Tribes Read Online Free PDF Page A

that he's gone."
    Best friend? Yes, I had spent time with Willard. We had gone to movies. Exchanged books. Played video games (at his place). An image flashed in my mind: Willard standing outside my window in a downpour, smiling, looking like a drowned rodent. The memory Mesozoic old. He'd taught Elissa the habit of climbing in my window.
    I had visited him in the hospital; that's how I knew his mother was holding his hand when he died. I'd sat in a chair in the corner waiting for him to wake. If I was there, then I was his friend. Maybe even his best friend.
    Elissa cleared her throat. I couldn't find any words. Finally, I opened my mouth. "I overheard a teacher talking about lowering the flag to half-mast."
    "Who?"
    "Principal Michaels," I lied. Lying is immoral in our culture, but this "news" seemed to cheer her up.
    "At least they're thinking of him," she said.
    "Yes, they are."
    We were silent for a very long time. Elissa repeatedly traced a pattern in my bedcover. Her circling finger entranced me.
    "I'm happy we're going to Grad together," she said without looking up. I didn't answer. Her finger stopped.
    "I, too, am pleased," I admitted. And I was: How many teens had spent angst-filled hours struggling to procure a prom date? I had avoided that pain.
    I'd wear a suit, of course. To fit in. And Elissa would be in a long dress. Maybe something with a low-cut back. She had a beautiful spine. This also I note out of scientific curiosity.
    "It's all coming to an end." She sounded almost sad. "Four years of Groverly's educational method: bore, bore, repeat, bore. Do you remember that first Halloween?"
    "I still have the cavities." We'd dressed up and toured the neighborhood, ringing doorbells, then kneeling so that we looked like kids. No one was fooled, but they gave us loads of candy. Will was there too. We were chased by one brute who thought we'd egged his window. We hid by the river, snickering quietly, bonding and devouring caramels. "I can't believe we dressed like clowns."
    "Clowns?" Elissa said. "We were aliens. Geez, nice memory you have."
    I blinked. Aliens. Yet I clearly remembered clowns. One of us was wrong. But I wouldn't argue forcefully. The hippocampus is a notoriously poor recorder of memories. I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.
    "If you'd stayed in that private school you'd be ultra-stuffy by now," Elissa said. "Will and I really loosened you up."
    "Gee, yeah," I answered. Stuffy? "I didn't want to leave St. Joseph's. But it ended up being a perfect new beginning. A rebirth. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything."
    "Funny how things work out," she said.
    We mused separately for a few moments. Then a familiar desire came over me. An intellectual desire.
    "May I see your foot?" I asked.
    Elissa looked up sharply as if I'd poked her with a pin. Then she rolled her eyes. "Not again."
    "It is scientific curiosity, nothing else," I intoned. She didn't move. "Please," I added.
    "You sure you don't have a fetish?"
    "I'm certain."
    She sat up and rolled down her right black sock, slowly displaying a typical human foot, complete with five toes, ascending in size. Her nails were painted a rainbow of colors. She swung her foot closer. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
    "Please spread your toes."
    "Whatever you command, kinky boy." She giggled.
    I ignored her and waited patiently, though I admit my heart palpitated and my breathing became shallow. Slowly Elissa spread her toes. Thin webs of skin opened between them, joining her digits like a frog's. I sighed. Here it was. A webbed foot. A genetic leftover from our days as ocean-bound vertebrates. Or perhaps it was a recent mutation, the water beckoning us back home. After all, as embryos we humans do have gill pouches. One small step from becoming amphibians.
    "That is the most spectacular foot I have ever seen," I whispered. Oddly enough, her other one was normal.
    She wiggled her toes. "Try shoving it into sandals."
    "Are you certain you