Read Online Half Lives by Sara Grant - Free Book Online

silence.
    ‘Can we meet again?’ he asks.
    ‘I’d like that,’ she replies, and places her hand on his leg. Her touch sparks something inside him. His attention focuses on her hand. ‘I’m Greta, by
the way.’ She writes her name in the dust. ‘I’ll come back tomorrow at sunset.’
    Beckett stares at the letters. He can’t believe it. G-r-e-t-a. Great. It’s a sign. The Great I AM has brought them together. It must mean something.
    She stands and brushes herself off. ‘Why don’t we meet down there?’ she says, and points to a cluster of rocks that Beckett knows hide the entrance to a small
alcove. It’s the perfect secret meeting spot.
    ‘I will see you there tomorrow,’ he says, but then wonders how she knows about that hiding place. How many times has she hidden on his Mountain? He wipes those thoughts
away. It doesn’t matter. She’s here and it’s as if she were always destined to be here.
    Even after she leaves he can still feel the warmth of her touch. He can’t wait to see her again and be a boy and a girl, nothing more and nothing less.

 
     
     
     
Chapter Seven
     
     
     
     
    GRETA
    G reta glances back one last time. Balanced on the rock tower and wearing nothing but a strange leather skirt, Beckett looks like one of those statues
she found in Vega, except he’s in one perfect piece – not broken like everything else. Every curve of muscle is carved into his glistening brown skin. As he climbs up the mountainside,
the shock of white that splits his jet-black hair flashes like a bolt of lightning streaking across a stormy sky.
    Her life has been about constant motion. Those moments with Beckett felt as if they were suspended in time. She imagined they were the only two people left on Earth. There were no
meetings to draw up rules. No things to lug from here to there. No food to be gathered or cooked or served. No brothers to herd. She should have asked more questions. What will she report back to
Da? Her first real mission and she has failed.
    Greta lets gravity speed her pace down the mountain. Her legs are pumping almost faster than she can control. She can’t stop her momentum, much like she can’t stop Da.
She’s seen him assimilate other communities into the cogs and wheels of their progress. She doesn’t want that to happen to Beckett. She wants Beckett all to herself. She wants to feel
what she felt with him again. It was only a moment but everything calmed and the world, normally so full of tension and obligation, narrowed to one person who looked at her like no one ever has
before.
    When she reaches the base of the Mountain she keeps running towards Vega. She wishes she could run away from her responsibilities, but she’s learned no one can survive alone out
here. She jogs through the endless maze of houses.
    She hears laughing. It’s that sickening bark her brothers make when their mouths gape and their fingers point and their fat bellies jiggle. She cups her hands around her mouth
and calls, ‘Joe! Bungle! Tinker! Buzz! Time to go!’
    Four boys twice her size come rushing towards her. The layer of dirt that perpetually covers them makes them almost indistinguishable from one another.
    ‘Hi, Greta!’ Bungle says with a wave.
    ‘What took you so long?’ Buzz asks, and shoves her into Tinker.
    ‘Hey!’ Tinker shouts, and pushes her into Joe.
    Buzz, Tinker and Joe jostle her between them while Bungle punches each one in turn, yelling, ‘Cut it out! Leave her alone!’
    This type of teasing is new. They think she doesn’t see their new-found interest in her recently developed body. She used to be one of them but now she’s different, and
there’s a new awkwardness among them.
    ‘It’s all right,’ Greta says to Bungle. She dives under Buzz’s arms and outside of the circle. ‘Let’s go,’ she says, and takes off at a brisk
pace. ‘We need to get back before it gets dark.’ She can hear them arguing and then there’s the distinct sound of