Among the Free

soybeans instead of corn one year, corn instead of soybeans the next. There were rules on top of rules. Anything we grew had to go right back to the Government. Then they would give us what we were allowed to eat — if we met our quota.'

'We never grew enough,' Adriana whispered.

Luke thought about the cold, hard soil he'd fallen down on. Then he thought about the rich, dark, loamy dirt of his family's farm.

'Maybe your soil isn't right for corn and soybeans,' Luke offered.

'That's what we told the Government, but they never listened,' Eli said. 'They weren't people who knew about soil. They'd just point at numbers on their forms and yell at us, 'We have you down for this many bushels this year. Got it?''

Luke remembered how he'd pictured the Government as some big, fat, bossy man when he'd been a little kid. That image seemed so innocent now.

'Then they took away everyone they could to work for the Population Police,' Adriana said. 'We haven't seen any of them since.'

'James,' Eli said. 'Aileen. Twila. Sue. Peter. Robin. Jonathan. Detrick. Lester. Sal….'

It took Luke a moment to realize that Eli was listing all the people the village had lost to the Population Police. Luke wanted to yell out, JYo, stop! Don't tell me! With each name he heard, he could imagine yet another person crowded into the room — ghosts joining the skeletons.

Eli finished the listing of names, and a silence fell over the room. Now that he had a little food in his stomach, Luke was thinking more clearly. He realized that he was the only one still eating, the only one who'd been given more than a crumb of bread and a swallow of broth.

It's just like the Population Police always said, he thought in horror. If food goes to third children, others starve.

Luke put his spoon down.

'No, eat,' Adriana urged. 'There is still hope for you.'

'But do you think…' Luke had to be careful about what he said. 'The Government always said that if people followed the Population Law, there'd be enough food for everyone. Do you think you're starving because some people broke the Population Law? Do you think illegal third children stole your food?'

The people all stared at him as if those questions had never entered their minds.

'We're starving,' Eli said, 'because the Population Police don't care if we live or die. And they made our lives so miserable, we stopped caring too.'

Chapter Sixteen

By the time the 'feast' was over, the sun had slipped down over the horizon, and the scene outside the windows slid into darkness. Eli began to talk of making a bed for Luke in front of the fireplace.

'You're welcome to stay here as long as you want,' Eli said.

Luke's eyelids felt heavy as he watched the other villagers leave for their own homes. His legs felt so sore that it hurt just to shift position in his chair.

'Tonight,' he decided. 'I'll stay tonight.'

Eli found threadbare quilts for him to sleep on. 'Twila made this one,' Eli recounted, laying the quilts on the floor. 'This was Aileen's handiwork. . ' He disappeared into a back room for a few minutes, and brought back a goose-down pillow. 'Adriana wanted you to have this.'

Luke curled up in the blankets. They were much more comfortable than sleeping on rock or decaying linoleum.

'Thank you,' he said.

Eli didn't leave yet.

'There's a little bread left. Feel free to have some breakfast if you're up before us,' he said, yawning. 'You probably will wake up first. We spend a lot of our time now sleeping.' He hesitated. 'Good night.'

Luke expected to fall asleep immediately after Eli left the room. But somehow his eyes stayed open. He stared at the embers of the fire, his mind racing.

What if the Population Police come back and find me here? What if they've figured out now that I was the one who dropped the gun and ran away?

What if the people in Chiutza are right, and the Population Police are totally out of power? Shouldn't the people in this village know that? Wouldn't it give them hope?

What is wrong with these people? Are they really going to die? How could they just give up like that? Why don't they send someone out to look for food? Do they truly want to die? Why?

Luke forced his eyes shut, but he felt no less alert. He squirmed around, the quilts bunching up underneath him. He got up and smoothed them out again, but he didn't lie back down right away. The moon had risen while he was curled up on the floor, and its silvery light drew him to the window. He stood there looking out at the bright, full orb in the sky, so much more beautiful than the dull, ugly huts of the village, the hard'packed dirt lanes, the leafless trees. And then he saw lights below the moon — a long string of lights along the lanes, snaking their way toward the village.

Headlights.

Luke jerked away from the window, dropping down below the windowsill just as he'd been trained to do when he was a little boy hiding in his parents' house. Then he realized how useless that action was, what a waste of precious time. Whoever was behind those headlights couldn't see him in the window from that distance. But they were getting closer.

Luke sprang up and dashed toward Eli's room. He banged his hand against the door.

'Eli! Adriana! Someone's coming! It's got to be the Population Police! You've got to run away! You've got to hide!'

An eternity seemed to pass before the door creaked open and Eli stood there blinking, his whiskers and sparse white hair in disarray.

'Didn't you hear me? We've got to wake the others! We've got to leave! We've got to hide!' Luke screamed. When Eli didn't move, Luke grabbed Eli's arm and tugged him toward the window. 'Look!'

Eli stared out at the line of headlights. They were closer now, and Luke could make out vague shapes; he could tell which vehicles were cars and which were trucks. He thought maybe he could even make out the Population Police logo on the doors.

'Come on!' Luke said, yanking on Eli's arm.

'No,' Eli said.

Eli's arm slipped out of Luke's grasp.

'Are you crazy?' Luke asked, spinning around. 'Don't you know what will happen when they get here? You— you defied the Population Police! You said no right to their faces! They don't let people get away with that. Don't you see? They're coming back for revenge!'

Eli turned slowly toward Luke, his face still half in shadows.

'They can't do anything to us that we don't deserve,' Eli said. 'You run away — you save yourself. The rest of us will stay right here.'

'That doesn't make sense!' Luke screamed.

Sorrow crept over Eli's face.

“I didn’t tell you everything about our village,” Eli said. “I was ashamed. You asked about illegal third children. . There was one in our village. Everybody knew. And we. . we turned him in. We turned in his whole family. We informed the Population Police. And when they rewarded us, we informed on other people. Innocent people who had done nothing wrong except live next to us when we were hungry. We said they were rebels. We said they were plotting against the Government. We were like little children, tattling. We were that. . gleeful. Only the people we tattled on died. .' Eli was whispering now, his head bowed low.

'But — but — you saved me,' Luke said.

'One good deed, a million sins,' Eli said, shrugging sadly. 'Do you see why we would welcome an escape