“It’s all right, I guess,” I said. “I’m still getting used to things. I haven’t met everybody or been everywhere yet.”
“Hey, do you still do that crazy business of walking around in the collecting chutes over there?” one of the others asked.
“No,” I said. “I haven’t gotten around to it, but I expect I will.”
“Which quad did you move to, now?”
“Geo Quad,” Mary answered for me.
“That’s on the Fifth Level, isn’t it?” another of the kids asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh, yes,” Venie broke in. “I remember. I’ve heard of Geo Quad. That’s where all the oddballs live.”
“Oh, you know that isn’t so, Venie,” I said sweetly. “You haven’t moved there yet. By the way, why don’t you? We’ve got a place on our third-string soccer team waiting for you.”
“I may not be very good,” Venie said, stung, “but I can outplay you any day of the week with both eyes closed.”
“Mary,” I said, “how has your family been?”
“All right, I guess,” she said unhappily.
“At least my parents didn’t dump me in a dormitory to get rid of me while they were still married,” Venie said.
Without turning to look at her, I said, “Venie, if you want another punch in the nose, keep saying those things. Mary, why don’t we go over to your place? Then we won’t have any interruptions.”
“Oh, don’t leave on my account,” Venie said. “I’m going myself. The air is getting a little close in here. You kids coming with me?”
She pushed back her chair and the other three girls got up and started after her as she eased her way out between the red, yellow, green, and blue topped tables.
I said, “Shall we go over to your place, Mary?”
Unhappily, she said, “Gee, Mia, I can’t. We were just about to go over and play soccer.”
“Well, that’s good,” I said and stood up. “Let’s go play.”
Mary said, “I don’t think Venie would like that.”
I asked, “What’s the matter with you? Since when did it ever matter what Venie thinks?”
Mary stood there looking at me, and finally she said, “Mia, I love you dearly, but you just don’t live here anymore. I do. Can you understand that? I’ve got to go now. Will you call me up sometime?”
“Yes,” I said, and watched her hurry out after Venie Morlock. “I will,” I said softly, but I knew I wouldn’t. I knew, too, that one more finger had just been pried loose.
Chapter 4
LACKING ANYTHING ELSE TO DO, I left the Common Room and went back to Geo Quad. I may have seemed outwardly calm—I think I did—but inside I was frantic. Once, when I was about ten, I had been on an outing on the Third Level and gotten into a patch of nettles. I didn’t discover what they were until I was well into them, and I had no choice but to continue pushing my way through. By the time I came out on the other side my legs and arms were itching furiously and I was dancing up and down, driven almost into a frenzy by the fiery prickling, wishing for anything that would make it stop. What I was feeling mentally now was something very similar. I had an itch I couldn’t stop and couldn’t locate, I was jumpy and unhappy, and very depressed.
I wanted to get away. I wanted someplace dark to hide. I wanted something to do to occupy my mind. When I got back to our apartment—a place that held the furniture but not the feel of home—I hunted up a piece of chalk and one of those small lights that dorm mothers use to count heads with after lights-out. Then I went out again. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon then, and though I hadn’t eaten for hours I was far too agitated to think of food.
I didn’t just pick the nearest grate to our apartment and pop into it. I wandered a little until I found a quiet bywater of a hall not too far away. I was in no mood at all to try to explain myself to some uncomprehending adult, so I did some looking around before I decided on a particular grate to use as my entrance into the Fifth Level collecting chutes.
I knelt down by the grate and began to take it off. It was hung by clips on both sides and they hadn’t been worked for such a long time that they were stiff and unmoving. Once