Stranger by Sherwood Smith Page A

But all the book-machines were destroyed in the geomagnetic storm. That’s why so much knowledge was lost.”
    â€œWere they destroyed, like smashed to bits?” Ross asked. “Or did they stop working?”
    â€œStopped working,” said Mia with a sigh. “And never started again. We’re not even sure what they looked like.”
    Ross indicated Mia’s old slate. “Can I draw on that?”
    â€œYes!” She shoved a piece of chalk at him. “Do you know what the book-machines are?”
    â€œNo, but there’s some artifacts I find a lot. They’re made of black glass and plastic.” As he spoke, he sketched rectangles and squares and ovals, using shading to give them dimension. He was no artist, but, like Mia, could draw accurately.
    â€œIf you take them apart, there’s more plastic and metal parts inside.” He drew some of those parts as he went on. “They’re the right size to hold in your hands. They could have been book-machines. They were obviously something, or I wouldn’t find so many of them. But like you said, they’ve stopped working. I don’t even pick them up anymore. No one buys them.”
    Mia stared intently at the slate, then whirled to face Ross. He slid backward, his left hand coming up in a block and his right hand going to his hip for a weapon that wasn’t there.
    â€œIt’s okay!” she exclaimed.
    Ross dropped his hands, his brown skin darkening with a deep blush. “Sorry.”
    â€œI was going to say, I never get to talk to anyone like this,” she continued. “I mean, other than Dad and Jennie.”
    Jennie barely caught Ross’s mumbled, “I don’t either.”
    Jennie had been writing out math problems while Mia and Ross had been talking. Now she set the slate and abacus on a desk. She was sure he would be relieved to take a break. “Ross, can you try these?”
    The haste with which he did so proved her right. He handled the abacus so awkwardly that she was puzzled—surely he didn’t only use a slide rule?—until she remembered that he’d been injured. Finally, he gave up trying to use the abacus with his left hand, and began switching between it and the chalk with his right.
    â€œWhat did you give him?” Mia asked softly.
    â€œI have no idea how he’ll do with non-practical math,” murmured Jennie. “So I started with arithmetic and finished with some calculus and physics from our last academic decathlon.”
    â€œThose were so fun,” said Mia wistfully.
    Jennie laughed. “They were fun because we always won.”
    Mia looked disappointed. “Was that why you liked them? I liked them because it was you and me against the world.”
    â€œYou and Me Against the World.” That had been their motto, back when all it took to be best friends was being the two smartest kids in their age group. Jennie had forgotten.
    Mia was only a year younger than Jennie, but in a lot of ways she still seemed like a kid. She’d moved into Mr. Rodriguez’s old cottage right across from her father, and Dr. Lee still cooked all her meals. She still blushed and talked too much when she got nervous, and social situations made her nervous even though she’d known everyone her entire life. She’d never had a boyfriend or girlfriend, or even wanted one, though she had confessed to Jennie that she wanted to want one.
    Jennie wished none of that mattered. But recently she’d found herself talking about certain subjects with Indra or Meredith, not Mia. Without Jennie even noticing it, they’d drifted apart.
    A burst of cheers rose up from outside. Glad for a distraction, she looked out the window. Yuki Nakamura, bow in hand, stood before a target with an arrow in the exact center of the bull’s-eye.
    It was too bad Yuki didn’t want to be a Ranger. He shot as well as his sister Meredith, and he was the best of the