A Dark-Adapted Eye Read Online Free PDF Page A

started the truck without bothering to reply and backed down the driveway. A moment later all I could hear were the playful shouts of Ivory and his new friend Les. They were kicking a ball around out front beneath the streetlights even though Ivory knew he wasn’t supposed to stay outside after dark.
    I sat on the floor just inside the door of my room, playing with my dolls. Ivory would have played with me, swearing me to secrecy, if he hadn’t invited Les over. I was bitter about that since I didn’t have any of my own friends to play with. I thought about joining them, but I wasn’t good at sports.
    I continued playing by myself, though halfheartedly. Just as I was considering putting the dolls away, something made me look up. A peculiar quietness to the house, perhaps, or a sudden chill in the air. I saw him standing at the end of the hall, tall and dark, watching me without e xpression. I was afraid, but I didn’t move. I didn’t even scream or run as he approached me, footsteps silent on the carpet. Maybe I knew he wasn’t going to kill me. Maybe his pale violet eyes held me in thrall.
    It was more likely I just knew there was nothing I could do to save myself.
    He knelt in front of me. “Hello, Asha,” he said softly.
    What do you want? How do you know my name?
    The questions never made it to my lips. I sat paralyzed with curiosity and dread. This man was not going to kill me, but he would do something. I didn't know what.
    “Don't be frightened,” he said. “I just want to borrow a little bit of your life.”
    The details were fuzzy after that. I remembered his mouth on my throat. I remembered feeling faint. And then, for a while, there was nothing.
    Gradually I became aware of voices. I opened my eyes to find Ivory and Les crouching over me, concern written on their faces.
    “She’s so pale,” Les said.
    “Asha?” Ivory asked shakily.
    “I . . .” It was too much effort to form a sentence.
    “Help me get her in bed.”
    The boys lifted me and tucked me under my covers. I lay there staring at the ceiling, wondering what had happened to me, while they tried to make me better. They pressed hot rags to my forehead, then cold ones. They made me chicken noodle soup and took my temperature. I barely responded to their efforts. Eventually I drifted off to sleep. In the morning I was fine.
    Ivory and Les never spoke of the incident to me and I had no memory of it until now.
    And I had to know more.

three
     
    singularity: a point in space-time at which the density of matter and the gravitational field are infinite
     
    In the morning, after Criseyde left, I showered, collecting my thoughts. Planning what I would say to the boys, imagining their replies, preparing further arguments if they chose to deny anything. They were rarely up early though, always getting eight to ten hours of heavy sleep du ring the day because they wore themselves out so thoroughly each night.
    I moved restlessly around the house while I waited for them to wake. I read a little of an old issue of Zenith I’d left lying around. I tried to finish the themed crossword in the back, but it was too hard to concentrate on the answers to “local arm” or “one of Jupiter’s moons,” even though I knew them.
    Finally I heard the sound of dresser drawers opening and closing, the gush of the bathroom sink, the flush of a toilet. It was after one. I sat in my bedroom, waiting for the right moment. I stared absently at my angular face in the closet mirror, at my jutted-out jaw and crooked dete rmined mouth, at my not-quite-pointed and slightly upturned nose, and at my eyes, which always looked rather large and sad.
    After a few minutes, I took a deep breath and walked into the living room. Ivory and Les were devouring giant bowls of cereal while watching whatever afternoon news they could find. Ivory sat on the zigzag couch, Les in the pea green recliner. Neither of them seemed to notice me and I decided it was best to get their attention