“I was wondering if you’d like to take some food on Sunday,” Lisa said. “We could manage with one less chicken next week, and I’m sure that would be a real treat for them.”
Jon had known Lisa was going to suggest this. Every time he visited Mom, Lisa made the same offer. “I asked Val to pick up some grapes for me to take,” he said. “Thanks anyway.”
Usually that was enough, and Lisa would get up to leave. But this time she stayed seated.
“I woke up early, Jon,” Lisa said. “I found Val in the kitchen. She said you’d asked her last week to get up earlier to make your breakfast.”
“Just twenty minutes,” Jon said. “Val said it would be no problem.”
“You know what my job is,” Lisa said. “I’m head of domestic placements. Do you know what a mess it would be if Val filed a complaint against me? There are things other clavers can get away with that I can’t. That we can’t. Especially with the evaluation coming up.”
Sometimes Jon felt like a slip in his own home. He loved Lisa, and he knew she loved him, but she was his stepmother, and his father was dead. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Is an early breakfast that important to you?” Lisa asked.
Jon nodded. “I’ve been feeling rushed,” he said. “And when I have breakfast with Gabe, we both get distracted.”
“All right,” Lisa said. “I’ll tell Val. Next time, though, ask me first. All right, Jon?”
“Thanks, Lisa,” Jon said.
Lisa left the room, but Jon found it impossible to concentrate on his chemistry lesson.
Grubs weren’t the only ones who lied, he thought. Slips were good at it, also.
But Sarah was worth the lies. And once the evaluation was over, the lies would be, too.
“I’m going into White Birch tomorrow,” Jon told Sarah as they walked to the bus stop. “My brother’s in town. I thought maybe we could take the bus together.”
“Dad and I leave at five a.m.,” Sarah replied.
“Five a.m.?” Jon said. “I didn’t know there was a claver bus that early.”
“We have a private driver,” Sarah said. “Daddy opens the clinic at six o’clock on Sundays. He says we should keep the clinic open all night Saturdays because there’s a lot of fighting Saturday nights—knife wounds, domestic violence—but the town board won’t let him. They say it would encourage even more fighting if the…”
“Grubs,” Jon said.
“If the people know they can be taken care of right away,” Sarah said. “Not that it is right away. Did you know there’s not a single ambulance in White Birch?”
“Ambulances take gas,” Jon said.
“Sexton has an ambulance,” Sarah said.
“Yes,” Jon said. “And it’s mostly used for grubs who get hurt at the job. There’s an entire wing at the hospital just for them. The grubs who get hurt in White Birch bring it on themselves.”
“Not the wives who get beaten half to death,” Sarah said. “And then have to walk miles to the clinic for treatment.”
“There are buses in White Birch,” Jon said. “They could take a bus.”
“They charge for the buses,” Sarah said.
“Sure,” Jon said.
“We don’t have to pay,” Sarah said. “Not for the buses in town or the ones that go to White Birch. But the…”
“Grubs,” Jon said.
“The laborers, the ones who come in every day from White Birch, they have to pay. That’s so unfair, Jon. Can’t you see that?”
“But it isn’t unfair,” Jon said. “Buses cost money, for fuel and maintenance and drivers. Clavers pay for all that. We pay for their schools and the clinic, too. I’d say grubs have it pretty easy.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Sarah said. “It wasn’t like this in my old enclave.”
“How do you know?” Jon asked. “Did you ever ask your domestics if they paid for their bus rides? Did you ever leave the enclave to see what things were like for the grubs?”
“No,” Sarah said.
“Then don’t make assumptions,” Jon said. “Maybe things could be better for the grubs, but things could be better for clavers, too. We’re in this together. We’re all making sacrifices so things will be better, if not for us, then for Gabe and all the children to come.”
“Do you think things will get better?” she asked. “Do you really think that?”
Jon had no idea what he thought, but he knew what the answer was supposed to be. “Yes,” he said. “Things will get better for all of us.”
Sarah took his hand and squeezed it. “Let’s make it better,” she said. “You and me. Promise me, Jon, we’ll work to make things better.”
“I promise,” he said. “Okay, go.”
“There’s no one at the bus stop,” Sarah said. “No one would see us walking together.”
“I don’t want to take chances,” Jon said. “You go first.”
“I can’t wait for Lisa’s evaluation to be over,” she said.
“Me neither,” Jon said. “And Sarah? Don’t talk to the other kids the way you talk to me. Bus fares and ambulances. You won’t convince them, and it’ll only make them mad.”
“All right,” she said. “Jon, there’s nobody looking.”
Jon made sure she was right. And then he kissed her.
Chapter 2
Jon was surprised to find Alex driving the claver bus to White Birch. “You driving Sundays now?” he asked as he boarded the bus.
“Picking up extra cash,” Alex replied. “I’ll be home before Matt leaves.”
Jon nodded and took his seat. It was nice of Alex to give the family some time alone with Matt, especially since Matt had never much liked him.
Smart of Alex, Jon thought, and then out of nowhere, he could hear Julie saying, “But my IQ is higher than his.”
Jon grinned. Julie had loved her big brother, but they fought all the time. One day, when Jon and Julie were alone, she told him that she’d overheard her parents talking about their kids and what would become of them.
Carlos, they felt, would either end up in jail or in the military. Fortunately for everyone he chose the military.
Her parents thought her older sister, Briana, might become a nun. Julie knew better. Bri was devout, but she loved babies and wanted to have a dozen or more.
Alex, everyone knew, would go to college and become somebody important. Their dad might grumble about him, but even he knew Alex was destined for greatness.
That left Julie, the youngest. It was then she heard her father say, “Don’t forget, her IQ is even higher than Alex’s.”
But her mother replied, “We’ll find an older man for her, one that can control her.”
Jon couldn’t believe any mother would wish that, but Julie assured him her mother meant no harm. The important thing was that her IQ was higher than Alex’s, even though he was the golden one and she was the troublemaker.
He’d asked her if Alex knew, and Julie shook her head. “He must never know,” she said. “Promise me you’ll never tell him.”
“I promise,” Jon had said, although he couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. So what if Julie was smarter? That didn’t mean Alex couldn’t achieve his dreams.
But the world had come to an end, and Alex was a grub bus driver and Julie was dead. What difference did their IQs make now?
Jon watched as some of the clavers gave Alex tips. It was nice of them, he thought. They had no obligation. Each time one did, Alex tipped his cap and said, “Thank you, sir; thank you, ma’am.” Jon grinned. Alex had always had good manners.