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the process that we are about to set forth. Do you understand that? Do you?"
    My voice was small. "Yes."
    "Good. Then let me ask you again. Have you ever heard rumours of what Coming of Age is all about?"
    "Yes."
    "And what were those rumours?"
    "Um... that something went wrong in the world, and that we're going to fix it."
    "And do you believe that?" he asked, watching my mouth open, reading my hesitation. "Remember, complete honesty."
    "Not really, no."
    Harek grinned, relaxed a bit. This, apparently, was the right answer. "I didn't think so," he said, sounding almost relieved. He put his hands behind his back and began to walk in slow, distracted circles around the room. "And, in fact, you were right not to believe. It was a complete lie. And we have told that lie to almost everyone that has Come of Age so far, and we will continue to do so. But not with you. You, Joshua, are among a tiny, tiny group of the most talented individuals on the island, and we have singled you out as someone who might have the skills and tenacity to take the truth, to hold it in your hands, but most importantly, to do what you should with it." He had been looking down at the ground while speaking, only raising his eyes to give me sidelong glances every now and then, but he turned to face me at this point, squaring his shoulders with mine before he spoke. "So then - let us start with that truth.
    "First off, I should tell you a little something about what is beyond our island, as you were always sneakily asking about it as a child. I think it's probably obvious to you that there are other islands as well, some being a little smaller, but most of them larger, a few of them being enormous landmasses, which would take a great many years to travel across by foot. There are places where the terrain itself stretches out across the horizon, as does the sea from our vantage point. There are mountains so high that ice clings to their tops, barren deserts that stretch out for unthinkable distances without a drop of water, and basins of jungles so large that they act as a very lung for the earth.
    "And the first truth that I want you to try and fathom is that, of all the land that wraps around the globe, of all the liveable spaces in the entire world - except for a few handfuls of people like ourselves - we are alone. There is no one else."
    I shifted on the bench. The room seemed to have become uncomfortably small, stuffy. He was moving a little fast for me. I already had questions - many actually. But this was clearly not the time to ask them. I focused all of my attention on him, telling myself that I had to concentrate on keeping up. Nothing else.
    "Yes, as you've probably guessed, there were people at one point, and those people were scattered everywhere, living in almost every imaginable place. But they are all gone now," he stopped for a second, "which... is another story in itself.
    "But," he continued, suddenly walking toward me and sitting down on the bench. Once he was seated, he shuffled closer and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, cupping his hands as if they were holding something small and important. As he paused before speaking, both of us looked into the shadows under his fingers at that nameless thing that he might be holding, and seemed about to explain. "But first, I have a quick history lesson to give you.
    "See, about 30,000 years ago, in the middle of one of those large landmasses that I just mentioned, there lived a people called the Neanderthals. These 'people' lived a fairly unobtrusive existence, hunting, gathering fruits and other edibles, burying their dead, playing flutes made of bone, and building small religious monuments. But they weren't the only 'people' to be walking the earth at this time - there were others - a scattering of species that all belonged to the hominid class.
    "I know, as we've had many classes together on the subject, that you have an excellent grasp of how the system of evolution works. The mutation