Wuftoom (25 page)

“I've already told her to leave,” he said. “I'll make sure she leaves this town for good, and goes far enough so the Vits will never find her.”

Tret and Rayden looked at each other, then turned back to Evan. “Is there anyone else they could use?” Tret asked.

A month ago the answer to this question would have shamed him. Now it lifted his heart. “No,” he said. “I didn't have any other family or friends.”

“Very well,” said Rayden. Tret nodded and his lips untwisted a little. He began to roll the membrane map. He rolled it into a tube, then folded the tube until the map was just a tiny square. He held it out to Evan, and Evan took it.

“Go with care, Brode,” said Tret.

Evan almost corrected him, told him that his name wasn't Brode, that he wanted to be called Evan, but he stopped himself. Tret had put up with a lot from him. He shouldn't push him any further. Besides, there was a part of him that wasn't sure. Was he really a Wuftoom now? Should he want to be called Brode? Did he?

Evan went back to his sleeping blocks, where Jordan had set up next to him.
No,
Evan thought,
not Jordan, Rutgi.
But Evan couldn't let Jordan go.

“What did Tret give you?” Jordan asked.

“It's a map,” said Evan. “So I can find my way to meet you after I go see my mother.”

Jordan gasped and pulled his lips in. “Brode, you can't go out there alone. It's crazy!”

“I have to,” said Evan. He couldn't explain this to Jordan.

But Jordan didn't try to argue anymore. Instead, he put his nub around Evan and gave him a hard clap, squeezing into Evan's back. “Be safe, Brode. I don't know what I'd do if you didn't come back. I wouldn't even be here without you.”

Evan sucked in his breath. “You know?”

“Of course,” said Jordan. “I've meant to say thank you. I never would have gone near that field on my own.”

“You . . . you're not sorry you're a Wuftoom?” Evan asked.

“Sorry?” asked Jordan. “Are you kidding? I was
meant
to be a Wuftoom. This is where I belong.”

Evan looked down at the water. He knew the old Jordan wouldn't say this, but he also knew that Jordan was being sincere. Rutgi wasn't sorry he was a Wuftoom at all. And he really was Evan's friend.

“We mean it,” said Ylander, sloshing up to them with help from Gorti. “Come back.”

“Yes, Brode,” said Gorti. “Master Olen would want that.” Gorti unrolled an arm, revealing half of a recently dead Higger.

Evan stared at it. The sight of the creature brought all his hunger up.

“Go on, take it,” said Gorti. “You haven't eaten anything in days.”

Evan didn't want to take it, but he was too hungry. He ripped it from Gorti's arm and shoved it into his mouth, swallowing it after one bite. “Thank you,” said Evan. He meant it more than he'd ever meant any thank-you in his life.

“Just come back,” said Gorti.

Evan had never seen a Wuftoom hug before, but he didn't care. He threw his arms around Jordan, Ylander, and Gorti, squeezing all of them together. “I will,” he said.

E
VAN ROSE EARLY,
hoping to reach his mother's house at sundown. At least the most dangerous part of his journey would happen when the Vits should be asleep. He took only a Feeder. Others would take his packs, so they could be used in case he didn't make it.

He made his way quickly through the pipes and did not come across another creature. It should not have surprised him. Other creatures typically avoided Wuftoom. Yet there was something strange about the silence. Perhaps there had always been more creatures than Evan had seen, making noises he'd never noticed.

The thought made a chill pass through his flesh. The Wuftoom had always hunted these creatures, yet they had never fled before. As he pushed through the water, its sloshing reverberated as if it were iron on steel.

The bedroom was silent. Evan ignored the lifting of pressure, let his body do what it would. He knew now that he would not break apart, no matter how terrible he felt. He went straight to the boarded window and reached behind the painting. He pulled out a scrap of paper with a note written on it in his mother's hand.

“Dear Evan, I'll come back every night at nine. I love you. Mom.”

Evan sat on the bed. He could go back into the pipes to wait for the hour before nine. He would not have to endure this pain. Instead, he went back to the window. The two-dimensional meadow and the fake blue sky stared back at him. Slowly, he took down the painting and set it aside. Now he was looking at bare boards. He slid his nubs behind them, flattening his arms so that the liquid of his body flowed. He spread them outward until some part of his arms covered most of the window, and he pulled.

The boards came off with a pop and pushed him backward, so that he fell on his back onto the floor. He hit his head on the end of the bed as he fell, but his Wuftoom body was not hurt. He thrust the boards aside and scrambled to standing again.

There was the backyard, just as he remembered it. With his new eyes, it looked in darkness close to how it had looked before in light. There were the dandelions; there was the oak tree. Even the rope ladder was still there. There was the street, the train tracks, the whole town spread out before him.

The sun had gone down now, but there was still too much light for Evan. His body wanted to shrink back, to jump into the bathtub and ride the pipe down into the safety of the darkness. His eyes burned like they were filled with sand. But he wanted to look. He might never see this view again, or any view above the ground.

A raccoon poked its nose out from behind the oak tree. Soon, another raccoon's nose poked out. With his enhanced hearing, he heard their chittering. Light creatures. Creatures as different from him as sea bass were from insects, or more so. The raccoons took off running. The night wind whistled through the houses and whirred as it was set free into the street. Evan wished he could go out there, just one more time.

The bedroom door creaked open. His mother gasped and ran over to him. She threw her arms around him and squeezed. Out of instinct, he tried to pull away. He must be ugly. He must stink. But his mother only pulled him closer and began to sob.

Evan melted into her, his nubs melting into each other and spreading across his mother's back.

“You shouldn't have come back here!” he cried. “I could have found you. They might come back!”

“What if you didn't?” she sobbed. “What if I never saw you again?” She squeezed him tighter, and his malleable body squashed and twisted under her grasp.

“You have to leave now. You can't ever come back here. You have to leave this town. You have to go far away from here, so they'll never find you again. Neither one of us will be safe until you get far away.”

“Come with me!” she sobbed.

“I can't,” said Evan. “Look at me. I'm one of them now. I have to stay with them.”

His mother pulled herself away, grasped his shoulders, and held him at arm's length. By the moonlight, she could see him. “How many others are there?” she asked.

Evan's body shook. His mother felt it, and it looked like she would cry again.

“There were a hundred. But now there are only nine. We're leaving so the Vits won't get the rest of us.”

Now she did begin to cry again and pulled him closer.

“Mom, please stop. Let me tell you.” And he told her everything. From stepping in the pink goo in the field to when Olen had come, to when he had changed, and everything that happened after. “I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I have friends, a clan. They'll take care of me even though I'm different. I know they will. I have to stay with them.”

His mother continued to cry, but her sobbing was less.

“Is it hurting you to sit here now?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, “but it's my last time to even see the outside. I can handle it a little longer.” The bedside clock showed 3:00 a.m. Just a few more hours until sunrise.

They sat there together while the hours passed, sometimes talking, sometimes looking out the window together. Finally, the sky began to glow.

“I have to go now,” he said.

His mother nodded.

“Mom, you have to promise to be happy. You can move on with your life. You can get married. You can have more kids.”

She smiled a little. “I don't need any more kids.”

“But you can have them if you want. You can do anything you want now.”

She nodded again. They both knew it wasn't that simple, but there was no need to say it.

“You promise to be happy too,” she whispered.

They held on to each other again for a long time. Then she followed him into the bathroom and watched as he lined himself up over the drain, melded himself together, and slid away.