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  Hot blood flowed to Daphna’s face during this little speech. It was as if her old brother, the negative, intransigent one she’d nearly forgotten about, really had left the new Dex, the confident, triumphant one who turned his challenges to his advantage, back in Africa, at that volcano. How could this happen after all they’d gone through? It infuriated her. And his words had pricked a tender spot in her suddenly festering fears.

  “But Dex!” she cried, throwing up her hands. “Don’t you see? We brought an evil man—a killer—into Heaven. He caused the fire, but we brought him there. The fire is our fault. Whatever is happening there is our fault! Mom and Evelyn practically threw us out afterward, and you said it yourself: by destroying the Aleph, they pretty much banned us from coming back!”

  “So what? You said it yourself: they probably don’t want us risking—”

  “The Lamed Vavniks, the Thirty-six—” Daphna interrupted, “We’re supposed to be the Righteous Ones!”

  “We don’t even know what that actually—”

  “HOW CAN YOU BE SURE THAT IF WE DIE, THAT’S WHERE WE’LL GO?”

  There. She’d said it. They might never get to see their mothers again. Or that book again. Her book.

  Dex’s face twisted up. His spiky hair felt like needles in his scalp. “We—we had to,” he protested. “He shot us! It was the only way to save ourselves, to save everyone!”

  Up the hill, people were out of their vehicles complaining to a pair of police officers who were somehow already on the scene. There was also the distinct sound of kids crying coming from open car doors. Screaming, really.

  “Moses,” Daphna said, turning back to her brother after taking in the noisy scene.

  “Moses?”

  “When he was leading the Hebrews through the desert, he made some small mistake. I know it’s only a story, but we keep finding out that there are truths behind them. That’s why I read that Bible at the hospital while you just—! Anyway,” Daphna said, trying to keep to the point, “he disobeyed God in some small way—I forget how, but it was completely minor—and do you know what his punishment was, despite all he did for his people, risking his life to lead them out of slavery?”

  “No,” said Dex. And he was sure he didn’t want to know, either.

  “He wasn’t allowed into the Promised Land. Get it? I’m thinking that letting a murderer open a locked book that set Heaven on fire might qualify as a bit more than completely minor!”

  Dexter was speechless. If after all they’d done, if after all the thanklessness they’d endured in this life, they were to receive more of the same in the next, then, well, there would be no words to express his wrath.

  Before Daphna could say anything further, the thunder crashed again. Immediately after someone screamed, “Watch out! Behind you!”

  The twins turned and looked up the street coming down from the Village. A dirty white van was swerving around, honking at cars that had no room to get out of its way. It sideswiped a bus, jumped a curb, crashed back off of it, and barreled on.

  The driver, a man with long black sideburns, had his beady black eyes trained directly on the twins. They both saw them clear as day. Equally clear was their murderous intent. Dex and Daphna looked at each other momentarily, as if to confirm what they were seeing, but neither was able to react in a practical way.

  “WATCH OUT!” the voice called again.

  The van was nearly on top of them when Daphna finally registered the reality of the situation. She dove away, taking her brother down with her.

  But the van did not drive over the spot they’d been standing in. Instead, it swerved back into the street.

  Sprawled on the sidewalk, the twins watched it lurch wildly up toward the school. There was screaming from pretty much everyone on the street as they flung themselves out of its way.

  Finally, the van caromed like a pinball between three idling cars, then slammed head-on into a telephone pole.

  CHAPTER 5

  over fifteen-hundred

  The twins got back to their feet at the sound of all the shattering glass. Many of the drivers and passengers who’d thrown themselves down were now back up as well and running to the van. The cops ordered them to return to their vehicles, but they paid no heed. Someone shouted, “Idiot! You could have killed one of us!”

  “You could have killed all of us!” someone else corrected.

  It was clear the little mob wasn’t an impromptu rescue team.

  “Dex, what’s going on?” Daphna asked. Her stomach was turning over, a sure sign violence was about to take place.

  Just then thunder smashed the sky again. Everyone stopped in their tracks, holding their ears and crying out as they looked up at the crazy lightning spreading its electrical net overhead. But then it was gone, and they resumed their charge to the van.

  The first person to reach it, a large man with tattooed biceps, ripped open the mangled driver’s side door, which came clean off in his hands.

  “The driver!” he shouted. “Where’s the driver?”

  A woman at the passenger’s window called out, “Check the back!”

  Three people were already there. One opened the doors, a deliveryman. “There’s no one here!” he shouted.

  A siren sounded, silencing the group. Everyone turned to look back up the hill to see a police car slowly making its way onto the scene. It had one of those double-sided megaphones attached to its roof.

  “Get back in your cars!” one of the two cops inside called through it, a woman. “Return to your cars immediately! If your vehicle has been damaged, we will approach you for details. Leave your car, and you will be cited for obstruction!”

  “Wait a minute,” Daphna said, “where did those other two cops go?”

  “Richards and Madden?” Dex said. “Maybe they’re looking for the—”

  “The cops that came to our house?”

  Dex nodded, but Daphna had already forgotten about cops.

