Read Online Dusk by Ashanti Luke - Free Book Online

would take this bullet-casing to turn into a full-blown Bacchanalia. Hell,
you don’t need to know much Greco-Roman history to know it doesn’t
really take fallopian tubes to have a Bacchanalia. Maybe we should
synchronize our watches and start the countdown now.”
    “Dr. Cyrus Tiberius Chamberlain, must you always be so crass?” Dr. Villichez’s plate rattled briefly
under the weight of a fist clenched around a fork.
    “I apologize,” Cyrus nodded his sincerity
toward Dr. Villichez, and then laughed at his potatoes again, “I
just wanted Dr. Winberg to know I was laughing with him, not at him. Not exactly dinner table fare though,
admittedly.”
    Amidst a volley of mumbles and grunts erupted
a barely audible, “Unless it is a Bacchanalia!” A wave of
laughter spread across the table like a nova. Even Villichez,
however reluctant, loosened his fist and allowed a smile to creep
across his face. Cyrus could not tell where the comment had come
from, but he noticed the bangs of Dr. Jang now hanging over his
face, shifting as air passing on laughter escaped from rapidly
contracting lungs.
four
    • • • • •
    — How did the Math Finals go today Dari?
    — I don’t want to talk about it Dada.
    — That bad?
    — It was plenty fine at first, I had all the other
Laureate candidates beat by like five hundred points. I had the
highest score by one hundred points.
    — Well, what happened?
    — Genivere happened... again. Somehow she managed
to make up over two hundred points in the last round. It was a
slaughter Dada. I felt like I was standing still. I don’t know why
I can’t beat her Dada. No matter how far I get ahead, she always
seems to find a way. Always. What am I doing wrong?
    — Hmm… You know, once, a while ago now, I came to
pick you up from Entrance School. You were no more than maybe four.
You were a little small, even for your age, but you always played
with the big kids. Even then you said the kids your age were dumb
as lab rodents. Not sure how you knew what a lab rodent was, but
you said it and meant it. But this particular day I showed up early
to talk to your room steward. She seemed distraught because you had
been playing with the older boys all day. They were actually
already tapped as Novitiates; they were just waiting to
matriculate. She took me to the playroom but we stayed in the
observation lounge. As soon as I got there, I knew why she was
disturbed. You looked like a chipmunk next to the other boys. They
were just a little older than you are now. You were playing Police
and Thieves, and for fun, they had pegged all the younger kids as
thieves. One of the more heavyset boys was sitting on the two of
your fellow thieves and you were hiding in a Styroprene box. They
surrounded you with their hands in gun shapes and ordered you to
come out. The box shook a little and they all got ready to give you
the same treatment they gave the others. They fired off a round of
warning shots, saying ‘Pow-pows, pop-pops, and bang-bangs’ And just
as they seemed confident in their victory, you burst from the box.
Styroprene flew everywhere. You vaulted off something that had been
in the box, and with both hands shaped like guns, bellowed out
‘DOOSH, DOOSH, DOOSH’ carrying more bass than I think I have ever
heard in your voice. The older boys were so startled and impressed
that they played along. The chunky kid even got off the other two
and clutched his chest as you fired two shots his way. They all
collapsed to the ground in undeniable defeat, because they really
didn’t know what else to do. If someone comes out of the box with
bass in his voice like that, there isn’t much else you
cando.
    — Wow, I did that?
    — The room steward said she had never seen the
thieves win against those boys, that they were too stubborn a set
of bullies to ever admit defeat. I told her she didn’t have to
worry about my son. Darius Chamberlain would always be all
right—one way or the other.
    — I don’t feel