The Barbarian Nurseries A Novel - By Hector Tobar Page 0,132

people introduced to him as “the officers” and “the social workers” a confirmation of the fact that he had survived an adventure tinged with danger. He had gone to a place far from the warm security and predictability of his home, and had returned to tell the tale.

“And then we got on this train that had two levels, and we left for another place. In Los Angeles,” he said, his younger brother nodding alongside him. “This other place was made of bricks, mostly.”

“And wood,” Keenan added.

“Yeah, and wood, I think. And we went by a river,” Brandon continued. “Or was it a canyon?”

“Yeah, a really big canyon,” Keenan said.

“With bridges over it. And there were these people living there. Refugees from the Fire-Swallowers.”

“The Fire-Swallowers?” Olivia Garza asked.

“Yeah, those are the people who came and destroyed the village of Vardur at the end of Revenge of the Riverwalkers.”

“It’s one of his books that he reads,” Keenan said. Seeing the adults confused, he felt compelled to inject some explanation. “When Mom and Dad left, and Araceli said she would take care of us, she really didn’t take care of us—I mean, she didn’t tell us what to do like Mom does. So Brandon started reading more than he usually does. And when he reads—”

“Yeah, but these people I saw were real people,” Brandon interrupted. “They had scars on their faces, from their battles with the Fire-Swallowers. Then we went to a big train station. And then we got into a bus, and we were looking for Grandpa’s house, because Araceli said we should look for him. But we found this other place instead, where there are houses that are like jails, I guess. And then we found other houses that had half doors and quarter doors, and three-quarter doors, and other things I thought only existed in books. But they were real. And then we found a shack, which was in this place that’s kind of like an oasis in the desert, where people come from all over to meet and sell things. We met this boy, who’s a slave. I have a book about slavery, and he didn’t look like any of the slaves in that book, but he was still a slave. We stayed with him in his shack. And he told us about the warriors who used to live across the street, and the battles they had, which always lasted thirteen seconds. The lady who lived there, she was really mean to this boy, and she made him work.”

“That’s true,” Keenan said. “He really was a slave.”

“Right. He was like my age, but he was a slave. So we slept there one night, until we woke up in the morning and heard some guy screaming outside.”

“I didn’t hear anybody screaming,” Keenan said.

“You were still asleep, but I heard it. It was right after the earthquake.”

“There was an earthquake?” Keenan said.

“Yeah. So this guy, he was like in pain, or something. He was yelling like he was hurting in his guts. And then everybody got up and we went to another place, which is called a park even though there isn’t any park there. We went there because we thought Grandpa lived there, I guess, but he didn’t live there either. At this park place they had a fire burning in the ground, to take a pig and turn him into bones. And the fire was burning hot, even though it was buried, because later we touched the rocks that were under the ground and they were still hot. But before that, everything started exploding around us. A bomb exploded in the street. And Keenan was holding some fire in his hand, and I told him to drop it, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. Don’t lie. I saw you. You were holding fire, it was sparking from your palm, and then the bomb went off in the street. That’s when I wanted to cry. After that a lynch mob came to the front porch, and they started yelling at us, because they were against the guy who lived there, and we started yelling back the name of Ray Forma, who is against them. Ray Forma is like some sort of hero that protects people against lynch mobs. These people yelling at us, they didn’t have torches, but it was a lynch mob, I’m pretty sure, and they were really angry at the guy who lived there, because he’s a president. But then the police came