This Broken Wondrous World Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ruthven pays off the local cops, but if anyone else started looking too closely, it would be really bad for all of us.

3
    Truth Will Out

    I HAD A few weeks to settle into life at Villa Diodati, and then it was time for another big adjustment: college. The heart of the University of Geneva campus stretched out in front of me, a sea of late teen to early twentysomething humans in jeans, T-shirts, and backpacks. Small clusters lounged in the grass or on steps. A few sat alone with thick textbooks, already deep in study. As I walked across the crowded lawn to my first class, I was surrounded by the low murmur of conversation, occasionally punctuated by bursts of laughter. The air was perfumed with cigarette smoke and the occasional whiff of something stronger. And all of it was sheltered by a protective border of tall, stone buildings that practically screamed “Higher Learning.”
    As I climbed the steps and passed through the tall, glass doors into the building where all the English language classes were held, it occurred to me that this was my first time in a school. All the kids at The Show were homeschooled, for obvious reasons. Every “class” I had ever taken had been self-paced and online. My only concept of sitting in an actual classroom was what I’d seen in movies and television. And I’d learned long ago that humans are rarely, if ever, depicted accurately on film.
    I continued down the hallway, aware of the stares I wasgetting from other students. I was a little disappointed by that. Not surprised. Or even offended, really. I was used to getting stared at by humans. But I guess I’d hoped that at college, people would be a little more . . . I wasn’t exactly sure. I guess just not more of the same.
    My first class was in a gigantic lecture hall. There had to be a hundred students in there sitting on risers, almost like a coliseum. Down at the bottom, an old man in a suit stood at a podium. Behind him was a large projection screen with the words CELLULAR BIOLOGY 101 . He didn’t take attendance or even really look up at us. He just started talking into his microphone in a low, monotonous drone about the components of a cell. All around me, students were getting out notebooks or laptops and scratching or clicking away. It occurred to me that I had no idea how one actually took notes. I pulled out my laptop, and started trying to just write down what I thought were key facts. But of course I couldn’t plug the laptop directly into my wrists in front of all these people. So I had to type the old-fashioned way, with my big clumsy hands. It wasn’t long before I was hopelessly behind.
    Vi: Boy, would you like me to convert the speech to text for you?
    b0y: YES! That would be a lifesaver, Vi!
    Vi: You focus on comprehension, I’ll focus on recording for later review!
    b0y: Go team!
    That was the first of three classes I had on my schedule that day, each ninety minutes long. The only “break” was the short walk from one classroom to the next. When the third class finally ended, I filed out of the building with the rest of my classmates in a daze, my head reeling from all the information that had beencrammed into it. Everyone around me seemed so nonchalant. I’d always considered myself a smart guy, but now I felt hopelessly behind. Even with Vi’s help, I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through this.
    I stood at the top of the steps and stared down at the lawn in front of the building where different groups of college kids were doing pretty much the same thing. And me? What was
I
doing?
    â€œHey, cousin!” I felt a hand on my shoulder and there was Henri, his backpack slung over one shoulder, grinning away. “How did your first day go?”
    â€œI feel like my head is going to explode,” I admitted.
    â€œGreat!” he said. “Don’t worry, you get used to it. The key is to pace yourself. Let’s go do