luke said. “It’s not as much fun without Tyler and Zachary.”
“Plus, it’s a two-hour drive,” Ryan said. “Two hours of Coach screaming at us on the way there and two hours of him screaming on the way back.”
“Why don’t you quit?” Sarah asked. “Find a different afterschool to do.”
“Like what?” Ryan asked. “Giving the grubs milk and cookies like you do, Goldman?”
“Milk and cookies,” Luke said. “I haven’t thought of them in years. Remember Halloween? Trick-or-treat? I’d eat all the candy right away. Boy, did I get sick.”
Sarah didn’t seem to care about Halloween. “We do real work at the clinic,” she said. “Not that you know what real work is.”
Ryan shuddered. “I hope I never find out,” he said. “What’s the point of being a claver if you have to work like a grub?”
Jon and Luke laughed. Sarah scowled.
“Someday, Goldman, I’d like to see you smile,” Ryan said. “Does she smile for you, Evans?”
“Not very often,” Jon said. Sarah reached across the table and swatted him. “It’s true, Sarah. We fight more than we smile.”
“He’s a challenge,” Sarah said to Ryan and Luke. “But I’ll whip him into shape.”
Jon wished that were true. But with Sarah leaving in a week, he knew she wouldn’t have the chance.
“Are you going to spend August bandaging the grubs?” Ryan asked. “Or are you taking the month off like the rest of us?”
“I don’t know yet,” Sarah said. “I’d like to keep working, but my father has other ideas. I know you think the people in White Birch don’t deserve anything, but they’re human, Ryan. The same as you and me.”
Luke shook his head. “They’re not, Sarah. I used to think like you, but I’ve seen too much, heard too many stories. Like the one Dad told Mom and me Saturday night.”
“I don’t care what your father told you,” Sarah said.
“I do,” Ryan declared. “What happened, Luke?”
Luke looked like he didn’t need much encouragement. “Dad said there was a grubber girl at the hospital here,” he began. “She was pregnant and they decided to let her stay until she had the baby. She was treated as good as a claver. Even after the riots. Food, nurses, everything.”
Sarah glanced at Jon, who shook his head almost imperceptibly.
“She has the baby,” Luke continued. “They tell her it’s a healthy baby girl, and she gets hysterical. She says if she doesn’t bring home a son, her husband will beat her. She actually begged them to kill the baby. She got so hysterical they had to sedate her. She never did see the baby. She left the hospital refusing to. I guess she went back to White Birch and told her husband it died.”
“What happened to the baby?” Jon asked, trying to sound as though he didn’t really care.
Luke smiled. “There’s a happy ending,” he said. “The baby’s being adopted by a claver family. She’ll never know where she came from.”
“Is she still in the hospital?” Sarah asked. “The baby?”
“I don’t think so,” Luke said. “I think the family took the baby home that day. I can ask my dad if you want.”
Sarah shook her head. “Don’t bother,” she said.
Ryan laughed. “Admit it, Goldman,” he said. “No decent human being would act that way. Grubs are animals, just like I’ve been telling you.”
“It takes one to know one,” Sarah said, looking at her watch. “I’ve got to go. I don’t want to keep the driver waiting.”
“I’ll walk you outside,” Jon said. He’d been doing that since school had reopened, so he knew Ryan and Luke wouldn’t think anything of it.
“See you tomorrow,” Sarah said. “Maybe by then you’ll have some manners.”
“Don’t count on it, Goldman,” Ryan said.
“See you in the gym,” Jon said. “Come on, Sarah.”
They walked out of the lunchroom without speaking. Even when they were outside, Jon spoke so softly only Sarah could hear him.
“Miranda was right,” he whispered. “Her baby’s alive.”
“They stole it,” Sarah said. “Jon, we’ve got to get the baby back.”
Jon nodded. “We have to be quiet about it,” he told her. “Don’t say anything to Miranda. It’s better if she thinks the baby’s dead until we can figure out what to do.”
“It’ll be so hard,” Sarah replied, “driving in to White Birch with her and not saying anything.”
“Distract her,” Jon said. “Distract yourself. Talk to her about me. Ask her what I was like as a kid. Ask her about Alex. She’ll expect you to distract her anyway, to keep from thinking about everything that’s happened. Just relax, as much as you can.”