UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,89
are loaded into the vans. Father Lawrence shows up to drive the third one. He’s never afraid to get his hands dirty when salvation is involved—even if it’s just salvation from the Juvenile Authority.
Miracolina notices that Bryce lingers, not getting in either of the three vans with the other kids. She hopes it’s just because he wants to spend more time with her.
“You wanted to ask me a question,” he asks her. “What was it?”
Somehow it seems odd to ask after all they’ve been through, but it’s a question she asks every AWOL she helps.
“How do you dream of a future when you’re not supposed to have one? How do you keep going when the world has disowned you?”
Some kids laugh when she asks the question. Others shrug it off and don’t have an answer—but Bryce, to his credit, seriously thinks about it.
“I keep reminding myself that I’m right, and the world is wrong.”
“But how do you know?”
He smiles. “I believe,” he tells her. “I don’t have your kind of faith, but I got faith in myself, and right now that works for me just fine.”
Jack, having triple-counted the kids, tells Bryce there’s room for him in his van, and Bryce tells him what Miracolina was fearing he might.
“I’m not going.”
Jack tries to persuade him, but Bryce cuts him off. “Decision’s final. I’ve been on my own for more than a year. I’m used to it. I like it that way. I’ll be okay.”
“And if you’re not?” Jack asks.
“Then it’s my own fault,” he says. “I can live with that.”
“You won’t live with anything if you get caught,” Miracolina points out. “You’ll be unwound.”
“I’ll take that risk.”
A few minutes later the vans drive off, leaving Bryce and Miracolina alone, dawn just beginning to break through a still, silent haze.
“Walk me back to the church,” Miracolina asks him—although it’s more like an order than a request. He’s happy to do it.
“So, Bryce Barlow,” Miracolina says playfully as they walk, “what do you want to do with this life you’re not supposed to have?”
“Tons of things,” he tells her. “I just don’t know what they are yet, but that’s okay. One thing I know—one thing I can feel in my bones—I’m going to be important. I’m going to matter. And people are going to know my name.”
“You already matter to the kids you helped save today,” she tells him. “Even if they don’t know your name.”
“Yeah, it’s funny how that works, isn’t it?” he says. “I mean, look at you—I bet you’ve touched the lives of lots of people who don’t know your name. You’re like this invisible connection between hundreds.”
She stares at him, his words striking something deep within herself, and suddenly she understands. Her desire to be divided is not about the annihilation of self, but of the expansion of herself in the service of others. Being divided would connect her to hundreds, but there are many fulfilling ways to connect, aren’t there?
“Thank you,” she says as they reach the church.
He laughs. “For what?”
“Just because,” she says. “Because I’d rather say thank you than good-bye.”
“Well, in that case, you’re welcome.”
Then he turns and disappears into the misty dawn.
In the community center of the church some of the sisters are already getting breakfast ready, while the shelter guests still sleep.
“You’re here early today, Miracolina,” says Sister Barbara. “Don’t you ever sleep?”
Miracolina yawns. “Once in a while.” It’s Saturday, isn’t it? She’ll spend some time here, then go home and sleep the rest of the day.
“Maybe you can help Sister Vitalis with her tapestry. She can’t see well enough to do the work, the poor dear.”
Sister Vitalis, named after the martyr Saint Vitalis (buried alive under a pile of rocks), sits in a corner trying to repair one of the church’s tapestries. She seems to work at it morning, noon, and night with endless patience.
“Let me help you with that, Sister,” Miracolina says, and the nun is more than happy to share the work.
Live like Lev. Miracolina thinks. That was the battle cry of the rescued tithes back in the Cavenaugh mansion. Do not give in to the urge to extinguish oneself in the waters of the world, but instead be a light above those waters to help guide the way.
Thank you, too, Lev, she thinks. Like her brief time with Bryce, she now realizes that her tumultuous friendship with Lev is a gift. She can only hope he is still alive, so that she can someday repay him.
Sister Vitalis puts the