Parched by Georgia Clark

you?”
    I had. But the smell of food cooking makes my stomach rumble loud enough for us to both hear and I realize I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Dinner sounds pretty good right about now. “Course not,” I tell him, before gesturing vaguely in the direction of my room. “I’m just going to . . . wash up.”
    In the darkness, my yellow room looks like it’s painted in black and white and shades of gray. I sink down on the edge of my mattress, grateful for the quiet. It’s hard to believe it’s only been twenty-four hourssince I crossed back. I lie back on the bed and let my body settle into the softness. I wish it could pull me under.
    Things aren’t exactly on track. My plan to not see Abel? Fail. Plan to become an Edenite again? Double fail. Plan to reconnect with Izzy? Triple times a million fail.
    Did I overreact with Iz? Was she right, that this is just the way things are? Is Kudzu a real alternative or just a bunch of deluded kids on a one-way street to being banished?
    Kudzu. I stood Ling up today. I picture her confusion, then her anger. The scratch she gave me is still buried under my mattress. I wonder where the dead zone is. Maybe I should check.
    I can tell she’s sent me more than one of those holos because of the sound: a menagerie of beeps and chirrups. When I smooth it open, I’m accosted by half a dozen baby animals. A feather-tailed squirrel races up my arm. An owl swoops around my head while a goofy-looking badger ambles onto my thigh, all talking to me at once.
    â€œMeet behind the old filtration plant in Lakeside, thirteen-hundred hours.”
    â€œWhere are you? Meet behind the old filtration plant.”
    â€œTess, is something wrong?”
    â€œIt’s sixteen-hundred. I’m leaving.”
    And then, delivered from the same adorable blue-and-yellow baby bird Ling first used, the final message: “You’ll regret this.”
    The holos all disappear, leaving me alone in the dark.
    You’ll regret this
. Is it a threat? Is Kudzu coming after me? Or does she just mean my own conscience will punish me? Somehow, that prospect feels even worse.
    â€œTess!” Abel’s voice floats up from downstairs.
    Ling said this scratch was off-cycle. That means I can use it without being recorded. Even if I never see Kudzu again, I am still curious about Abel and Aevum. I don’t even know what that word means.
Magnus
is Latin for “great;” the name of ancient kings, powerful dukes, and noble saints of the past. But
aevum?
I don’t even know if it’s a real word.
    I could enter the streams to find out.
    â€œTess?”
    â€œJust a minute!” I call back.
    The gold scratch glows bright, ready for action. I take a deep breath. Then, in a quiet, clear voice, I open the streams. “Show me
aevum
.”
    The streams burst into light around me, a dense but lovely webof objects and text and information. The holo of a smiling, neatly presented woman settles in front of me. Her tone is modulated and pleasant. “
Aevum
, Latin, meaning ‘age’ or ‘everlasting time.’ ” As she speaks, separate bubbles appear to show me the word, spinning out into the meanings that continue to load. I catch unfamiliar words like
aeon
and
aeviternity
. “Ancient philosophers believed the aevum was the temporal experience of angels and celestial beings,” the woman continues. “Societies of the past believed that unlike God, who experienced time as infinite, and humankind, who experienced time as finite, the aevum was how angels experienced time and the world.” The woman continues to talk as the streams spin and whirl to show me angels—some rosy-cheeked cherubs who loll languidly, some tortured-looking men with eyes raised to their maker above.
    I’m not used to being in the streams off-cycle. If I’d been on-cycle, I’d already have dozens of people sharing this with