Read Online Solstice by Jane Redd - Free Book Online

pressed my hand against it. Solid rock.
    “Jez, is that you?”
    Sol.
    I inhaled, wincing at the pain in my chest. The air passing through my lungs hurt—breathing hurt. “Yes.” I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, trying to get a handle on the pain. Why did my throat hurt so much? Why was Sol in the next room? Was this Detention?
    “What’s wrong, Jez?” the whisper came. “What did they do to you?”
    “They . . . shocked me with an agitator rod,” I said, having difficulty keeping the soreness out of my voice.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    “I . . . don’t know.” I rolled over, facing the wall. A shadow shifted in the space of light. Sol was on the other side. “Where are we?” I said.
    “Detention.”
    I nearly laughed, but choked instead, and tears sprung to my eyes. I had done everything I could for years to stay out of Detention, and now, less than a week before Separation, here I was. The stone ground was cold beneath me and the rough walls were like nothing I’d ever seen.
    “Can you remember anything?” Sol’s voice again. It sounded as if he was whispering in my ear.
    What did he mean? Of course I could remember.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, the cold floor causing me to shiver. “You shouldn’t be here.” I had to think of a way to exonerate Sol. It was my fault he was here.
    His voice cut into my thoughts. “Jez, this is very important. Do you remember why you were shocked?”
    I took a few more breaths, and my pain seemed to stabilize as long as I didn’t move. “My inheritance was an illegal book. I should have turned it in right away.”
    “This is the book you told me about in the classroom?”
    “Yes,” I asked. “I’m sorry I said anything to you. What . . . what did they do to you?”
    But he didn’t answer my question. “You remember talking to me in class?”
    “Of course.”
    “You were shocked with an agitator, Jez. You aren’t supposed to remember.”
    I let the information sink in. The Harmony implant didn’t work, and now this. “The agitator was supposed to destroy my memory?”
    “Just your memories over the last day or two,” Sol whispered. “It’s a method commonly used by the Legislature. Many times it’s enough to deter the person from committing more criminal acts. They forget, and with the lost memory, their desire to rebel fades.”
    I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Did they consider me a criminal now? Did they think I’d rebel? Would I be Demoted after all? And why didn’t the agitator rod work on me? Was it because of the key?
    “Jez, say something.”
    I heard the fear in his voice. The thought of someone like Sol being afraid of anything made me shiver all over. “I don’t know what to say,” I answered at last. “I remember everything. They caught me in my room, standing by the window, holding that book.” I paused as I thought of Rose’s words. “If the shocking had worked, I wouldn’t remember what I read, either, right?”
    “Right,” he said.
    I felt him waiting for me to continue. “That means . . . that means it didn’t work and—”
    “Jez,” he broke in. “Don’t let them know it didn’t work. Don’t let them know you remember what’s in that book.”
    “All right,” I said, or at least I think I said it. My words sounded so far away.
    “Why didn’t you destroy it in the first place?” His voice sounded calm again.
    I hesitated. “It was my caretaker’s last wish that I read it—it’s the record of my ‘grandmother.’” I didn’t tell him that I’d also hoped it would help me expel thoughts I shouldn’t be having. About him.
    “Ah,” he said.
    My heart drummed with guilt at not reporting the book the moment I realized what it was. But even if I had to go back, even knowing that I’d be caught, I think I might have done the same thing. I might have still read the book.
    “And you read it?” His voice again.
    “Yes,” I whispered.
    “Let me guess.” Sol’s tone was slow,