Across the Universe Read Online Free PDF Page A

sand and wind my hands into the cool granules as I draw my knees up to my chest. The water continues to lap erratically against the shore, the glare of the sun beating down on its surface and blinding my eyes.
                  While I wait for Noah to come, I do my job. I watch as passerby walk on and off the shore, strolling near the tide in thick sweaters and pants. Some of the people I watch are small, like children. Others are large and looming, casting shadows over me as they walk by. They are all interesting in their own way, but none are like the boy.
                  The sun lowers over the horizon, turning the sky an array of oranges, pinks, and reds. Its tendril-like rays paint the lake water a sultry hue that frames the crafts navigating across it in dramatic shadows. My hands dig deeper into the sand, finding the wetness there and pulling it to the surface.
                  The crowd meandering about the beach thins and dies. Still, I wait for him.
                  As the sky darkens and wanes into a deep and frothy purple, I begin to feel fear. The idea of never seeing Noah again stabs my gut, and suddenly I am torn into two parts. The first is like Nim, stern yet strong, and tells me to ignore the sensation boiling within me. The other yearns for friendship—something other than the blatant tolerance The House regards me with—and feels as if Noah’s my only chance.
                  It’s not until the moon peeks out from between a spattering of gray clouds that I see him coming. He crests over a grassy hill and makes his way into the sand, his shoes sinking deep in the silt as he struggles to come nearer.
                  When he arrives he drops down to the ground next to me, matching me by drawing his legs into his chest.
                  “I’ve been waiting for you,” he says.
                  “I’m the one who’s been waiting,” I reply. “All day I’ve been here. And where’ve you gone off to?”
                  “Home. I have parents, you know. And my sister, Lizzie. They all think I’m crazy now after what I told them I saw.”
                  “And what is it you said?”
                  “That I witnessed a girl turn to smoke in front of my eyes. That she blew away into the clouds.” He locks his gaze onto mine, and it’s warm, radiating. “Is that even what I saw? Am I making you up? You could be a dream, or a hallucination.”
                  I poke him in the shoulder, and though he strains in the opposite direction, he doesn’t leave. “I’m real. As real as you and Lizzie and this beach and the moon above us. I read about it all today. This planet, the life that exists here. It’s all very fascinating.”
                  Noah adjusts his glasses, staring into the glinting silver of my irises as if I’m a project needing to be studied. “Where are you from, really? You say you live outside of this world, so what does that make you? An alien?”
                  “I’m just a girl who lives in The House, and you’re a boy I’m supposed to watch. Nim would throw me into the void if she knew I was talking to you like this.”
                  “Who’s Nim?”
                  I picture her strict expression and folded arms in my head as I answer. “My mentor. She’s the one who I followed so I could become a Watcher, like her.”
                  “And what’s a Watcher? Someone who looks over Earth?”
                  I wave my arms out in front of me, gesturing at the whole of the landscape. “Not just Earth. Everything. The whole universe. There are others, you know. Universes, I mean. And there are other Watchers. Each Watcher oversees one universe, and each one is a member of The House, where I live.”
                  “Tell me more,” he