A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux Read Free Book Online Page B

you fell in the lake’s poisoned water,” he tells me. “One has to be careful. As long as we don’t know what’s going on, Suki and Maya can’t visit you anymore. And I have to ask you to work at a distance from us. I hope you understand?”
    His words strike me like a blow. To be kept away is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I cry a long time in Gloria’s arms, shouting that it’s unfair, that I’m not sick, and that if I hadn’t fallen in the lake, we would have eaten fish and would all be contaminated.
    But it’s too late.
    Suki and Maya avoid me. They keep their heads down and walk faster when they see me. As for Stambek, he looks very sad but he obeys his father.
    *   *   *
    I no longer have a sense of belonging on the mountain of glass. I’m like a wounded soul, alone with my grapnel and my sorrow. To cheer myself up, I dig through the trash and look for strings for Oleg’s violin and batteries for Fotia’s radio. I manage to find what I need; now instead of playing cards at night, I fix the precious things. When I’m done, the violin squeaks a sinister sound and the radio crackles.
    “Better than nothing!” Gloria says encouragingly.
    But I can see that she’s forcing herself to smile.
    More and more families are leaving, and army recruiters fall on us like locusts on the harvest. They come to recruit volunteers for the front. One day I see Chief in a military truck with other men. He makes a V sign to me as they take off, and I remain alone in the gusts of autumn wind.
    I wander the streets, which feel chilled with an atmosphere of doom, as Gloria struggles to keep driving the now half-filled truck. She will drive as long as possible because each coin earned is a step toward the future.
    “What future?” I ask with a sigh.
    “Come on, Koumaïl, cheer up! You’re much too young to say such things!”
    But one morning I discover that the Betovs’ shed is empty. Nothing left. No pots or pans, no blanket. They left without even saying goodbye.
    I stand in the deserted room, my throat so knotted that I cannot breathe.
    When I turn around, I see one of my playing cards pinned on the door. I remove it. It’s the ace of hearts: the only message of love that Suki and Maya had time to leave me.

chapter sixteen
    I am ten now, with a broken heart and bleeding feet and an empty stomach. And once again I’m walking on endless roads toward the unknown with Gloria and our gear. We’re refugees without refuge, and I really believe that I’ve caught a despair.
    “Tsk, tsk, tsk!” Gloria says. “If I give you a thorough inspection, Koumaïl, I’m sure that I won’t find any parasites!”
    I shrug. “Don’t bother. I’m older. I know that what I feel has nothing to do with lice.”
    Abruptly Gloria stops walking and gives me a sideways glance. She throws the gear on the ground and opens it. We are in the middle of a snow-covered field, under a heavy sky filled with circling crows. What is she doing? I wonder. Does she think I want to camp here?
    “It’s true that you’ve grown a lot, Koumaïl,” she says as she looks into the opening of the gear. “It’s time that I confide in you what my secret remedy is.”
    I sigh. The snow is drenching my pants up to the kneesand I ache all over. We’ve walked for at least a million kilometers. The scientists at Souma-Soula ordered us to evacuate from what they classified as a “dangerous zone.” What can Gloria possibly find to make me feel better? I want to know. Is she going to pull Suki, Maya, and Stambek out of her bag like a magician?
    “Ah, here we are!” Gloria smiles as she shows me her old tin box.
    She removes her gloves, and for the first time she opens the box in front of me. In spite of my bad mood, curiosity makes me come closer.
    “I knew that one day we would need this,” Gloria says. “And that day has come.”
    At first I see nothing but a pile of papers. Then Gloria unfolds them, and I stare wide-eyed when I