The Burn Read Online Free PDF Page B

myself. I’m
covered in dirt. I run to my locker and rip off my shirt and pants
and change into the spares.
    I bolt out into the corridor and jump onto the
transport. There are two other people there, probably getting off
cleaning shifts. One of them raises her eyebrows at me, but I shrug
it off. Probably wondering what the daughter of the speaker is
doing on a transport by herself so close to curfew. What have I
been doing? I took a cat nap without a radiation suit lying on the
dirt in Field #3. It sounds so crazy. But then I smile, remembering
the warmth and the smells. The reddish light through my closed
eyelids. Definitely not wasted time.
    I make it back to my house at 21:57. Dad is still up,
reading a bulletin. He doesn’t look up when I come in.
    “You’re cutting it close, young lady. Next time you
forget something and feel the need to go get it so close to—”
    Then he looks up, shocked. My clothes are clean, so
are my hands. He shouldn’t be able to tell what I was doing. Then I
notice my arms.
    “Terra, you are bright red! What have you been
doing?”
    A burn? For only being on the field for maybe fifteen
minutes? Could I really have a burn already?
    “The only place you could have—” Dad clamps a hand to
his mouth. “Were you out on the field without a suit on?”
    I nod and hurry toward my room.
    “If your mother could only see—”
    “Well she can’t, can she? Because you made her
leave.” Why am I doing this to him? Only an hour ago Jessa helped
me realize how much Dad is hurting. But I can’t stop; the momentum
behind my words propels me on. “You really must have loved her to
mess things up so badly.”
    Dad’s mouth hangs open, and the tears surge up in his
eyes. All I want from him is the truth. To set the ashes free from
just one of the dirty secrets we all hide down here. To watch the
remains of it fly on the wind and go rest somewhere in peace. The
guilt claws at my stomach and I have to escape that look on his
face.
    “I’ve got to clock in.” I turn my back on him and go
to my room.
    If I had known how agonizing sleeping in a bed would
be with a sunburn, I would have stayed up and faced my dad’s wrath,
sorrow, and the punishment I will face from missing clock-in. Some
time in the middle of the night, I wake up feeling like the skin is
being peeled from my arms. Just having sheets on my burned skin is
torture. I roll to one side, but my cheeks on the pillow aren’t any
better. A tear slips out, but the salt water running down my face
is even worse than the bedding. I grit my teeth, sit up, and stay
sitting up the rest of the night.
    When Jessa wakes up, I’m already dressed and packing
my bag for the day. She yawns and stretches, and then finally looks
at me.
    “Good grief, what happened to you?”
    I shrug and try to keep the light fabric of my shirt
away from my burned skin. “A few minutes on the field without a
radiation suit.”
    “No way. For real?”
    I nod. Her mouth opens in the wackiest smile I’ve
seen on her.
    “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. They just
had another radiation suit reminder last week. How could you
forget?”
    “Don’t tell Dad that. I’m already in enough trouble
as it is.” I go into the common room.
    Dad waits in the kitchen, sitting in front of his egg
white omelet with his hands on each side of the plate, palms down,
like he holds the table steady to keep himself from chucking it at
me. Or he could be holding himself together from the outside in.
Gram eats her omelet in dainty bites. I sit at the table, and Dad
gives her a look. She grabs her plate.
    “I think I’ll finish this in the other room while I
get a sneak peek at lunch.” She darts out into the common room. The
monitor hums to life, but the volume isn’t up very high. If I
weren’t in so much trouble, I would have laughed at Gram trying to
eavesdrop on what’s going on.
    Dad doesn’t waste any time.
    “Terra, how could you be so completely thoughtless?
So