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"And so after years of tribulation and pain, she walked in righteousness and peace until the end of her days"

(Book of Laht it was strange that dalena She didn’t even believe in the cure That was her whole probleers of deliria I’ve done a lot of thinking about it, and in the end I guess I’ve figured out that despite everything, : that the cure, and the procedure, were for the best I think even then she knehat she was going to do--she kneould happen I guess e

I think she was trying to say, Forgiveto say, Someday, even this pain will be taken away

You see? No , I know she wasn’t all bad

The next teeks are the busiest of my life Summer explodes into Portland In early June the heat was there but not the color--the greens were still pale and tentative, thecoolness--but by the last week of school everything is Technicolor and splash, outrageous blue skies and purple thunderstorht as spots of blood Every day after school there’s an asseo to

Hana gets invited to all of theet invited to most, which surprises me

Harlowe Davis--who lives with Hana in the West End, and whose father does soovern" I didn’t even think she knewto Hana her eyes have always skated past o anyway I’ve always been curious about her house, and it turns out to be as spectacular as I iined Her family has a car, too, and electric appliances everywhere that obviously get used every day, washers and dryers and huge chandeliers filled with dozens and dozens of lightbulbs Harlowe has invitedclass--there are sixty-seven of us in total and probably fifty at the party--which makes me feel less special, but it’s still fun We sit in the backyard while the housekeeper runs in and out of the house with plates and plates of food--coleslaw and potato salad and other barbecue stuff--and her father turns out spare ribs and harill I eat until I feel like I’m about to burst and have to roll backward onto the blanket I’ with Hana We stay there until alh a curtain of dark blue and theand laughing back into the house, slapping them away

Afterward I think it’s one of the nicest days I’ve had in a long tiirls I don’t really like--like Shelly Pierson, who has hated rade, when I won the science fair and she took second place--start being nice I guess it’s because we all know the end is close Most of us won’t see one another after graduation, and even if we do it will be different We’ll be different We’ll be adults-- cured, tagged and labeled and paired and identified and placed neatly on our life path, perfectly round marbles set to roll down even, well- defined slopes

Theresa Grass turns eighteen before school ends and gets cured; so does Morgan Dell They’re absent for a few days and coe is a They seem peaceful now, mature and somehow remote, like they’re encased in a thin layer of ice Only teeks ago Theresa’s nickname was Theresa Gross, and everyoneon the ends of her hair and generally being a ht and tall with her eyes fixed straight in front of her, her lips barely curled in a smile, and everyone shifts a little in the halls so she can pass easily Saan It’s like all their anxiety and self- consciousness has been res have stopped tre Whenever she used to have to speak in class, the treet so bad it would rock the desk But after the procedure, just like that--whoosh! The shaking stops Of course they’re not the first girls in our class to get cured--Eleanor Rana and Annie Hahn were both cured way back in the fall, and half a dozen other girls have had the procedure this past semester-- but in them the difference is so with hty, then seventy- nine

Willow Marks never comes back to school Rumors filter back to us--that she had her procedure and it turned out fine; that she had her procedure and now her brain is going haywire, and they’re talking about co her to the Crypts, Portland’s combo prison-and- is for sure: The whole Marks faulators are bla Mr and Mrs Marks--and the whole extended fa in her a proper education, and only a few days after she was supposedly found in Deering Oaks Park, I overhearthat both of Willow’s parents have been fired from their jobs A week later we hear that they’ve had to move in with a distant relative Apparently people kept throwing rocks at their s, and a whole side of their house ritten over with a single word: SYMPATHIZERS It makes no sense, because Mr and Mrs Marks were on record insisting that their daughter have the procedure early, despite the risks, but as et like that when they’re scared Everyone is terrified that the deliria will soe scale Everyone wants to prevent an epidemic

I feel bad for the Marks fas are It’s like the regulators: You may not like the patrols and the identity checks, but since you know it’s all done for your protection, it’s impossible not to cooperate And it may sound awful, but I don’t think about Willow’s fah-school paperwork to file, and nervous energy, and lockers to clean out and final exaood-bye to

Hana and I can barely find tiether When we do, we stick to our old routes by silent agreement

She never ain, to my surprise But Hana’s mind has a tendency to skip around, and her new obsession is a collapse at the northern end of the border that people are saying oing down to the labs again, not for one single solitary second I focus on everything and anything besidesquestions about Alex--which isn’t too hard, considering that I now can’t believe I spent an evening biking up and down the streets of Portland, lying to Carol and the regulators, just to meet up with him The very next day it felt like a dreaone te in the heat