Grandfather (19 page)

“
I know I’ve never
mentioned him before,” she said. “It just never came
up.”

“
You don’t have to tell
anybody if you don’t want to,” Ashton said.

We were quiet for the next
few seconds. The sound of the crickets seemed to become louder.
Headlights shined bright on us. I hoped it was a cab. It wasn’t. It
flew by us, sending a huge gust of wind at us.

I guess Marley decided she
wanted to talk about her dad. “He didn’t like the separation
between the poor and rich,” she said.

“
I don’t blame him,” Ashton
said. “It’s not fair,”

“
That’s
kind of where I first heard about Grandfather,” she said. “My dad
always thought Grandfather actually existed right after the
2
^nd
Civil War in secret. Because the separation was still being
enforced today, he believed that Grandfather secretly existed
still. He liked to tell everybody about it.”

“
Everybody?” Ashton
asked.

I thought about the
protestor back at the orphanage being arrested for claiming
Cornelius was Grandfather’s leader.

“
Yeah, he told everybody,”
Marley said.

“
He was caught, wasn’t he?”
I asked her, immediately regretting it. It wasn’t because she got
mad. I just felt like it wasn’t appropriate.

She nodded. A tear rolled
down her right cheek.

“
It was two years ago. They
arrested him.” she said. “So Momma and I got out as quickly as
possible. That’s when we ran into Edgar.”

I had never felt anything
close to what Marley was feeling. The last time I cried, I was ten
years old, getting picked on. Now, I had nothing to cry over. I
didn’t see a point. I did see people crying on the streets all of
the time, but there was nothing I could do.

I thought it might be
awkward to hug Marley, so I just placed a hand on her shoulder. I
wasn’t sure if that was a way to comfort somebody, but she looked
at me, wiped her eyes, and smiled, showing me something I hadn’t
noticed before. Her teeth. They were perfectly straight and
white.

I got an inside feeling
that I was just gazing at Marley for a little too long, so I
quickly turned away before things got awkward.

“
It’s not right,” I said,
taking my hand off of her shoulder. “People within the wall are
living in comfort with their food, nice clothes, and technology,
while people outside the wall are starving.”

I think it was the first
time I was legitimately angry at the separation. Yeah, I never
liked what the wall stood for. But I suppose seeing what life was
like inside and hearing Marley’s story changed things.

“
And they act as if they
don’t care,” Ashton said.

“
That’s what my dad
thought,” she said. “And you know what? I’m proud of him. I may not
know if he’s dead or alive right now, but I’m proud of
him.”

“
You should be,” Ashton
said. “Can’t say I’m proud of my dad.” He rubbed his fingers across
his scar.

Marley and I glanced at
each other. I didn’t know Ashton as long as Marley knew him, but I
knew two things about him: He was more passionate than others about
destroying Grandfather, and he didn’t like for people to mention
his past. His scar must’ve had something to do with
that.

“
What happened?” Marley
risked asking.

He jerked his hand off his
scar and shook his head. “Maybe another day,” he said.

I was dying to know where
Ashton got his scar. I knew Marley felt the same way. But we both
respected his decision to keep his story to himself.

“I never thought about the
separation much at the orphanage,” I said. “There, I kind of
ignored everything. I guess because I didn’t think I had a
chance.”

“That’s the thing,” Ashton
said. “We have a chance now,” he said. “I don’t know when we’ll
actually be able to take Grandfather down, but I have a feeling
it’s soon.”

I was ready to know the
truth to everything, and I just wanted everything to be over with.
Only then could I focus on what I wanted to do. Only then could I
let Belladonna and Edgar help me as they promised.

“Since we found you,”
Marley said to me. “Something feels different.

“
Different?” I asked,
looking up ahead. All I saw was more forest. “How do I make things
feel different?”

She shrugged her
shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said. “The tracking law, him wanting
you, Sub X . . . I just feel like something’s about to
happen.”

I also felt like something
big would be happening soon, but I didn’t know why Marley felt it
was because of me. If anything, I felt like it was because of Edgar
and Belladonna. They were the ones organizing things.

“You think this is almost
over,” I clarified. “What do you plan to do afterwards?”

Marley pondered for a few
seconds before answering. “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess Momma
and I will settle down somewhere and try to be a normal family
again. Maybe find out what exactly happened to my dad.”

I looked over at Ashton.
“How about you?” I asked him.

He stared at the ground.
After a few seconds, he replied. “I want to help those outside the
city walls. When this is over and Grandfather has been defeated,
the walls will still be standing. Defeating Cornelius isn’t going
to defeat the separation. I don’t know what I can do, but I want to
help bring down the walls.”

I expected nothing less
from Ashton. I didn’t know how he was going to be able to help
either, but I knew he had the determination to get involved and
make a difference.

Marley looked at me. “And
you, Carsyn? What do you want to do?”

Belladonna had told me she
would help me. Almost every day, I thought about what I wanted to
do in the future, but I couldn’t figure it out. I knew I wanted to
find out about my parents. But after things were over with? I had
no idea.

“You’ll figure it out,
man,” Ashton said. “Just know that we’ll all still be friends. Or
at least I hope so.”

“Of course we will be,”
Marley shouted, wrapping her arms around both of us. “If you guys
quit talking to me, you’ll see just how violent I can
get.”

Ashton and I started
laughing.

“You’re tiny,” Ashton
said. “You couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“You better hope you don’t
have to find out what I’m all about,” Marley said, smiling. “You
better hope.”

