UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,94

blue room covered in posters and draped with dirty clothes that rarely made it to a hamper. With Miguel comes the memory of Christmas. And the last name Shelton almost makes him stand up and shout, Here!

He points to those three names. The doctor taps them out on his tablet, and Camus crosses them off the list. No one would have those names but him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Keaton Miguel Shelton,” says Camus. He holds out his hand, and Keaton shakes it—getting the handshake right the first time.

He returns to the dormitory feeling he’s accomplished something. And later that night, he receives a present in a box labeled for Keaton M. Shelton. It’s a prewar plastic toy. A Rubik’s Cube courtesy of Camus Comprix.

4 • Cam

The rewinds all receive names. There are far more names on the list than there are rewinds, so no one leaves without a choice. None leave feeling slighted.

Cam works to remember each of their names and faces. At first it’s hard to tell them apart; they all have shaved heads that have barely begun to grow in, and the asymmetry makes it even harder. The human mind is designed to recognize faces, not mosaics, and the hodgepodge nature of their features leaves little for the mind to grasp. It isn’t until Cam starts focusing on the scars that he begins to tell them apart. Every rewind has their own individual scar pattern. Soon he knows many of them by name—but not all of them. There are those who keep their distance, lurking in shadows whenever he’s around. Cam chooses to let that go. If he gives them space, and enough time, they’ll come out of their shells when they’re ready.

Una has found her harmony. She now wields a camera, documenting the colony’s progress.

“I have to choose my images wisely,” she tells Cam. “I have to show the rewinds as both triumphant and tragic. People have to see them as human, but must always remember what a bad idea it was to create them.”

Cam knows what she says is true, but it still hits him in a very personal place. “Like it was a bad idea to create me?”

“Oh please,” says Una with a dismissive wave. “Why must it always be about you?” But then she considers it a little more seriously. “The world is full of bad ideas that turn into wonderful things,” she says, and gives him a peck on the cheek.

5 • Keaton

Spirits are high in the rewind ward after naming day. There are fewer fights, more laughter. There are hints at real communication between the rewinds. Keaton is happy to watch, enjoying the change. The sense of a future is so much more compelling than an endless present.

He watches two kids attempt a game of checkers. They get a whole five minutes into the game before one of them flips the board in anger, and guards have to pull them apart. Five minutes! That’s a great start. Tomorrow it might be ten!

Then someone raps Keaton hard on the shoulder. He turns to see the rewind with hollow, mismatched eyes.

“Dirk,” he says, and raps Keaton on the arm again. “Dirk Mullen. Dirk Zachary Mullen.”

He keeps hitting Keaton until Keaton says, “Dirk. Yeah. Got it.”

“You—me,” Dirk says. “Part—part.” And he holds up his right hand. It’s the exact same shade of brown as Keaton’s left hand—and Keaton realizes that those hands came from the same Unwind. They’re a matching pair.

Suddenly Dirk grabs Keaton’s umber hand with his. It feels strange yet familiar clasping those hands together.

“Brother-self,” says Dirk. “Hand of my hand.”

Dirk doesn’t let go. Finally Keaton repeats, “Hand of my hand,” and Dirk, satisfied, releases his grip.

“You—me, take no prisoners,” Dirk says, then laughs. “Police have no leads.”

The guards begin herding the rewinds into the cafeteria for dinner, and Keaton slips away from Dirk Zachary Mullen, finding a crowded table to make sure that Dirk can’t join him if he wanted to.

Keaton eats, but he has no appetite because all he can think about is Dirk and those eyes. Most of the rewinds’ eyes are mismatched—but it’s more than that when it comes to Dirk. There was something Keaton saw in Dirk’s eyes, and it frightens him. Because the something he saw . . . was nothing.

6 • Cam

Cam decides to allow the rewinds outside.

Not outside the compound’s fence, of course, just outside of the rewind ward. Some who express an interest are given jobs, to add to their self-respect.

“Menial labor,”