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"I think I’ll pass," I say "But thanks anyway"

Hana shrugs, and I can tell she’s fighting to look like it’s no big deal "If you change your er than a second

"Tanglewild Lane Deering Highlands You knohere to find hlands is an abandoned subdivision off-peninsula A decade ago the government discovered sympathizers--and, if the ruether in one of the big e scandal, and the bust the result of a yearlong sting operation

When all was said and done, forty-two people had been executed and another hundred thrown in the Crypts

Since then Deering Highlands has been a ghost town:

avoided, forgotten, condeesture lamely down the street

"Yeah" Hana looks down at her feet, hops fro else to say, but I can’t stand to turn around and just walk away I have a terrible feeling this is the last time I’ll see Hana before we’re cured Fear seizes h our conversation, take back all the sarcastic or s that I said, tell her I ain

But just when I’ives me a quick wave and says, "Okay, then See you around," and the moment collapses in on itself and with it, my chance to speak

"Okay See you"

Hana starts off down the road I’e to memorize her walk--to imprint her inher waver in and out of the fierce sunlight, her silhouette gets confused with another one inin and out of darkness, about to walk off the cliff, and I don’t knoho I’es of the world are blurring and there’s a sharp pain in my throat, so I turn around and walk quickly toward the house

"Lena!" she calls out to ate

I spin around, heart leaping, thinking o back

Even fro Then she esture with her hand and calls out, "Never mind" This tiht and quickly, turns a corner, and is gone

But what did I expect? That’s the whole point, after all:

There’s no going back

Chapter Thirteen

"In the years before the cure was perfected, it was offered on a trial basis only The risks attached to it were great At the time one out of every hundred patients suffered a fatal loss of brain function after the procedure

Nonetheless, people swar to be cured; they ca to secure a procedural slot

These years are also known as the Miracle Years because of the quantity of lives that were healed and ht out of sickness

And if there were people who died on the operating table, they died for a good cause, and no one can lament them"

--From "The Miracle Years: The Early Science of the Cure," A Brief History of the United States of America, by E D

Thoet into the house it’s even hotter than usual: a wet, suffocating wall of heat CarolThe house smells like browned meat and spices--mixed with the nor For the past feeeks we’ve been eating dinner out on the porch: runny macaroni salads, cold cuts, and sandwiches from my uncle’s deli counter

Carol pokes her head out of the kitchen as I go by Her face is red and she’s sweating big-time Dark swaths of sweat have left pit stains on her pale blue blouse, navy crescents

"Better get changed," she says "Rachel and David will be here any second"

I’d co over for dinner Normally I see Rachel four or five tier, especially after Rachel had first moved out of Carol’s house, I used to count the days until she would come and see me I don’t think I fully understood then about the procedure and what it meant for her--for me--for us I knew that she’d been saved from Thoht that otherwise things would be exactly the saht that as soon as she caain, that ould bust out our socks to have a dance party, or she would pullmy hair, launch into one of her stories--of distant places and witches who could change into animals

But she only skih the door, and applauded politely when Carol made me recite rown up now," Carol told me, when I asked her why Rachel didn’t like to play anymore "So attention to the notation that appeared every few months on the kitchen wall calendar: R to visit