  People were obeying the order, though from the sounds of all the grumbling, very unhappily. Gawkers on the sidewalk walked off in all directions, so Dex and Daphna headed up the hill, striding quickly with their heads down. Daphna’s legs were rubbery. She couldn’t process a coherent thought. Dex was processing them all right, but he didn’t want to.

  When the school came into view, Daphna needed a moment to collect herself. Several moments, actually. She detoured down a set of concrete steps leading to a little strip of shops they’d been walking past and sat down on a bench at the bottom. She put her head in her hands for a few seconds, then looked up and said, “Dex, what’s going on?” in a voice she could barely keep steady.

  Dexter had reluctantly followed her down the steps, but he didn’t sit down.

  “I thought that was it,” Daphna said, trying to settle one shaking hand with another on her knee. “I was sure it was coming after us. But I—I couldn’t move.”

  “Me neither,” Dex said. What he didn’t say, because it shocked him to think it, was, I didn’t want to move. In the hospital he’d decided to let events take their course, not to lift a finger to help even himself—but now that Daphna had cast doubt on where he’d wind up in the afterlife, he should have tried to save himself. As the van bore down on him he shouldn’t have had the crystal clear thought: Who cares?

  “Will someone shut those kids up!” Dex shouted at the street.

  “He was coming after us,” Daphna said, her voice a low growl. “I saw the driver. He was looking right at us, Dexter. Did you see what happened to him?”

  “He probably took off after he crashed.”

  “Without any of those people right there on the street noticing?”

  “Everyone looked up at the thunder and lightning,” Dex said. “Maybe he ran away right then. Who cares, anyway? Those screaming kids are driving me crazy!”

  Daphna responded with only a long, hard, and very cold look. So this was how it was going to be. “By the way,” she said, “you’re welcome for saving your life.
”

  “It wouldn’t have hit us,” was all Dexter had to say back.

  Simmering, Daphna took out her phone and called Dr. Fludd.

  Again, nothing.

  Daphna shoved the phone back into her pocket. “Let’s just get going,” she said, swallowing a barb of indignation at having to be the one to face all of this, at having to be so scared when she should be full of excitement, when she should be about to jump joyfully into a world of new experiences, experiences that didn’t include being run over like a—

  “Oh, my gosh—look!” Daphna cried, jumping to her feet and pointing at the strip of shops.

  “What?” Dex looked over, but with no sense of alarm. Daphna seemed to be indicating a glass door next to the sub shop.

  “A new bookstore!” Daphna yelped. “All it says is ‘Rare Books,’” she added. “It must be upstairs. It must be one of those appointment only deals. I’ll have to check it out after school. I’m so excited!”

  Dexter smirked. It was as if Daphna had spied a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. From the shining look on her face, he could see she’d suddenly forgotten everything else going on.

  “Fantastic!” he sneered. “That’s just what we need around here!”

  Daphna took in a deep breath and let this go. A new bookshop! She was so pleased in fact, that she took her brother’s hand again and pulled him back up the steps, now brimming with anticipation. All it took was the prospect of a new store, even if discovering the last one was the start of all their nightmares. High school! She tried to head uphill toward campus again, but Dex resisted her tug. Daphna stopped and turned to him, irritated all over again. Enough of this, already!

  At first she thought he was watching the escalating fracas in the street. Drivers from wrecked cars had apparently had enough of waiting their turns. They were all back on the road, complaining vociferously about something, each other it seemed, and the two new cops seemed highly annoyed with all of them. An ambulance was now wending its way toward the wreck, though no one seemed to have located the diver. Someone was demanding to know what was going on with the weather, and toddlers were still screaming.

  But Dex wasn’t watching any of this. He was looking beyond it all, down the hill.

  “Ah, Daphna?”

  “What, Dex? We gotta go. We’re gonna be late.” Daphna tried to pull her brother again, but he wouldn’t budge. She didn’t need this from him right now!

  “How many kids go to Wilson?” Dex asked, shaking her off.

  “I don’t know. Over fifteen hundred, I think. Why? We have to—”

  “What are the chances we’re pretty much the only two kids who walk to school?”

  Now Daphna saw what Dex was seeing—or not seeing. There should have been dozens, if not hundreds, of kids coming up the hill.

  “Weird,” she admitted. “I don’t see any kids at all. Did you see any?”

  “Only one, on the other side of the street down near where we almost got flattened.”

  “That’s right! I mean, I didn’t see anyone, but it sounded like a kid who yelled to watch out. Was that him?”

  “I don’t know,” Dex said.

  Daphna scanned the streets suspiciously for a moment, then said, “Well, c’mon—let’s go find out what the heck is going on.”

  Dex shrugged. Shrugging was becoming his new signature move. Something had snapped in him this morning. Maybe it was that thunder. Regardless, the result was that he felt—free was the word.

  The pair crossed the street and finally headed into campus. Daphna hurried down the long drive that ran along the back of the school, past the football field and outdoor community swimming pool. Dex kept up, but halfheartedly. The parking lots were jammed with cars.

  “This is weird,” Daphna said, checking her cell again. They were right on time. “There must be something going on we didn’t know about. An orientation or something?”

