Read Online Wanderers by Susan Kim - Free Book Online

the crowd and he squinted in vague recollection. Rafe had seen her at the Source, always in the background, but only once or twice, and certainly not since her face had been ruined. He recoiled.
    â€œSomebody give me some water!” Caleb called.
    As Esther fetched a bottle, the circle around Michal grew. People shoved and jostled to get a look, and a cruel, reckless gaiety filled the air. Silas pushed up his nose and pulled down his eyelids in a vicious parody, mincing and swaying his hips to the wild amusement of some. Others reached toward Michal, snatching at her robes and hair.
    â€œWe don’t got anything for people like you!”
    â€œYou should have saved something to eat from the Source!”
    Rhea reached out and pinched the new girl, hard, on the arm. “Ugly whore,” she hissed. “You don’t belong with decent folk.”
    Rafe was all for people enjoying themselves, but time was wasting and he was growing bored. “I’m sorry,” he said to Caleb above the noise, “but looks like you done all you can. Leave the girl. We got to be on our way.”
    There was a rumble of outrage from the others; this had been their only fun since leaving Prin and it was just getting started. But Caleb cut it off.
    â€œShe’s coming. She’s one of us, and she’s gonna travel with us.”
    Rafe opened his mouth to object, but Caleb continued. “If she doesn’t come, we don’t go another step. I made most of the wagons and I can take them apart.”
    Caleb waited until the crowd relented and broke up, with much muttering and reluctance. Then he picked Michal up in his arms and carried her to Esther’s wagon. She was lighter than air, almost as light as Kai. There he laid her beside Joseph, who stared at her, a bit afraid.
    Caleb gave Michal some food and then closed the tarp over her. He didn’t explain but met Esther’s eye and nodded once.
    Rafe watched the crowd disperse before gazing after Caleb with poorly disguised resentment.
    â€œAll right,” he said, “let’s go!”
    Esther dropped her pace so she could steal a peek at the new girl.
    Michal now walked by herself, toward the back of the caravan, helping push the heavy water wagon. She spoke to nobody and kept her head down.
    Yet although she had rewrapped her destroyed face in its protective sheet and again pulled her hood over her head, a piece of hair had escaped and now trailed down the side of her throat. It caught the rays of the setting sun, revealing itself to be a color Esther had never seen before: gleaming gold, with streaks of copper in it.
    Michal used to live with Levi, Esther realized, the boy who had the best of everything. So she must have once been beautiful.
    Esther felt a pang. She had no illusions about her own attractiveness; although she was too thin and dark with flyaway hair and eyes that were too big, Caleb liked the way she looked. Still, she had no idea what kind of connection her partner had had to this girl. What did it mean that he had risked the entire caravan to defend her?
    As she mulled over her thoughts, Esther became aware of a bad smell that grew until it became an overpowering chemical stench. Ahead of her, the caravan slowed and then stopped. Even from where she was, Esther could see what was wrong. In the distance, an oily mass spread across the highway, gleaming black and impassable. It reached deep into the woods on either side, as big as several fields put together. Here and there, lumps bulged from the otherwise smooth surface: animals that had been caught in the poisonous mess, and perhaps unlucky travelers, as well.
    Esther heard a rustling sound. Perched on his bicycle, Rafe was turning Joseph’s maps one way, then around again. He seemed agitated.
    â€œI know where we are,” he kept saying. “Don’t anyone panic, now.”
    Caleb managed to convince Rafe to turn the caravan around; the sun was dropping in the