Seed Read Online Free PDF Page A

look at me.
    “Why?”
    “Because she’s been looking at the Outside boys,” Jack says, glancing over his shoulder and smiling.
    “Have you?” I ask. “It’s dangerous, Kate.”
    “I haven’t.” She sits up, squeezes drops of water from her hair and flicks it toward Jack.
    “Why else would they stop you going?” he asks.
    Kate leans back onto both of her elbows with a sigh. She tips her head back and her hair touches the ground. She’s been growing it for a year, since she officially became a woman. Jack looks away from her.
    “Kindred John says I’m not allowed to speak to them. So I asked him how I’m meant to sell the Outsiders our homegrown beans if I can’t talk to them. He wasn’t having any of it and now he’s stopped me going.” She slumps down and swings an arm over her eyes. “Pig’s breath,” she says quietly into her skin.
    Jack and I don’t move. I’ve never heard Kate speak like that before, and about a Kindred. I don’t even dare look at her. I’m suddenly terrified that Papa S. will come creeping out of a tree and strike us down. He’s everywhere. He sees and hearseverything. Will she be punished for this?
    “Don’t speak like that again, Kate,” Jack says quietly, without turning around. She doesn’t reply. She must know that, even for her, she’s gone too far.
    We share our lunch with the children. Chunks of bread with slabs of cheese. A mouthful each of potato salad, leftover from yesterday’s supper. I bite my teeth through the skin of a small tomato and it pops and bleeds its seeds onto my tongue.
    “Your shoulders are burning, Jack,” Kate says. She goes to her bag as I wrap the leftover cheese in paper.
    “I’ll be OK,” he says, touching his hot skin with his palms.
    “Papa S. won’t like it if the sun scolds you,” she says. “It won’t take me long.” She kneels behind him, opens the bottle and pours some sunscreen onto her hands. I see Jack tense as she rubs the cream into his skin. He holds his head still, doesn’t move.
    And that strange feeling is back, somewhere in me. Nerves in my belly, a sickness in my throat.
    Then Jack stands up quickly. “That’ll be enough,” he says and, without turning toward us, he runs and dives into the water and swims hard over to the other side.
    When I look over at Kate, she’s got a smile on her face. She’s still kneeling, the bottle of sunscreen next to her, the imprint of Jack’s body in the grass between her knees.
    “Is he OK?” I ask.
    She laughs slightly and looks at me and I’m sure she shakes her head. I want to ask why, but a thread of distance winds quietly between us.
    “He’s fine,” she says, before she turns onto her belly in the grass.
    I lie on my back, feeling the heat of the day on every part of my body. Behind my closed lids, I see the red of the sun. I can hear Ruby and Bobby splashing and laughing. Somewhere in it all must be the sound of Jack.
    I don’t think there’s ever been a more beautiful day.

    You were torn from me. Your little beating heart taken from me. The soft touch of your newborn flesh disappeared.
    I tried. I promise I tried.
    “I want to keep my baby!” I screamed at them.
    “The baby belongs to Mother Nature. The baby belongs to all of us.”
    No. My baby belongs to me.
    I screamed and bit and scratched at them, but they turned to stone.
    And they hid me away. Cut me from you.
    But I am your mother. I am your mother.
    I reach up and touch the cold window.
    “You are mine,” I whisper through the glass.

CHAPTER SIX

    I t feels so different walking up to Dawn Rocks in a skirt rather than trousers. The sun hasn’t yet risen and the air is cold around my legs. Jack is in front of me. His shoulders look broad and I can see the muscles in his arms, even through his shirt. He must sense me looking, as he turns around and smiles. He sees Ruby, still so sleepy, walking by my side, and he stops to pick her up. She buries her nose into his neck and he carries on