Marley told us a story
about how she got in a fight when she was little. She apparently
grabbed the girl’s hair and threw her in a mud puddle. I pictured
Marley getting into a fight and couldn’t help but laugh. “That was
the last time Angel called me stupid,” Marley said, which made me
laugh even harder.

“
You threw a girl in the
mud for calling you stupid?” Ashton asked, still
laughing.

“
I told you I can get
pretty violent,” Marley said.

We didn’t have to walk
much longer before we saw a cab. I stopped Marley and Ashton and
pointed at it. Not knowing what else to do, I waved my arms in the
air, and the cab stopped beside us immediately. “This is exciting,”
Marley said. I kept forgetting she hadn’t been in the city yet.
Though I didn’t like the people in the city, it was still
breathtaking to see. I couldn’t wait to see her
reaction.

We all squeezed in the
back seat, Marley choosing to sit in the middle. “What are you
three doing out here?”
The driver asked.
He was dressed very nicely and seemed very bored.

Uh oh. I wasn’t expecting
that question. Thankfully, Ashton was quick to answer. “Car broke
down.”

“Broke down?” he asked.
“That doesn’t happen very often. Where at? I didn’t see
it.”

“Way back there,” Ashton
answered casually.

The driver nodded. “Dark
out. Probably just missed it. What’s your destination?”

Remembering what Cornelius
had said on the radio, I said, “The Presidential Tower.” My words
activated the 3D GPS. It came alive and shot across the map until
it reached a very tall building. Marley’s eyes grew wide, looking
back and forth to make sure we saw it too. I just loved her
reaction, remembering how amazed I was when I first saw one. Heck,
I was
still
amazed.

“Odd destination,” the
driver said as he sped toward the city. “You’re not going to be
able to meet him. He’s the president. Busy man.”

“We just want to see what
it looks like,” Marley said.

The driver gave each of us
an odd look through the mirror. He shook his head. “None of my
business,” he said. “I’m just here making the bitcoin.”

We made the turn beside
the field with cows in them. Up ahead, we could see the wall. Once
again, I was amazed by its size. The wall grew closer, and soon, we
were inside of the tunnel again. Just as we were about to exit, I
turned to look at Marley to see her mouth open wide at the
site.

It was just as I
remembered. Skyscrapers towering above the millions of people.
There may have been fewer people walking around as there was last
time because it was late, but it was still a lot. I imagined from
the air the pedestrians looked like a bunch of ants roaming
around.

“This is amazing,” Marley
said. She then pointed at the GPS as it revealed us approaching the
high-rise buildings. “That’s so cool!”

“I know,” I told
her.

I saw the driver’s eye
watching us through the mirror. “You guys don’t get out much, do
you?” he asked.

“Uh, first time in New
Dawn,” I told him. He turned his attention back to the
road.

We entered the center of
the city. The lights were brighter and more colorful there. Videos
and advertisements played on the walls of buildings. I saw an
advertisement for a Starbucks. The crowd was denser in the city’s
center, too. Just as before, the people were dressed nicely with
happy expressions on their faces as they laughed and talked with
their companions.

The traffic grew denser,
and it seemed like we would never get through. Our driver joined
others in honking his horn. I felt like the sound of a bunch of
honking horns would get annoying after a while, but nobody seemed
bothered by it.

Soon, the driver pulled
off to the side and the vehicle came to a halt in front of two long
rows of water fountains spraying high into the air. In between the
rows was a sidewalk leading straight to the building’s entrance.
“17 bitcoin,” the driver said. Ashton pulled out his card and waved
it across the back of the front seat, just as Edgar had done. A
small red light blinked, and the driver thanked us.

We stood in the middle of
the sidewalk, looking up at the tall building. It was definitely
the tallest one in the city. I couldn’t even see the top of
it.

People walked around us.
One man in particular was in too big of a hurry to notice we
weren’t moving. He ran into Marley, nearly knocking her down. “Get
out of the middle of the sidewalk!” the man screamed, not stopping
to make sure she was okay.

“Sorry,” Marley said, but
he was too far to hear.

“It’s okay,” I told her.
“Let’s just get away from these people. Let’s go
inside.”

We followed the pathway
toward the doors, admiring the fountains on each side. We walked to
the doors. Just as I was about to open one of them, it slid open.
We all glanced at each other. “I guess we go in,” I said.

It was a very fancy
building. We entered in a large room. The floor was made out of
shiny, white marble. My reflection looked up at me. The ceiling was
high up, and several shiny chandeliers hung from it. Soft orchestra
music played from somewhere. There were big, comfortable chairs
everywhere. They looked as if I’d sink inside them if I sat down.
Straight ahead was a long marble desk. Two men with black
combed-over hair and a woman with short pink hair sat behind the
desk. They each wore the same black uniform, tapping different
buttons on the transparent floating screen.

“This is it,” I told them.
“You guys can’t go the rest of the way.”

They didn’t look too happy
but knew that was the plan. They couldn’t complain.

“This is a terrible idea,”
Marley said.

“Maybe,” I said. “But like
I said before, I need to find out.”

Ashton nodded. “He’s
right, Marley,” he said. “It may be a terrible idea, but if it was
me, I’d want to find out, too.”

“Besides, he’s not going
to kill me,” I reminded them. I think I was telling myself that
more so than them. “He needs me for something.”

They talked about where
they would go. “I feel like we came here for nothing,” Marley
said.

“For nothing?” I asked.
“At least I had some company on the way. And if it wasn’t for
Ashton, I would’ve had to walk the entire way.”

Ashton dug into his pocket
and pulled out the other gray bitcoin card and handed it to
me.

“Well, we’re staying
nearby, waiting for you,” Marley said.