Midian Unmade Read Online Free PDF Page B

it.
    That’s when he heard something. It sounded like crying. Keeping his head down, he shifted and looked around. Twenty or so feet away was a dark lump. His eyes had always been good in the dark (one needs good night vision when one lives underground, after all—not all of Midian’s gifts had abandoned him), and he was startled to see it was someone dressed like him. He stopped drumming on his thighs and just listened.
    A sniffle. A low moan. A woman. Or more like a girl.
    Against practice and instinct, he got up, walked over, and sat down five feet away from her.
    â€œWhat?! Am I bothering you? It’s a public beach, you know.”
    He could not see her face, but he could see her pain. She was hiding, too. It was cold out, but not enough to justify the layers of clothing, not to mention the hat and scarf. She could have been his twin, at least when it came to attire.
    â€œWhat are you staring at, huh? What? You think I’m a Muslim or something? You want to make fun of me? Why don’t you say something?… You want to see? Fine! Fine! ” Her words were slightly slurred.
    She pulled off the hat and scarf in one awkward motion and he saw.
    There was a small hole where her left ear should have been, surrounded by whorls of pink scars and tissue. The eye on that side was milk white, the hair burned away as well. The disfigurement clearly went down her neck into her collar, and left a very distinctive border between the not-quite-pretty girl she once was and the burned, malformed features that she was trying to hide.
    â€œHappy now? Now you know I’m a freak? Happy?” She sobbed quietly and began to wrap the scarf around her head once more.
    He waited in silence. Iblis had found not doing anything usually resulted in people continuing to pour out their feelings and thoughts.
    She sobbed for a while and he began beating out a rhythm on his shoes.
    â€œYou’re not grossed out?” Quiet, but genuine.
    He shook his head no and kept gently banging on the sides of his boots. It was almost hypnotic.
    â€œI didn’t always look like this. I was pretty … once. My stepfather was kind of a jerk, and was smoking in the apartment one night and fell asleep on the couch. My room was right next to the den, so I smelled the smoke and got up, but by then…”
    Iblis nodded. Not Breed, but broken. She knew the pains he knew. Hide away from the eyes of others. Especially if you don’t like what you see in them.
    â€œIt was over two years ago, but the doctors say this is what it’s going to be like, and we can’t afford … and sometimes I just…”
    She cried some more.
    He thumped some more.
    â€œYou want to know the stupid thing? I’m not even crying about any of that.”
    She picked up a handful of sand and threw it. The wind caught some, the rest fell to the ground again.
    â€œTonight Ray Bradbury died.”
    Iblis nodded. As if he knew who that was.
    â€œYou know who that is?… I know, it’s dumb. It’s not like he was my father or my friend or something. I never met the guy. I dunno. It’s just when I read his stuff I’d forget myself. I’d disappear and the only thing left was a world he created. Better than this one, or the one I was living in back home.”
    She shifted on the sand and just sat. He stopped drumming.
    â€œI didn’t know him and it’s not like I read his books and I was like, ‘Oh, he gets me.’ I mean I’m not in high school or something dumb like that. I just … I just read the things he wrote and they made me think we’re not alone and the world is a pretty amazing place. It’s like an amusement park closing for the winter. You drive by and you know it’s still there, but somehow the life is somehow missing and there is a little less light in the world. A little less joy. Cotton candy won’t smell as sweet ever again.”
    Iblis nodded.