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"Right, you told me But I haven’t made up my mind yet"

She crossed her arms "Then I can wait"

"No," I said, and stood up "I need to be by myself for a while"

And I went up the stairs without her

13

I h the halls I stood outside the y to o in I peeked into the nurse’s roole-souled peculiars I cracked the door to Miss Wren’s rooently kneading her fingers into the bird’s feathers I said nothing to anyone

Wandering through eine what hoo back What I would tell , most likely They’d never believe otten mad, written a letter to ht a boat to the mainland and run away They’d call it a stress reaction Chalk it up to soly Blao to Wales Dr Golan, whoain He’d skipped town, they’d say, because he was a fraud, a quack e never should’ve trusted And I’d go back to being Jacob the poor, traumatized, mentally disturbed rich kid

It sounded like a prison sentence And yet, ifin peculiardo to her I hadcould I stand Florida, now that I’d had a taste of this peculiar life? I was not nearly as ordinary as I used to be--or if it was true that I’d never been ordinary, now I knew it I had changed And that, at least, gave me soht find a way to live an extraordinary life

Yes, it was best to go It really was best If this world was dying and there was nothing to be done for it, then as left for me here? To run and hide until there was no safe place left to go, no loop to sustain my friends’ artificial youth To watch them die To hold Emma as she crumbled and broke apart in my arms

That would kill e as left of my old life Goodbye, peculiars Goodbye, peculiardom

It was for the best

I wandered until I came to a place where the rooms were only half frozen, and the ice had risen halfway to the ceiling like water in a sinking ship and then stopped, leaving the tops of desks and the heads of la swi Shadows bloomed across the walls and ot bluer, painting everything around me a deep-sea cobalt

It occurred to ht in peculiardoht with the best friends I’d ever had My last night with Emma