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It says WARREN SHEATHES, RIP

"Warren Sheathes," I say I want to reach out and slip my hand into Alex’s, but I don’t think we’re safe There are a fes surrounding the courtyard on the ground floor, and even though they are thickly coated in grime, someone could walk by at any moment, look out, and see us "Your father?"

Alex nods, then shakes his shoulders, a suddento jerk himself away from sleep "Yeah"

"He was here?"

One side of Alex’s mouth quirks up into a smile, but the rest of his face remains stony "For fourteen years" He draws a slow circle in the dirt with his toe, the first physical sign of discoiven since we arrived In that moment I am in awe of hi but support ive me co the weight of his own secrets too

"What happened?" I ask quietly "I mean, what did he

?" I trail off I don’t want to push the issue

Alex glances at me quickly and looks away "What did he do?" he says The hardness has returned to his voice

"I don’t know What all the people who end up in Ward Six do He thought for hiive in"

"Ward Six?"

Alex avoids my eyes carefully "The dead ward," he says quietly "For political prisoners, mostly They’re kept in solitary confineestures around hirass, dozens of n on the door: LIFERS, HA HA

"I’ to touch him, but the best I can do is inch closer to him so that our skin is separated by only a few inches

He looks atme a sad smile "He and my mom were only sixteen when they hteen when she had me"

He drops into a squat and traces his father’s name with his thumb I suddenly understand that the reason he co the letters as they fade, to keep soether, but he was caught before they could finalize a plan I never knew he’d been taken into custody I just thought he was dead My ht it would be better for h to correct her I think for my mom it was easier to believe he had really died She didn’t want to think of hier over the letters, back and forth "My aunt and uncle told me the truth when I turned fifteen

They wanted me to know I came here to meet him, but

" I think I see Alex shudder, a sudden stiffening movement of his shoulders and back "Anyway, it was too late He was dead, had been dead for a few months, and buried here, where his re"

I feel sick The walls appear to be pressing closer around us, growing taller and narrower, too, so the sky feels et out, I think, and then take a deep breath, trying to stay calhtens up "Ready?" he asks h I’m not sure that I am He allows himself the brief flicker of a smile, and I see, for a second, a bit of warain

I take one last look at the too in I try to think of a prayer or so comes to me The lessons of the scientists aren’t really clear about what happens when you die:

Supposedly you dissipate into the heavenly h they also tell us that the cured go to heaven and live forever in perfect harmony and order

"Your name" I spin around to face Alex He has already moved past ives an alned to me," he says

"Your real name is Alex Sheathes," I say, and he nods

He has a secret na at each other, and in that instant I feel our connection so strongly it’s as though it achieves physical existence, beco us This is what people are always talking about when they talk about God: this feeling, of being held and understood and protected Feeling this way seeet, so I follow Alex back inside, holding ain encounter that awful stink