“Kansas,” she sighed. “You know I can’t answer that.”
“So you’d rather be alone your entire life than be with me?”
“You’re getting angry.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay. I just thought that maybe you’d take the time and consider it for real this time. We’re not kids anymore, Eisley. Eventually, we have to make a decision.”
“It sounds like you already have,” she said sharply.
“I haven’t, but one day, I will. Plain and simple, right now, do you love me?”
“Yes,” she whispered after a long pause.
“Then why is this so hard?”
“Because I love him too.”
The doorbell rang, and the florist delivered the bouquet of a dozen long stemmed black roses I’d ordered this morning.
Rule 24 - Kansas
Trust your partner.
Ten years ago.
The thick iron door screeched open and light poured through the door.
“Constantine! You’re back!” Eisley ran to him, throwing her thin arms around him.
His face lit up as he hugged her back. “I told you I would be.”
A Mother came to the door and shoved them back into the room. “Dinner will be brought in soon.” She slammed the door, locking the three of us inside once again.
“What’s that?” I asked, standing and pointing to the bag over his shoulder. I remembered those. When I was in kindergarten, my mother, myrealmother, had given me one to take to school. I’d filled it with pictures I’d colored and a paper plate they helped me cut into a mask.
How far away that seemed now. I couldn’t even remember my real mother’s face.Constantine rolled the bag off his shoulder and showed us.
“One of the Fathers gave me permission to bring it down here. I’ve got some things.”
“Like what?” Eisley stood on her tiptoes and peered at it.He unzipped the bag and pulled out a thin gray blanket. It took up so much space that when he removed it from the bag, I thought that was all that was in it. He handed the blanket and then kept digging.
“I told them we were cold.”
“Cold, hungry, bored, hurt,” I complained.Eisley glared at me. Over the time we’d been here together, we’d made a rule to not complain, but seeing Constantine getting special privileges made my blood boil.
“Do you think we can all fit under it?” Her brown eyes lit up with hope.
I spread it out and walked to the mattress on the cement floor. I draped it over, and my heart burst with joy as it covered the entire mattress and pooled onto the floor on both sides.
“I’ve got some other stuff too,” Constantine added. We turned back to him, and he began pulling out books. Books!
How to read was the only thing the Mothers and the Fathers taught us here. Which didn’t serve us that well as we hardly had the opportunity to use our abilities once they considered us capable.Constantine pulled out two hardcovers and one coloring book and handed them to us.
“These are about plants. What’s yours say?” Eisley asked me.
“The Minister’s Manual.” I struggled to sound out the words. I frowned. “What is this?”
He shrugged. “It was the only way they’d let me bring this other stuff back. They want us to read it.”