  Daphna ran now, dragging her brother by the sleeve the rest of the way down the drive and then up the steps and through the school’s main rear entrance.

  The long gleaming hall that greeted them was empty. It was eerily silent, too, but both Dex and Daphna had the distinct feeling there were a great many people around. There had to be with all those cars. They walked down the freshly waxed hall, looking left and right into empty classrooms. Dex pointed to a sign nestled among dozens of welcome and club posters indicating that the Main Office was straight ahead. They kept going.

  “Dex,” Daphna said, stopping halfway down the hall, “Listen.”

  There was music, some kind of soft background type with no lyrics. It was coming from somewhere ahead, so the twins picked up their pace. Across from the office, which was at the end of the hall, and also disturbingly empty, they found two large doors—the Auditorium. The music was coming from inside, but so was something else, a powerful mood or feeling that gave them pause.

  “Whatever’s going on in there isn’t good,” Daphna said.

  “And your point is what?” Dex replied.

  “I guess I have no point.”

  “There is no point.”

  “Good point,” Daphna retorted. “So—you’re wrong.”

  “Point taken.”

  With that settled, cracking something that could almost be mistaken for smiles, the twins pushed open the doors.

  CHAPTER 6

  a better place (part ii)

  The auditorium was packed. Every seat was filled with students, teachers, and what looked like random adults—parents, presumably. The awful feeling that was seeping into the hall was nothing short of stifling inside. All eyes were on a slide show set to depressing classical music.

  Two dimply babies were on screen. The boy looked a year or so older than the girl, who had to be his sister. After a while they were both toddlers. There were a bunch of church photos, various ceremonies the kids took part in. Lots more were of birthdays at expensive venues: onboard the Portland Spirit; at a circus; what looked like a private box at a Blazer game. Fun at out-of-town mega-amusement parks followed those.

  Lots of sniffling and a few outbursts of both sad laughter and despairing sobs came from the crowd as it watched.

  “Oh, my gosh,” Daphna said when the thought crossed her mind that the kids looked a bit like she and Dex. “It’s Teal and Aubrey.”

  Dex nodded. They’d missed the news about this gathering, obviously, but it was no surprise. Teal and Aubrey were the only two kids from the school to die from the plague. Aubrey had been a freshman, and Teal was supposed to be one now, along with them. Dex couldn’t help reflecting on how much the two looked like him and Daphna, even as little kids. If Teal had shorter hair and didn’t have a tan all the time. If Aubrey cut his hair and spiked it more—

  Daphna’s eyes burned as the pictures flashed by. A million emotions were kicking up inside. There was one slide from elementary school with Teal and her friends skipping rope on the playground. And there was Daphna, a small figure half cut off at the edge, sitting on a balance beam with a book, pretending to read but actually looking longingly on.

  Books, Daphna suddenly accepted, had been more than bottomless wells to slake her endless thirst for knowledge. They’d also been her escape from a world that wouldn’t treat her right. In the end, though, she’d gotten the better deal because books were the only things that never let her down.

  Teal had pretended to be her friend just to have Daphna do her work for her and her buddies. It was despicable, true, but she didn’t deserve to die. Yet, her and her brother’s deaths made it possible for everyone in the room to be there right now. If they hadn’t looked enough like Daphna and Dex to fool that monster, everyone—everyone—might now be dead. What does that mean? Daphna thought. How is that okay?

  After one final montage: brother and sister dressed for a fancy affair; football and cheerleader outfits; a princess and a caveman on Halloween, it ended. The screen went blank as the music faded away. The only sound left was muffled crying.

 
A paunchy man with prominent ears stood up from a row of chairs on stage and approached the podium. Daphna realized the glaze-eyed couple who’d been seated between him and another man, a big basset-faced guy with ginger hair, had to be Teal and Aubrey’s mom and dad. They looked completely absent, utterly lost in grief.

  “Mr. Haslam,” Daphna whispered. “The Principal.” She’d seen him on the school’s website last night. He looked a bit shifty to her.

  “I’d like to introduce Edward Jons,” Haslam said, gesturing to the basset-faced man. “Pastor Emeritus of the Taylor’s church. Their current pastor is ill but sends his most heartfelt condolences to the Taylors and our entire community.” He paused a moment, then added, “Pastor Jons has been kind enough to share just a few words.”

  Static burst from the walkie-talkie clipped to Haslam’s belt, and a voice called his name. Looking concerned, he silenced it, said something to the Taylors, who didn’t seem to notice, then hurried off through a door backstage.

  Pastor Jons watched Haslam leave, then got up and charged to the podium, loosening his tie like he was ready for a fight. With no preliminaries, he shouted into the microphone, “We’re at school, right? Am I right?” Without waiting for a response, he barked, “Well, what we have here is a test! Life is a test! Death is a test!”

  This was met with a general murmuring of grief-stricken agreement, if surprise as well.

  “But I’m here to tell you what you need to know to pass these tests!” Jons cried. “Here it comes. You ready? You prepared to take notes? Here come the answers!”

  Though this man came across as more than a few cards short of a full deck, Daphna actually felt breathless standing there still holding her door open. She wanted to hear what he was going to say.