Erasing Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

the smart one, the outgoing one, and the daring one.” Sheridan didn’t say, but mentally added, The one guys like first . “I’m the responsible one, the quiet one.” The one who always gets hit up for favors. The one who guys like after Taylor has turned them down .
    Echo took all of this in. “When someone calls Taylor’s name, do you turn around?”
    “Of course. For most of my life there was a good chance they were really calling me and just couldn’t tell which one I was.” She gave a sheepish shrug. “Even now that Taylor has completely changed her look, I still do it.”
    “Do you sometimes know what she’ll say before she says it?”
    “Yeah, but that’s easy. If it’s arrogant or snarky, Taylor is going to say it.” Sheridan tilted her head. “Do people here in the future still think twins have a mystical psychic bond?” That was one of the annoying things about being a twin. People were always so disappointed to learn she and Taylor couldn’t read each other’s minds.
    “Twins almost never happen,” Echo said. “The medical workers prevent it.”
    That seemed odd. “How?”
    He shifted in his seat, hesitated. “People in Traventon want superior children, so the Medcenter specialists select the best genes from the population and use those to create babies. Technicians are only supposed to put single, healthy embryos into women, but they made a mistake in our case.”
    Sheridan frowned. “Doesn’t anyone want to have their children the natural way?”
    “And risk having inferior children? No. At age eleven, girls undergo a surgery that prevents accidental reproduction.”
    Sheridan stifled a gasp. She was long past age eleven. “No one will make me have surgery, will they?”
    He looked uncomfortable, which probably meant yes. “The government will decide. They control everything that affects Traventon.”
    “Everything? What happened to democracy?”
    She had asked the question rhetorically. He didn’t answer it that way.
    “Democracies didn’t last long after your time. It was too hard for average people to make decisions about policies. So now the government educates a select group of people and appoints them to positions.” He tilted his head at her, questioningly. “You must have seen it happening. Democracy was already declining during your time.”
    Sheridan wanted to protest this fact but couldn’t. She didn’t know enough about Congress or the democratic process to tell whether it had been in decline. Which, she realized, might be proof Echo was right.
    It couldn’t be good that democracy was gone. In fact, it could be very bad.
    She felt a prickle of fear, and with it an urgent desire to see her sister. Sheridan got off the bed. “Can we see Taylor now?”
    “If that’s what you want.” Echo stood, took Sheridan’s hand, and led her to the door. Perhaps it was customary in this society to hold hands, or perhaps he was afraid she’d run away. Whatever the reason, she was glad for the warmth of his fingers intertwined with hers. It made her feel more secure in this strange place.
    They left the room and went down the white hallway. Sheridan’s footsteps made a tapping noise against the floor, like a gavel slowly pronouncing a judgment. She wondered how long it would take until everything stopped feeling so surreal, like it was happening to someone else.
    She sneaked a glance at Echo’s profile. He was tall, handsome, and holding her hand. Definitely surreal.
    If he had gone to her high school, what type of person would he have been? Her first thought was: one of the popular jocks, the kind of guy cheerleaders doted on. But the underlying seriousness in Echo’s eyes wouldn’t let her pin him to that group and leave him there, mindlessly enjoying his adulations.
    He had stepped in front of her when the black-clad men had pointed weapons at her. He’d said he would do what he could to protect her—and he didn’t even know her.
    Echo caught her looking at him,