There Once Were Stars by Melanie McFarlane Read Free Book Online

of Records last week. I am a little jealous, I’ll admit; she’s known her place in the dome all along. Jak took an administrative position at the Axis a couple of days after we held hands at the movies; he claims he’s already working on a special project. I’m the last one left; I have nowhere to go.
    I drop my head to my hands, as I sit on the edge of my bed. If my parents were still alive, would I have become a scientist like them? Would they be disappointed if they could see me now, the daughter of the Greyes scientists, unable to decide what she wants to do with her life? The sound of a knock snaps me from my self-pity.
    “Come in.”
    Grandfather enters with two cups of tea. “I thought you could use this.” He smiles. “You seem a little off lately.”
    I look up into his eyes as I sit up in bed. Even my curtains are drawn, to hide the depressing view of the Outer Forest. I want to tell him everything from the beginning, about the two Outsiders and the handprint. I want to tell him about working at the Axis and B2, and how I know he spent time down there. I want to tell him I know about what really happened to Mom and Dad and pour my heart out to the one who has sacrificed more than the rest of us. Instead, I look down at the tea, now resting between my hands and I say, “I’m fine.”
    “You know something, Nat,” he says, sitting on the foot of my bed that creaks under his weight. His thin white hair is carefully combed off his face, so his round eyes are left unconcealed. “Eighteen is a hard age. It marks so many changes. You leave the comforts of school and enter the work force. Your friends move on in different directions as they figure out their lives, and you might wonder if you’ll grow apart. Some people take the entire two years they’re allowed, to try to find what will be their permanent contribution to the dome. It’s a time of uncertainty, a time when you can easily be influenced.” He rests his hand on mine.
    I look back up into his eyes, which are surrounded by lines that reveal his age. I do not want to lie to the man who has raised me for half of my life, but telling him the truth might break him. “I promise I won’t screw up anymore, Grandfather. I’ve caused enough trouble.”
    His eyebrows push together as he shakes his head. “What do you know of trouble at your age?”
    “Grandmother told me about what happened to you after Mom and Dad died.”
    “Your parents were heroes. People forget that when they’re scared.”
    “I know. People still recognize the name. Everyone thought they symbolized the chance for an Outer colony.”
    Grandfather sighs. “My little Nat, there’s so much you don’t know. So much I’d like to tell you, but you’re still a kid. That colony was the most important thing to your parents. They would have never left that day had they known they wouldn’t return … ” his voice breaks.
    Tears flood my eyes. I lose control.
    “I need to tell you something,” I confess. “I used to hide in the Outer Forest. But they found my clearing, and I can’t go back.” I look back down into my tea.
    “I know you have your secrets,” he says, winking. “We all do.”
    “I stopped because I thought they caught me. I swear, Grandfather, I only went there to see the outside. It reminds me of Mom and Dad.”
    “If the Order suspected you, they would have come and asked all of us about it,” Grandfather says. “It doesn’t sound like you have anything to worry about.”
    He stands from my bed, and walks to my window, opening the curtains. The curve of the dome appears above us. “Your mother’s favorite things were the stars that shone through the dome. Did you know that?”
    I nod. Her grandmother had told her tales of how the skies were once blanketed in stars, before the clouds of the Cleansing War. Only in the last few decades have the clouds begun to part, revealing the hidden skies behind them. At night, their glitter peeks out in clusters