Among the Imposters

Luke rubbed his temples. This wore his brain out even more than the history test had. He wished everyone could just be what they were, and not have to pretend.

The clock in the corner began donging, giving off distinguished, silvery peals. Luke read the time effortlessly, without having to count dongs: eight o’clock.

“Well,” Mr. Talbot said, rising, “you’ll need to get your things out of your room before the other boys come out of — what do you call it? Indoctrination? And then I can drive you to your next school tonight. I’ll tell you about it on the way.”

“No,” Luke said.

Mr. Talbot and Mr. Hendricks looked at him in bafflement. Then Mr. Hendricks chuckled.

“Oh, so you boys have come up with another name for it besides Indoctrination?”

Luke understood the old man’s confusion. He could go with that, make up some silly name for Indoctrination, pretend that that was all he’d been objecting to. But it wasn’t.

“No,” Luke said firmly. “I mean, I don’t want to leave Hendricks.”

Now Mr. Talbot and Mr. Hendricks absolutely gaped at him, thoroughly aghast. Luke could tell what they were thinking: We gave him a new identity. We gave him a place to hide. We saved his skin today. And now he tells us “no”? How dare he?

Luke gulped. He wasn’t so sure how he dared, either. Only two months earlier, when he’d left home, he’d been a scared little kid afraid even to speak. He’d had a borrowed name and borrowed clothes — nothing but memories to call his own. But those memories were worth something. and so was he. He wasn’t some pawn to be moved across a chessboard, according to other people’s plans.

Luke thought about what he’d accomplished at Hendricks — not just what he’d done to help outsmart Jason, l~ut what he’d done making his garden, trying to make friends, studying for his tests. len. you’d be proud, he thought. He tried to figure out how to explain to Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Talbot.

“I’m glad you want to help me,” Luke started softly “And I’m, um, honored that you think I’m ready to leave. But I don’t think I’m done here. When I came out of hiding I told my parents that I wanted to help other third children. Only, I didn’t know how. But now I do. I want to help them here.”

Mr. Talbot and Mr. Hendricks exchanged glances. Then Mr. Talbot sat down.

“Tell us more,” he said.

Thirty Eight

The sun was barely over the horizon, but it was already a steamy day Luke brushed sweat out of his eyes and pushed another seed into the ground. It was late in the season to plant a garden, but they’d had to wait until after exams. Luke could only hope for a late frost in the fall. Behind Luke, four other boys clutched a sturdy rope stretched across the garden rows. One boy dipped quickly toward the ground, dropping a seed before he straightened up.

“Good, Trey,” Luke said, laughing. “But it’s easier if you open your eyes.

“I might see something that way,” Trey grumbled. “Everything’s so bright out here.

“Just smell, then,” Luke suggested.

Trey breathed deeply

“It’s so fresh,” he said in a marveling voice.

‘Wait until you taste the peas you’re planting,” Luke said.

Luke was still surprised that Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Talbot had agreed to his plan.

“I never intended to run an agricultural school,” Mr. Hendricks had grumbled. “Some of these boys are from the richest families — or supposedly from the richest families—” ‘Then they need to know how food grows, as much as anyone,” Luke answered, surprised at his own tone of authority.

Sometimes Luke wondered if he was just taking the easy way out — staying at Hendricks because it was familiar, growing a garden because that’s what he liked. But the Population law had started over food, so nobody could say that growing food wasn]t important Or maybe that was the problem — that people had started believing it wasn’t important.

Luke watched Trey plant another seed, this time with his eyes open.

“This little thing is really going to grow?” Trey asked incredulously.

Luke nodded.

“It ought to,” he said. “And it’ll be yours.”

He hadn’t been able to tell Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Talbot how much longer he wanted to stay at Hendricks school. last week’s exams had pointed out plenty of holes in his education, and he knew now that he could learn here. And, no matter what, he knew it had to be good for the other boys to get outside.

“Are you some kind of a teacher?” one of the boys behind Trey asked Luke. He spoke hesitantly, like a little kid just learning how to talk. “What’s your name?”

“Just call me ‘L,’” Luke said, without thinking.

Now, where had that come from? It wasn’t Luke, it wasn’t Lee — it was, somehow, both identities at once.

Just like Luke himself.