Page 63 (1/2)

Melina lurked sullenly at the rear, not speaking to anyone

"What is this place?" I asked

"It’s a disguising roo peculiars blend in with this loop’s nor how clothes of the period orn

"When in Ro toward a rack of clothes

E us blend in, new clothesus "But keep your sweaters on underneath, in case more trouble finds us"

Bronwyn and Olive took so dresses behind a screen I traded my ash-coated, sweat-stained pants and jacket for a mismatched but relatively clean suit Instantly uncomfortable, I wondered how, for so many centuries, people wore such stiff, for outfit and sat down in front of a mirror "How do I look?" he said

"Like an invisible boy wearing clothes," replied Horace

Millard sighed, lingered in front of the ain

Horace’s initial excitement had already waned "The selection here is atrocious," he complained "If the clothes aren’tfabric! I a like a street urchin"

"Street urchins blend," Eents in top hats do not" She e shiny red flats and a short-sleeved blue dress that fell just below the knee

"What do you think?" she said, twirling to make the dress billow

She looked like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, only cuter I didn’t kno to tell her this in front of everybody, though, so instead I gave her an aard grin and a thuhed "Like it? Well, that’s too bad," she said with a coy smile "I’d stick out like a sore thumb" Then a pained expression crossed her face, as if she felt guilty for laughing--for having had even a iven all that had happened to us and everything yet to be resolved--and she ducked behind the screen again

I felt it, too: the dread, the weight of the horrors we’d seen, which replayed themselves in an endless, lurid loop in my mind But you can’t feel bad every second, I wanted to tell her Laughing doesn’tmakes theotten It just means you’re human But I didn’t kno to say this, either