Among the Hidden

Terrible droughts struck the parts of the world that always grew the most food. For three years, they grew almost nothing. People everywhere starved. In Luke's country, the Government began rationing food, only allowing people to have 1,500 calories a day. And, to make sure there was food, they seized control of all food production. They forced factories that had made junk food to crank out healthy food instead. They forced farmers to move to land that would be more likely to produce. (Is that why we don't live near our grandparents? Luke wanted to ask his parents.) But the Government didn't think that was enough. They wanted to make sure there would never again be more people than the farmers could feed. So they passed the Population Law, too.

In the evenings, spooning in his stew or cutting up his meat, Luke felt pangs of guilt now. Perhaps someone was starving someplace because of him. But the food wasn't there-wherever the starving people were-it was here, on his plate. He ate it all.

'Luke, you're so quiet lately. Is everything all right?' Mother asked one night when he waved away second helpings of cabbage.

'I'm fine,' he said, and went back to eating silently.

But he was worrying. Worrying that maybe the Government was right and that he shouldn't exist.

Only when he got to the two computer printouts did he begin to feel better. One of the articles began, 'The Population Law is evil.' The other said, 'Hundreds of children are hidden, mistreated, starved, neglected, abused- even murdered-for no reason. Forcing children into the shadows can be counted as genocide.'

'How can this be?' he asked Jen a week later when he finally got a chance to go back to her house. 'How can the books and the articles be so different?'

She handed him a glass of soda.

'What do you mean?' she asked.

Luke pointed to The Population Disaster. 'This book says the human race would have gone extinct if we hadn't had the Population Law. And this'-he held up and shook 'The Problem of the Shadows' article-'this says the Population Law was totally unnecessary and cruel. It says there was plenty of food, even during the famines, except that the Barons were hoarding it.' Belatedly, he remembered that Jen was a Baron. 'Sorry.'

Jen shrugged, not the least bit offended.

'So what's the truth?' Luke asked.

Jen shook potato chips into a bowl.

'Well, think about it. The Government allowed those books to be published-they probably even paid for them. So of course they're going to say what the Government wants people to believe. They're just propaganda. Lies. But the articles, the authors of those probably put themselves at risk getting the information out. So they're right.'

Luke pondered that 'Then why'd you make me read the books?' he asked.

'So you'd understand how stupid the Government is,' Jen said. 'So you'd understand why we have to make them see the truth.'

Luke looked at the stack of thick books on the Talbots' kitchen counter. They looked so official, so important- who was he to say they weren't true?

CHAPTER TWENTY

Luke feared he'd have to wait months between visits to Jen once the snow started. But the weather proved kind that winter-most days were dry and clear. He didn't have leafy trees to hide behind, but he began to feel safe, anyway, crawling through his and Jen's backyards. By mid-January he could make the entire journey without his heart beating abnormally at all. The odds against someone watching from one of the other Baron houses seemed too astronomical to worry about. His only concern was Dad.

Dad usually hung around the house a lot during the winter. Without the hogs to tend to, he could easily have been there even more than usual, preventing Luke from ever sneaking out. But suddenly Dad had taken to heading to town many mornings, yelling up to Luke, 'I'm going to the library. You've got something up there to eat for lunch, don't you?' or, 'There's some plastic tubing over to Slyton I want to check out. Tell the boys when they get in from school, you hear?'

'It's that hydroponics notion,' Luke bragged to Jen one day in late January while they were sitting at the computer together. 'I got Dad all excited about it, and now he's too busy with that to notice what I do.'

'What's hydroponics?' Jen asked.

'It was in one of your books-you know, growing plants indoors, without soil, just using water and special minerals.'

'Oh,' Jen said. 'Does he think the Government would actually let him do that?'

'I guess so,' Luke said. 'Why wouldn't they?'

Jen shrugged. 'Why does the Government do anything?'

Luke didn't have an answer to that. Jen turned back to the computer chat room, where everyone was debating fake I.D.'s.

Carlos: Mom says they won't buy me one until I'm 18, because she thinks the Gov. wouldn't challenge an adult's as much. And maybe they'll be cheaper then.

Pat: Maybe Sean and I will get ours by the time we're ninety. Dad and Mom have been saving for them as long as we can remember.

Yolanda: My dad sez he's waiting to find one that's foolproof. He sez there are too many bad ones out there.

Jen began typing furiously. 'Who needs a fake I.D.? Carlos, they'd probably get one for you that says 'John Smith' and you'd have to spend the rest of your life trying to pass for an Anglo. My parents have been begging me to get a fake I.D. for years, but I won't until I can have one that says 'Jen Talbot' and is really mine.

'Have you all forgotten the rally? We're all gonna get real ID.'s that say who we really are!!!! WE AREN'T FAKES! WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO HIDE!'

She jabbed the Enter button so hard, the computer shook.

'But, Jen,' Luke said timidly, 'I thought you used a fake I.D. to go shopping with your mom. It said you were her niece.'

Jen turned her fierce gaze to Luke.

'No, that was just a shopping pass,' she said. 'I don't like using that, either, but I figured I can't fight my parents about everything. What they're talking about'-she pointed at the computer screen-'is taking on a fake identity permanently. Most shadow kids do that eventually-they go live with another family and pretend to be someone they aren't for the rest of their lives.'

'So you'd rather hide?' Luke asked. He thought about using a different name, living in a different family, being a different person. He couldn't imagine it.

'No, of course I wouldn't rather hide,' Jen said irritably. 'But getting one of those I.D.'s-that's just a different way of hiding. I want to be me and go about like anybody else. There's no compromise. Which is why I've got to convince these idiots that the rally's their only chance.'

There was a shocked blankness on the computer screen after Jen's entry. Then Carlos ventured, 'Um, Jen, got any of your parents' blood pressure medicine handy? Sounds like you need it.'

Jen stabbed the power button on the computer. The screen instantly went dark. She spun around in her chair and clenched her fists.

'Argh!' she screamed, with a grimace of frustration.

'Jen?' Luke asked. He leaned away from her in case she decided to use those clenched fists.

Jen turned to Luke in surprise, as though she'd forgotten he was there.

'Don't you ever feel like saying, 'I can't take this anymore'?' she asked. She leaped up and began pacing the floor. 'Don't you ever want to just walk out into the sunshine and say, 'Forget hiding! I don't care!'? Am I the only one who feels this way?'

'No,' Luke whispered.