Glow (3 page)

“You are?” Waverly asked, wriggling in her mother’s tight hug. “Really?”

“Waverly, he’s the best boy on this ship. Everyone thinks so.” Regina’s eyes shone. “Did you set a date?”

“No. It seems strange to plan for anything right now.”

“You mean because of the other ship? Life goes on, honey.”

“But don’t you think it’s strange—”

“Oh, let’s not spoil the occasion with that talk,” Regina said lightly, but Waverly saw the anxiety in her eyes. “The corn harvest is in a few weeks. Why not have the ceremony right after, when people are ready to relax?”

“So soon?”

“There’ll be some lovely flowers. The lilies will be blooming.”

Waverly sat down at the table, set for two. “I think Kieran’s going to want a religious service.”

“Yuck.” Regina wrinkled her nose. “That’s one thing about the Aldens no one can understand. Why they weren’t chosen for the other ship…”

“The other ship?”

“Oh, you know this.” Regina returned to her bread, kneading the dough with floury hands. “The people who designed the mission chose the crews for each ship on the basis of values, for group cohesion. So we ended up with one secular ship, one religious.”

“Is that why the other ship came back? To convert us or something?”

Regina shaped the loaf and set it on the counter. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I think something strange is going on. They’ve been here for days, but no one has come aboard.”

“That we know of.”

“And the Captain must be talking to them. Why doesn’t he tell us what they want?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Regina said sharply. She never liked when Waverly speculated about the Captain, as though keeping Waverly quiet would keep her safe. From what, Waverly never knew. When Regina turned around, though, she had a twinkle in her eye. “You’ve got a wedding to plan.”

Waverly sighed. “You were twenty-five when you married Dad, right? And you dated him for two years.”

“Yes, sweetie. But things have changed. You’re at your most fertile now. We can’t take any chances with the next generation.”

Waverly had heard this a million times. “It’s just so soon.”

“It’s never too soon when you’re talking about the survival of the species. You know that.”

The mission was the most important thing in everyone’s life. It had to be. The survival of the human race depended on it. Strong young crews from both ships were needed to settle on their new planet and get it ready to support human life, and that meant that all the girls on the voyage had to have at least four babies each. Everyone expected Waverly to marry and be a mother as soon as possible. End of discussion.

Waverly didn’t know how to ask for time to let her heart catch up to her duty.

“I wish your father were here,” Regina said. “I get so angry when I think about—”

“It was an accident, Mom. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

Regina seemed to retreat inside herself at the memory of her husband’s death. For a moment, Waverly thought she noticed a vague fear pass over her mother’s features, and a possibility came into her mind that she’d never allowed herself to entertain before.

“Mom. It
was
an accident, right?”

“Of course it was, honey,” she said with a tight smile.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Regina took her daughter in her arms. “I just meant I’m angry it happened at all. You’re right, there’s no one to blame.”

“Okay,” Waverly said slowly. Ever since the other ship had arrived, her mother had been acting strangely conflicted, and her expression was always brooding when she didn’t know Waverly was watching. But whenever Waverly asked her about it, she’d smile brightly and say nothing was wrong, she was just getting old.

“I just miss your father so much at times like this,” Regina said wistfully.

“Would he like Kieran?” Waverly had been so young when her father died that he was practically a stranger.

“I think he would. I like Kieran. He’ll be good to you.”

“He’ll have to be,” Waverly said. “I know just how to punish him if he isn’t.”

“Hey now,” Regina said reprovingly. “Just because you can make Kieran walk out an air lock for you doesn’t mean that you should.”

“Don’t worry. He’s not as spineless as he seems. He just needs…” Waverly trailed off. She wasn’t sure what Kieran needed. He might not have the same stubborn core inside of him that she had, but she suspected there was something strong in him, deep down. He was a thoughtful, quiet person, and he considered things deeply before he would speak about them. With time he could learn to be a good leader, she thought. But this was one of the things she wanted to find out
before
they married. “He’ll toughen himself up,” she said, hoping it was true.

