Held (Gone #2) (12 page)

"That's very thoughtful, Luke. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Teacher." He put his pencil down and stood, looking at Macy.

She got up and followed him outside. The sun shone brightly and was warm when she stood directly in it.

"Is it okay with you if we take a walk?" Luke asked.

"As long as it's not against the rules."

Luke laughed, but not in a rude way. "It's fine. We can't be alone in a home, and never near a bedroom, but walking out in plain view is perfectly acceptable."

"Okay."

"Make a fist and then relax your hand. Like this." He held up his hand and showed her, and then looked at her.

Her hand objected, but she made a fist and then let go.

"Good. Keep doing that while we walk around. How do you like the community?"

"Uh, I…well. I haven't really had time to get used to it."

"That's understandable. You were probably in your home all day yesterday for the family honeymoon, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Until you get used to things, you're better off staying quiet and just observing. You seem to be doing that already, so you're already doing well. Before you know it, you'll be used to it here and will have a hard time remembering what it was like before."

She squeezed her hand extra hard, digging her nails into her flesh. "I doubt that." She was going to hold onto every memory of her real family and never let go.

"I sense some animosity. Care to talk about it?"

Macy's heart raced. Did she dare tell him she had been kidnapped? Chester was practically revered by all.

"No pressure," Luke said. "You don't even know me, but if you want to talk with anyone, I'm here and I do know what it's like on the outside. Sure, I don't think about it often anymore, but the memories never leave."

She wanted to tell him, but what if he told Rebekah or Chester? Or someone who would tell them? No. She had to stick to her plan and feel everyone out. She could verbally vomit all over Luke just because he was cute and seemed nice. "Does anyone ever get out of here?"

"Only those who have been set free."

"Set free?" Macy asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Released from their earthly bodies."

"You mean the only way out of here is to die?"

Luke nodded, giving her an inquisitive look.

"Nobody has ever gotten thrown out?"

"Not that I've ever heard about. Usually, a few punishments is enough to whip anyone into shape."

"Have you ever been punished?"

"That's not usually an appropriate question, but—"

"Sorry."

"You'll find I'm pretty hard to offend. I don't mind answering, but don't go around asking other people. My first month here, I was rude to Jonah. I didn't mean to be, but what's considered rude here is not the same as what we grew up with out there. That night at the community meeting, he brought me up to the front and told everyone what I had said. The entire community called me rude over and over for what felt like hours. Then for the rest of the week, which was only two days, no one was allowed to look at me or talk to me, not even my parents. I had to read the rule books and do a lot of copy work. My hand cramped up really bad, but I wasn't allowed to stop. It took months for my hand to fully recover."

That explained why he was being so kind about her hand cramping. "That's awful."

"It was horrible. But you know what? It taught me what I needed to learn. I haven't gotten into any trouble since then. In the end, it was a blessing."

Macy's eyes widened. She would never let herself get to the point of agreeing that anything like that was good. Treating someone like that was inexcusable. Everyone here may believe the punishments were good things, but she never would. Somehow she would find a way out, but that wouldn't happen if she allowed herself to start thinking like them.

"What do you think of your dad being so close to Jonah? I've never seen Jonah take someone on so soon after their unveiling. No one has ever become a prophet so soon after joining."

"What's so special about that?" she asked.

"Your dad is going to be in the inner circle. No one has been welcomed in the whole time I've been here. It might mean we're moving even closer to entering the Promised Land."

"And that means…?"

"It's our primary goal. The Promised Land is a beautiful, magnificent place where we'll spend the rest of time."

"You really believe that?" Macy asked and then covered her mouth. "Sorry. Don't tell anyone I said that." Images of being shamed and then ignored filled her mind. If she publicly embarrassed Chester, who knew what he would to her? "Please. I didn't mean it."

Luke didn't look bothered. "I didn't believe it for a long time. I understand your hesitation, Heather. I was there. You'll need to get to a place where you believe for yourself."

"Why?"

He stopped and then turned to look at her. "When you're truly a part of the community, you'll receive your true name. You won't be able to enter the Promised Land if you don't have your name."

She stared into Luke's eyes, trying to see if there was a flicker of doubt. She wanted to see it, believing that he was someone she could open up to. If he knew she'd been kidnapped, maybe he could help her escape. If not, she could end up at the wrong end of Chester's fury again.

It was time to play it safe. No one was going anywhere—they were all trapped inside the high, fortressed walls. If she needed to spend weeks feeling people out, she would. She needed to find the right person to open up to. Someone who wouldn't turn her in for claiming that she had been kidnapped by a prophet.

Maybe Luke was that person, but maybe not. She would have to be a hundred percent certain. Chester was sure to have chosen a house with some kind of basement or cellar. He had planned everything out with such precision. There was no way he would leave out a detail like that.

"How does your hand feel?"

"Better."

"We should head back, but first let me see it." Luke took her hand and rubbed it, squeezing hard.

It took all of Macy's self-control not to cry out in pain.

"It's still sore. I'm going to tell Teacher that I think you should rest it for the remainder of the day. Maybe I can take you on field trip. Have you seen the farms yet?"

Macy shook her head.

"Without the farms, we couldn't survive. I can't imagine Teacher disagreeing with a field trip there. What could be more educational than learning about what sustains our way of life?" He turned around and walked toward the school house, still holding onto her hand, rubbing it.

