Radiant - By Christina Daley Page 0,18

sun too long.

"Are you all right?" Carter asked.

Mary examined her hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. I think you just shocked me or something."

"I am sorry," he said. He looked really concerned. And he didn't pay any attention to his wallet on the ground or the hundred-dollar bill starting to flutter away.

Mary stamped on the bill with her foot to keep it from escaping. She picked it up with the wallet and handed them back to him. "No, it's all right. A day pass is four bucks. Do you have anything smaller?"

Carefully, Carter took the wallet and money without touching her. He stowed the hundred dollars and took out a five-dollar bill instead.

"That's better." Mary told him how to put his money into the machine. It spat out his ticket and four quarters.

Carter looked at the ticket and change in his hands. "Thank you. I am not familiar with this."

"Don't mention it," she said.

When they boarded the bus, they sat across the aisle from each other. Mary watched Carter as the bus moved. He sat with both feet planted on the floor and his hands folded together. He looked out the window, studying everything with quiet fascination. Mary hadn't noticed before, but Carter cleaned up pretty well. The style for a lot of guys seemed to be not to wash their hair regularly, letting it get all greasy and nasty. But Carter's was clean, thick, and a little shiny. And usually at the end of the school day, guys un-tucked their shirts, took off their ties, and rolled up their sleeves. Carter kept everything together, though he did wear that same thick black sweater.

Mary had to admit it. Carter actually looked kinda handsome.

Electronic gunshots caught his attention. Carter turned to the kid in the next seat, who had his nose buried in a handheld game.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Theft," the boy answered without looking up.

"Theft?" he repeated. "Isn't theft wrong?"

"Yeah, but this is just the game," the boy said.

Carter looked at the tiny screen. "You are making that man shoot and kill other people?"

The boy nodded.

Carter looked surprised. More like shocked. "Why?"

The boy shrugged. "It's a game."

Carter thought for a moment. "I thought games were for fun."

"This is."

"Causing harm to people is fun?"

The boy looked at him at last. "Stupid, of course not. But this is just a game. Not like I'm out there really doing it."

Carter thought again. "So, it's okay to pretend to cause harm to people?"

"You don't hear any laws against it, d'ya?" the boy asked.

Carter looked at Mary. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I," she said.

Carter looked over the boy's shoulder at the game again. The boy glared at him before reaching up and pressing the button to let the driver know he wanted to get off. He took his game and mumbled "freak" as he left the bus.

Carter looked at Mary as the bus started moving again. "I offended him, didn't I?"

Mary shrugged. "He'll get over it."

Carter looked back. "That is why I am concerned."

They got off the bus later and walked to Agape. Mary signed her name in the log and then handed the pen to Carter. "Here."

He looked at it. "What do I do with it?"

"You can just sign your name here, honey," Ms. Nancy said, pointing to the logbook.

"Oh." Carefully, he took the pen from Mary. He held it awkwardly at first. Then he managed to scrawl something into the empty space below Mary's name.

"Huh, that's funny," Mary said.

"What?" he asked.

"The way you did your 'C.' It looks similar to the way this other guy signed his name," she said, pointing to the name 'Chris' that appeared a few boxes up.

Carter put the pen down and followed Mary inside. Ba was in the courtyard working on a painting of a vase. Mary walked around to her front and instructed Carter to do the same.

Ba beamed. "Hello, Con. And who is this handsome young man?"

"This is Carter," Mary said. "He goes to my school."

"How nice to meet you. Mary never brings friends to see me," she said, stretching her hand out to shake his.

But rather than take it, Carter slightly bowed from the waist and said, "Chào Bà."

Ba's eyes brightened. "À, cậu nói tiếng Việt hả?"

He nodded. "Da ̣vâng, thưa Bà."

They exchanged a few more words in Vietnamese while Mary's jaw dangled towards the Earth. "I didn't know you could speak Viet."

"You never asked," he said.

They sat down and Carter and Ba kept talking. Mary tried to catch words she understood, but it was hard. Her