“I suspect marriage to you will be more than enough to toughen that poor boy,” Regina said with a playful swat. “Have you checked the garden today?”

“I’ll go now.” She wanted to be alone anyway, and working in the loose soil always calmed her mind.

Down the corridor and two flights of stairs, the family gardens were in the center of the ship in a bay so large that it was difficult to see from one end to the other. The lamps over the plants were set to a noontime glow, and the heat felt good on her shoulders as she walked between the rows of squash, tomatoes, lettuce, and broccoli. Every family aboard the Empyrean had their own plot where they cultivated an array of heirloom vegetables. Because there was no way of knowing which crops would flourish on New Earth, everyone grew different strains. Waverly had chosen a pretty yellow tomato to grow, a plant that produced a delicate, tart fruit. They didn’t taste as good as true red tomatoes, but they were so beautiful. She knelt before the largest plant, near the main walkway. One fruit hung fat and golden, almost ready to be picked, and she fingered the smooth skin. She was tempted to take it now for dinner but decided to give it one more day to ripen. Instead, she pulled a weed.

“You sure have grown up.”

Startled, Waverly looked up to see Mason Ardvale, the ship’s head pilot, leaning on the fence that bordered her plot. He was almost as old as Captain Jones, who was his good friend. Waverly had never really liked him, and she’d grown to like him even less in the last two years when he started looking at her in a new, slithery way.

“I didn’t see you there,” she said uneasily.

He smoothed a strand of fine blond hair out of his eyes. “I saw
you
.”

She shrugged and went back to pulling weeds, but when she looked up, he was still there.

“Everyone’s in a tizzy these days. People think I’ll tell them things because I’m the head pilot.” His chest swelled as he said this, and Waverly wondered if he was trying to impress her. “I get tired of getting asked questions I’m not allowed to answer.”

He looked at her as though tempting her to ask, but she didn’t want to play his game. Instead she said, “Can you blame them for being curious? After forty-two years alone out here, suddenly we have neighbors.”

“Don’t be too worried about that,” Mason said with a crooked grin. “If anything happens, I’ll protect you.”

“I’m not worried,” she said, ignoring his innuendo. “I just think everyone would be more at ease if the Captain would explain what they’re doing here.”

“You’re not on this ship to worry about things like that.”

“Oh no?” she challenged.

“You’re for other things,” he said slowly.

Waverly sat back on her heels and gave him a cool stare. When his smile faded, she said, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You can’t expect a grown man not to notice you. Not unless he’s blind.”

Waverly picked up her trowel. “It’s none of your business what I expect.”

“Is that so?” With a gleeful smile, he started over the fence that separated them.

Waverly sprang to her feet and threw her trowel at him, missing his face by inches. “Stay where you are.”

He ducked, then glared at her. “You could have taken out my eye!”

“Everyone on this ship knows what a creep you are, Mason Ardvale. All the girls laugh at you.”

“Dad?” Mason’s son, Seth, came down the walkway toward them, carrying a bale of straw. “What’s going on?”

“Go to the plot,” Mason barked. “I’ll be there in a second.”

“I can wait.” Seth dropped the bale and sat on it, his sullen eyes on his father.

Is he trying to protect me?
Waverly wondered.

“You shouldn’t throw things at people,” Mason said to Waverly. “That’s not the way for a young lady to behave.”

“That’s right. I’m
young,
Mason,” Waverly said. She picked up a hand rake, tossed it in the air, and caught it in her fist. “I’m not for you.”

A dark look passed over Mason’s features, but he tilted his head toward the sound of laughter coming from the back of the room. Mrs. Turnbull and her husband were digging up turnips, well within earshot. He backed away from her, oily and slow, picked up a sack of mulch, and went on his way down the furrowed path. Seth stayed behind.

“He’s not how he seems,” Seth said, unable to look her in the eye. He picked up the trowel Waverly had thrown and handed it to her.

“Thanks for sticking around.”

Seth nodded, embarrassed.