Two men were heading their way, so Macy looked down careful not to even give the impression of making eye contact. She pulled on her hand, sure that the men wouldn't approve of Luke holding it. He wouldn't let go, continuing to squeeze it.

When they crossed paths with the men, Luke stopped, forcing Macy to as well. He gave a slight bow and Macy kept her eyes on the ground, staring at a melting patch of frost.

"What is going on, Luke?"

"Her hand is hurt, so I'm helping. We're heading back to school."

"Carry on." The two men continued walking in the direction they were headed.

Luke tugged on her hand and they followed the path. It was strange that it was okay for him to walk with her, touching her hand. With all the weird, backward rules the community followed, she would have thought that boys and girls would have been expected to walk on different sides of the road, not even allowed to look at each other.

When they got back to the schoolhouse, Luke stopped and rubbed her hand again. "How does that feel?"

"It's still sore."

"Let me rub it a little more." He looked down at her hand and rubbed again. His hand slid and went to her wrist, his fingers resting under her sleeve.

Luke looked into her eyes. He appeared as surprised as she felt. Macy's heart leapt into her throat. Luke's fingers lingered on her wrist, and then he pulled his hand away and cleared his throat.

"We should head back inside." His cheeks were pink.

Macy nodded. What had that been about?

They went inside and Luke told her to go back to the desk while he spoke with the teacher about taking a field trip. Macy rubbed her hand, watching them from the corner of her eyes. She couldn't hear anything they said, but Rebekah kept looking back at her, nodding occasionally.

Macy could feel the stares of other kids, probably because she was the new kid. Or was she the freak again? Not because she was overweight this time, but because her hand hurt and she couldn't keep writing with the pencil. Surely the others like her, the kids who had come from
the world,
would have understood. Who spent hours writing anymore?

Luke sat down and nodded, but didn't say anything.

Rebekah walked to the front of the class and tapped on the chalk board with a ruler. "Excuse me, class. It's almost lunchtime. When we reconvene, some of you are going to take a field trip to a farm. It's been a while since we've had a field trip, and now that we have a new student, the timing is perfect. How many of you, ages twelve and older, are interested?

About half a dozen hands went up.

"Quite a few of you. This is good. We still have some time, so I'm going to take a little walk and let the farmers know to expect you. In the meantime, keep doing your work. I want to see all of your copy work when I return. If you need to, go to the other class and speak with the teacher there."

"Yes, Teacher," said the entire class in unison, minus Macy.

"If the lunch bell rings before I return, you're dismissed to your homes."

Without a word, all the kids went back to their writing, and they didn't slow down when Rebekah left. That would have never happened at her old school. If a teacher ever had to step outside the classroom for even a minute, chaos ensued every time.

Macy made a fist and then extended her fingers. Her hand was still sore, but she decided she better try writing again. She didn't want to get the reputation of being able to get away with things just because she was the teacher's kid—fake kid.

News

The living room was filled an awkward silence. Chad felt like he should lead the discussion, but he didn't know where to start. Valerie looked to be in a better state of mind than she had the night before.

"Who wants to start?" Chad asked.

Valerie put her face in her hands and then looked up. "I can't deal with this on my own. Times like this, I wish Zoey's dad was around. Maybe if he was, this wouldn't have happened. Honestly, you guys are more family to us than anyone else. I suppose that's why I never thought this would happen. I think of Alex as her brother. She's always been so protective of him, as if he wasn't only Macy's brother, but her own."

Chad looked at Alyssa. "And we should have seen it coming. We grew up best friends and then one day, it became something more. I don't know why we never thought it could happen to Alex."

Alyssa took a step closer to Valerie. "We can all pass the buck, blaming each other or ourselves, but that isn't going fix this. I don't know if anything in our lives can be fixed any more. But what I do know is that nothing needs to be decided now. Let's just be here for our kids—both of them."

Valerie nodded and then turned to Alex. "I'm sorry, Alex. I shouldn't have said those things. I was angry and I'm scared."

He looked down. "I'm sorry too, Ms. Carter. For this whole mess." He looked up and had tears shining in his eyes.

"Oh, Alex." Valerie gave him a hug and then pulled Zoey in. "I hope you guys know I love you, both of you."

"Me too." Alyssa got up and hugged them. "I'm sorry for getting mad, too."

Chad wrapped his arms around all of them. "We'll get through this together."

Valerie nodded. "I'm not okay with this, and I don't agree with keeping the baby, but we can figure that out later. For now we'll just focus on helping you two."

"I couldn't agree more," Alyssa said.

Valerie's phone beeped and she looked at the screen. "I'm glad we were able to have this little talk. I'm sorry to cut it short, but I have to get back to the office."

"I should get back to my blog as well," Chad said. He went to his office and stared at the blank screen. Before Valerie came over, he'd been unable to write anything for his new blog post.

He couldn't write under pressure on a good day, but this was even worse—and not even because of Alex and Zoey's announcement.

The previous afternoon, his boss had brought Chad into his office. Roger hadn't needed to say anything, because Chad knew exactly what was coming from the look on his face. His performance at work had tanked since Macy disappeared.

They had given him a couple weeks off with pay and his coworkers had donated vacation hours so Chad wouldn't have to use his own. But the time since he had returned, he was next to useless and he knew it.

An alert from his computer brought him back to the present. Twelve new friend requests. Why did everyone want to be his friend? Just because his daughter was missing didn't mean he wanted to be friends with everyone who hoped she would return.