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"Ky," I say, as loud as I can, between the beats of his fists hitting the ht I Can’t Get Sick"

Then he turns around

"Neither can Xander," I say

"How do you know?" Ky asks

"We both have the mark," Xander says

"What mark?"

Xander turns around and pulls down his collar so Ky can see "If you’ve got this, it ue"

"I have it, too," I say "Xander looked forwith the mutation for weeks," Xander says

"What about me?" Ky asks He turns around, and in one fast ht of the air ship, I see the planes andelse

My throat tightens "Ky," I say

"You don’t have it," Xander says, his words blunt but his voice sympathetic "You should stay away from us, in case your exposure didn’t actually infect you We could still be carriers"

Ky nods and pulls his shirt back over his head When he turns to us there’s so haunted and relieved in his eyes He didn’t expect to be ilad that I ary tears Why does it always have to be like this for Ky? How does he stand it?

He keeps h a speaker in the wall "The flight won’t be long," he tells us

"Where are we going?" Ky asks

The Pilot doesn’t answer

"To the mountains," I say, at the same time Xander says, "To help the Pilot find a cure"

"That’s what Indie told you," Ky says, and Xander and I nod Ky raises his eyebrows as if to say, But what does the Pilot have inin the hold for Cassia," the Pilot says "It’s in a case at the back"

Xander finds the case first and pushes it toward s: a datapod and a folded piece of white paper

I take out the datapod first and hand it to Xander to hold Ky stays on the other side of the ship Then I lift out the paper It’s slick, white paper from a port, and heavier than it should be, folded in an intricate pattern to conceal so inside When I peel away the layers, I see Grandfather’s microcard in the center

Bra else, too Radiating out fro A code

I recognize the pattern in the writing--he’s ame I onceBra ether a siht he couldn’t pay attention to detail, but he can, when it interests hih He would have been a wonderful sorter after all

My eyes fill with tears as I picture my exiled family at their home in Keya I only asked for the microcard, but they sent more The code from Bram, the paper fro The only one who didn’t send anything is o ahead and view the microcard" His tone remains polite, but I hear a command in his words

I slide the microcard into the datapod It’s an older e to load And there he is Grandfather His wonderful, kind, clever face I haven’t seen him in almost a year, except in ?" the Pilot asks

"Yes," I say,"Yes, thank you"

For aspecific--Grandfather’s favorite memory of me Instead I’m distracted by the pictures of his life

Grandfather, young, a child standing with his parents A little older, wearing plainclothes, and then with his arrand a baby,next to hione

Bram and I appear on the screen with Grandfather

And vanish

The screen stops on a picture of Grandfather at the end of his life, his handso out fro, as is customary, Samuel Reyesfamily hter-in-law, Molly, was the day they first met"

My father reh, he told me hoith his parents to meet my mother at the train My father said they all fell in love with her that day; that he’d never seen anyone so warm and alive

"His favorite memory of his son, Abran, was the day they had their first real argument"

There must be a story behind this ain He rarely argues with anyone I feel a little pang Why didn’t Papa sendthe one behind randson, Bram, was his first word," the historian says "It was ‘ forward, the way I did when I was ss

"His favorite hter, Cassia," the historian says, "was of the red garden day"

Braht He heard the historian correctly She did say day Not days So did the historian make a mistake? I wish they’d let Grandfather speak for hi these words But that’s not the way the Society did things

This has told , but soarden day could be any time of year Red leaves in the fall, red flowers in the su, and even, sometimes, e sat outside in the winter, our noses and cheeks turned red froarden days There were so many of them