Seth was unpopular aboard the ship, but Waverly had always felt an affinity for him. The same accident that took her father had also killed his mother. Seth was a few months younger than her, but already his bones were heavy, his voice deep, and his jewel blue eyes piercing. Waverly had always noticed his eyes, ever since they sat next to each other in fourth grade.

Once, when they were still little, Seth had even kissed her in the playroom. They’d been working together on a puzzle, and she’d been conscious of his steady breathing and how he moistened his lip with a quick tongue. She’d just put in the last piece and smiled at him. “We did it!”

He paused and then with a tortured voice whispered, “I love you.”

Her mouth popped open. She pulled her skirt down over her scabbed knees as a fiery blush ignited her cheeks. “What do you mean?”

Suddenly he leaned in and kissed her, very softly. But it wasn’t the kiss she remembered so well; it was the way he’d let his mouth linger, the way his breath had caressed her cheek, once, twice, until he suddenly ran out of the room. She watched him go, thinking the word
Stay
. But she didn’t say it.

The next day when Seth sat next to her in class, he looked at her, hopeful. She turned away. It was too much feeling, and she didn’t know what to do with it. And later that week, when Kieran Alden asked her to the Harvest Cotillion, she accepted. As she danced with Kieran, she pretended not to see Seth standing by the punch bowl, hands in his pockets, looking at the floor.

Now she wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t chosen Kieran. On impulse, she said, “Do you remember that day we did the puzzle?”

He seemed surprised by the question. “Of course I do. Why do you bring that up?”

He looked at her, waiting. Suddenly she realized how tall he was. Taller than Kieran. He stood leaning toward her, arms loose at his sides. She felt a force pulling her into him, like gravity.

“It’s just…” She cast around. What could she say? How could she keep from betraying Kieran? Had she already? “It’s a sweet memory.”

A smile opened Seth’s face, but then he spoiled it. “I thought you and Kieran were still…”

“Yes.” Her breath caught in her throat.

His smile folded up again. “Makes sense, you two getting together. Him being the golden boy and all.”

“He’s not a golden boy.”

“Oh yes, he is.”

They looked at each other for a beat.

“I guess you don’t like him much,” she said.

“Let’s just say I have an instinctive distrust of perfection.”

Waverly tried to sound disinterested. “You have your eye on anyone?”

Seth lifted his gaze to hers and held it. She knew she should do something to break up this moment, so she said the first thing that came to her. “Do you ever wonder about the accident?”

He didn’t have to ask what she was talking about. “You do?”

“Something Mom said today made me wonder.”

Seth glanced toward his father, who was bent over a melon patch. “Yeah. I wonder about it.”

“Because I always thought it was an accident, but…”

Seth took a step toward her. “That’s what you need to go on thinking.”

“What do you mean? Have you heard something?”

Seth dug his toe into the roots of a pepper plant. “Let’s just say I have reason to doubt your boyfriend’s benefactor.”

“Captain Jones?”

“He’s not the kindly old man people think he is.”

“What are you talking about?”

Seth’s chin dropped and he looked at her shoes. “You know what? I’m paranoid. Always have been.”

“You tell me this instant what you know.”

Seth’s eyes lingered on her face, but finally he shrugged. “Waverly, to be honest, it’s just a feeling I have. I don’t know anything more than you do.”

Waverly narrowed her eyes at him. He was holding something back. “I don’t believe you.”

“Just be careful with Kieran, okay? Captain Jones’ friends tend to lead … complicated lives.”

“Are you talking about your dad?”

“
We’re
not talking about anything.”

“Who are you trying to protect? Your dad or me?”

Again the boy looked at her, and there was such sad longing in his face, she had to look away. She dropped to her knees and started digging at a weed.

Seth turned to follow his father, back bent under the hay bale. Waverly watched him go, waiting for him to look back at her, but he didn’t.

Suddenly the ship’s alarm blared. The Captain’s voice came through the intercom, so shrill and loud that she didn’t understand the words. She looked around her to see Mr. Turnbull dropping his spade and racing down the corridor toward the starboard side.

“Waverly!”

Mrs. Mbewe, her neighbor, was running toward her. “I need you to get Serafina.”

“Why? Where is she?”