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The new Minister is a tallthe Minister’s insignia hanging around his neck I still think of it as belonging to o Above if you die so young and have to work so hard? the children of the Below used to ask each other ere s list at hoo Above You could see the stars You could feel the sun on your face You could touch a tree that had roots in the ground You could walk for e of your world

"Come forward," Nevio says to the first person

"I accept oes up frorand speeches about the virtue of sacrifice, the people of Atlantia like it when the youth validate their own choice to stay Below Nevio the Minister nods and dips his fingers into the bowl of seawater and sprinkles it over the girl, speckling her face with drops too ss

The first person to choose the Above is surrounded by the peacekeepers and swept away to a secure location There is no opportunity to say good-bye to friends and family Once the ceremony concludes, the peacekeepers load everyone who has chosen the Above onto a transport and send them up to the surface The finality of the decision always appealed toI kneould be hard to see my mother’s face when I made my choice, but she would have Bay They wouldn’t be alone, and I would--at last--be Above

But when oes up for his turn I know hiht--Fen Cardiff, handso eyes There’s an irreverent, ironic note in his voice even as he speaks the sacred words "I choose sacrifice in the Above"

I think I hear a woman cry out She sounds surprised and wounded Histo choose? He doesn’t glance up into the stands--instead, he turns around to look back at the rest of us in line, as if searching for so or someone

In the moment before the peacekeepers take hiht into his eyes, eyes that will soon see the Above I am so jealous of him I can hardly breathe But I promised Bay I wouldn’t do it, that I’d stay here with her My palms feel sweaty I promised Bay

She is the only person I’ve ever told that I want to go Above That I drealass jar of dirt on the altar in the temple I can picture exactly hoould feel to touch it and smell it, to have it under my feet and all around And in the years before my mother died, Bay proo She herself couldn’t bear to leave Atlantia--she loved the city and my mother too much--but Bay assured me that she would keep my wish a secret so that no one could try to stop me Once I declared it in front of the crowd at the temple, my mother would have no choice but to let me leave Even the Minister and the Council cannot override the decision of each individual person regarding the Above and the Below

I loveas I can remember, I’ve always known that I need to see the Above

But I can’t go

On the day my mother died, Bay cried so much that the water from her tears streaht that ht turn into a mermaid, with seaweed hair and salt always on her face "Promise me," she said when she could finally speak, "that you won’t leave ht I couldn’t leave her, now that one "I promise," I whispered to Bay

The only way for Bay and ether is to remain Below While we can both choose to stay, both of us cannot choose to go because we are the only two children in our faene line must always remain in Atlantia

A few more people, and it’s my turn

Nevio the Minister knows me, of course, but his expression when I come to the front remains impassive, the way it has for everyone else My mother would have been the same way--she was always different in her Minister robes, al But would she have kept her coo Above?

I will never know

The salt water is in a blue bowl; the dirt in a brown one I close ht voice--the flat, false one my mother always insisted that I use, the one that hides the curse and gift that is my real voice