Read Online Summerlost by Ally Condie - Free Book Online

could find something out about the tunnels. Maybe about Lisette too. Meg’s been working here for a long time.”
    â€œThat would be
great
.” Leo looked impressed.
    I decided to take advantage of that.
    â€œBut you have to pay me equally for the tour stuff from now on,” I said.
    â€œAll right.”
    â€œAnd never, ever say that we’re cousins again.”
    â€œGot it.”
    â€œAnd—”
    â€œCome
on
. Don’t you think that’s enough?”
    â€œThere might be more,” I told him. “I’ll let you know when I think of the rest.”

6.
    My uncle Nick came over that night to help my mom with the deck. I was always glad when he did because then my mom wasn’t alone out there. She wanted to finish the deck before we left for the summer and it was taking longer than she’d expected, so she often worked late, when the night cooled things off.
    Nick had strung up a light in the back so they could see in the dark while they worked. I hoped it would scare the turkey vultures away but they didn’t leave. Sometimes I’d hear the sanding stop and when I looked down either Nick would have gone home or he and my mom would be talking.
    Ben and I could never really talk the way Miles and I did, but I got to understand Ben anyway. At first, during the earlier years, he would scream and yell and you couldn’t say a lot to him. But then when things sort of evened out, when he’d had some therapy and my parents knew how to help him more, you could have short almost-conversations with him. Like he would say, “Do you want a LEGO set for Christmas?” and I would say, “No, I want a camera for Christmas. Do
you
want aLEGO set for Christmas, Ben?” He would grin really big and say yes and I knew I’d said what he wanted me to say.
    Also when we went skiing together I could tell from the look on his face that he felt the way I did. Peaceful. Good. I saw him breathing deep when we went on the trails and I knew it was because he smelled the pine trees. We looked a lot alike when his face was at rest. I had never noticed it until I saw a picture that my dad showed us from one of the days we were up on the mountain.
    We didn’t deal with skiing last winter. My mom didn’t get out the ski rack or the skis. She wasn’t as good as my dad, and driving in the snow scared her, even though she was the one who had lived in it all her life and my dad was from Portland, where it didn’t snow nearly as much. We didn’t even talk about going skiing. And I wasn’t mad. I didn’t want to go either. Maybe Miles did, but if so, he didn’t say.

7.
    I was changing into my black jeans and black T-shirt early in the morning when I heard Miles hollering out and my mom hurrying down the hall to his room.
    He didn’t usually have nightmares. Not even after the accident.
    I tiptoed down the hall to the room and I heard my mother soothing him and Miles saying something about Harley.
    Uh-oh.
    I pushed open the door. “Everything okay?”
    â€œMiles had a bad dream,” Mom said, looking shaky. “He dreamed he was buried alive.”
    â€œIt’s okay, Mom,” Miles said. And then, before I could stop him, he said, “It’s from a show that Cedar and I have been watching.”
    â€œWhat?” Mom asked, turning to look at me. “What kind of a show has people who are buried alive?”
    â€œIt’s not real,” Miles said. He was still sweating but his voice sounded back to normal. “No one is
really
buried alive on
Times of Our Seasons
. It’s fake.”
    â€œYou’ve been letting Miles watch
Times of Our Seasons
?” Mom said, and I could tell she was
mad.
“You shouldn’t even be watching that. Let alone Miles!”
    â€œI know,” I said. “I’m sorry. We watched it one day and got sucked in.”
    â€œThat show is trashy,” Mom said. “All