Read Online Copperback by Tarah R. Hamilton - Free Book Online Page B

I’m so sorry you thought that this whole time and didn’t say anything.
Every day, I wish I could bring your mom back. I wish I could have taken her
place. I just can’t let her death be in vain. She had worked so hard for what
she believed in, and I thought you would feel the same way. Please, just give
me a chance to explain? I’ll tell you everything, and if you still want him to
leave, I will help get Job out of the house tonight. Just hear me out?”
    She
had dropped the anger, and my sweet Sally was back. I knew I had said some
really hurtful things, but I wasn’t ready to let her back in yet. I would give
her a chance to make her case, but I had already made up my mind.
    “Fine.”
I crossed my legs in the wooden chair just to make sure she understood that
even if I had agreed to listen to some story, it wasn’t going to make me feel
better about the current situation. Sally pulled out the chair next to me and
sat, as well. I could see the tears filling her eyes even before she started.
The blow had hit her hard, and she was on the defense.
    “I’m
not sure where to start. I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.” She fiddled
with the knife on the table, turning it over and over again. She finally looked
up. “Susan – I mean, your mom – never believed in the Sayners’ slavery. From
day one, she thought it was just a situation of wrong place at the wrong time.
She had always been pretty convinced that if they had come first, instead of
the Vesper, the roles may have reversed themselves. I didn’t agree entirely, but
I was willing to let her think what she wanted.
    “Not
like she could do anything about it. Neither of us had a voice in what choices
were made. The only ones who had control were the ones creating cures or lining
the pockets of our government. Even if she tried to fight back, there were
always consequences.”
    So
far, she hadn’t told me anything new. That day they had arrived, ten years ago,
I remember hearing my mom say it was unfortunate what happened, but she didn’t
see it as their fault. She never voiced her opinion often after that, and I
never cared enough to ask.
    The
Vesper were willing to communicate from day one. They worked with our race to
create New Energy. They had found a way to make ionic combustion possible on Earth.
It had been our idea, but was flawed. They made it possible to use, and put an
end to most of our dependency on fossil fuels. Most people embraced it, but
there were still questions surrounding them and their intentions.
    Not
until the leader of them, Nicholas Franklin, showed us how to cure diseases did
they become full-fledged citizens in almost every country around the world.
Franklin took the cure and turned it into a vaccine that could be given to
children ages ten to twenty. The Franklin vaccine was seen as the single greatest
accomplishment of our time, and he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
    The
Sayner, on the other hand, had started fights, refused to talk, and acted like
animals that couldn’t be tamed. It was a little hard to swallow how roles could
have been reversed when they caused their own demise.
    Sally
continued on, but I was already losing interest in anything she said. I had to
uncross my legs, since the burning in my thighs from the long haul downstairs
was not going away.
    “I
was let go from the hospital because I had gone against policy and tried to
help a young Sayner boy. He was just a child. He looked like he couldn’t have
been any more than eight at the time.
    “Some
woman had found him in the middle of the street. The copper collar and frayed
ends of a rope were still around his neck where they had dragged him behind a
vehicle.” She stopped for a moment. The pain from the memory still haunted her.
“He wasn’t breathing, and was most likely already dead, but no one even
checked. Most of his skin had been scraped away. As soon as they saw part of
the mark on one of his tattered hands, everyone put down what