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My twin, however, does not like to discuss ill happen in four years, when I’ll be dead and he’ll have five years of life in hi now and if he’s okay I wonder how long it will take me to break free of this place, or at least communicate to him that I’m alive But somewhere, in a place in my heart that’s darker than that awful basement, I worry that hn’s research, and my brother will never even knohat’s happened to me

For that, I a sad because of so I said at dinner

It’s been so hard to keep track of the days in thismore than Linden’s prisoner I’ve never been apart fro; from the time ere tod-dlers, our ether And we did We were together on our walks to school, clinging to each other in case of dangers lurking in the ruins of an old building, in the shadow of an abandoned car We were together on our walks to work, and our voices kept each other coht, in a dark house once filled with our parents’ presence Before now I’d never been away froht that as tould always be able to reach each other, that from far away I would still hear his voice as clearly as I heard him in the next room of our house We would talk to each other as weroom--to keep the silence of our parents’ deaths away

"Rowan," I whisper But the sound doesn’t travel farther than my bedroom The cord between us is severed

"I’h in answer, there’s a soft knock at the door

I know it’s not Cecily because it’s not followed by a question or a demand Deirdre doesn’t knock, and it wouldn’t be Gabriel at this hour "Who is it?"

The door cracks open and I see Jenna’s gray eyes

"Can I come in?" she asks in her wispy voice

I sit up on the bed and nod She purses her lips in the closest I’ve seen her coe of my mattress

"I saw the way Governor Linden looked at you when you brought up the orange grove," she says "Why?"

My instincts caution ht stage of grief to pull down my defenses--to lower the mast, I suppose Gabriel would say, and allow myself to drift into uncertain waters And she seeown that’s likedark hair in a veil around her shoulders So about all this makes me want to see her as a sister, as a confidant

"It’s because of Rose," I say "He fell in love with her in the orange grove That was her favorite place, and he hasn’t been able to stand it since she became sick"

"Really?" she says "How do you know that?"

"Rose toldthat Rose told s about our husband

I want to keep some of his frailties to myself, such as the infection that nearly killed him as a boy and that caused hissomehow Like soht

"So that’s why he looked so sad," she says, picking lint off her hemline

"That’s what I wanted," I say "He had no right to bring us here, and I guess he’ll never realize that So I wanted to hurt him like he hurt me"

Jenna looks at her lap, and her lip quirks in what I think will be a sh, but her eyes ith tears and her voice is broken when she says, "My sisters were in that van"

Her skin pales, and ooseflesh as her little sobs wrack the bed The roo into so ets worse in this ardens I think of the gunshots that have haunted me since I arrived How many of those were Jenna’s sisters, and which ones? The first shot? The fifth? The sixth?

I’ht up the orange grove, I didn’t knohat it was, but I saw that it was hurting him," she sobs, swipes her nose with her fist "And I wanted hireed with you He has no idea, does he? What he’s taken away?"

"No," I agree softly I offer her Gabriel’s handkerchief, which I’ve been keeping inthis place too much to even blow her nose on its cloths

"I only have two years left," she says "There’s nothing for me out there now, and maybe I’m trapped here, but I won’t let him have his ith me I don’t care if he murders me, he won’t havepushed into a base his daughters-in-law one by one

I’er I airl who has no illusions about ill happen to her; she knows it will never be okay Aet out?" I say "Would you?"

She shrugs, snorts incredulously through her tears