Half Brother (36 page)
Authors: Kenneth Oppel
I never knew if you were angry or happy when you did that.
I was having a ball,
he replied.
I liked it when you bit Ryan,
I signed.
Zan gave a little pant-hoot.
That
was
satisfying. But we can have big tempers. It’s not safe for you to be around us.
You’d never hurt me,
I signed.
Your hand.
Well, it’s pretty messed up, but you did save my life. But I could hurt you, worse, another time,
he told me.
We’re not like you. We do things.
I took a breath.
Will you forget about us?
I asked.
We have long memories.
It was hard for me to sign the next bit, but I did.
It’s probably best if you do. Forget about us. That’s up to me,
he said.
It wasn’t fair what we did to you, Zan. I’m sorry.
He shrugged.
I liked the yogourt. You don’t get that in the wild.
I thought of something I’d said aloud to him many times, whispered to him as he fell asleep in my arms. But I’d never signed it, because Dad had never thought it was useful or important to teach him. For Zan, that phrase had never existed.
I signed it now.
For a long time Zan’s hands were still, and I felt I’d said too much. I knew what I wanted him to sign back—but how could I expect it? We’d stolen him. We’d cheated him. We’d
used him. We’d abandoned him. We’d told him to be something he wasn’t—a human—and then told him to go back to being a chimp. He should have hated me.
Zan’s hands moved. With his index finger he touched his breastbone. Then he crossed both wrists over his chest, and finally, pointed at me.
He made the
B
sign over my heart.
He did it twice.
LSO BY
K
ENNETH
O
PPEL
Starclimber
Skybreaker
Airborn
Darkwing
Firewing
Sunwing
Silverwing
Dead Water Zone
The Live-Forever Machine
(For Younger Readers)
The King’s Taster
Peg and the Yeti
Peg and the Whale
Emma’s Emu
A Bad Case of Ghosts
A Strange Case of Magic
A Crazy Case of Robots
An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs
A Weird Case of Super-Goo
A Creepy Case of Vampires
KENNETH OPPEL
is the Governor General’s Award–winning author of the Airborn series and the Silver-wing Saga, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Toronto with his wife and three children. Visit his website at www.kennethoppel.com.
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Half Brother Copyright © 2011 by Kenneth Oppel
Published by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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EPub Edition AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9781443411271
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