Semua Bab I Let My Nephew Shout "Bomb": Bab 1 - Bab 9

The flight attendant stopped beside my row.I pointed across the aisle."Those are their parents."My brother Daniel and his wife Laura were beaming at their children like the two of them had just won something.Ryan and Sophie kept playing off each other."Once we're at cruising altitude, it goes off first and burns after."That light coming up through the clouds is going to be brighter than any fireworks show you've ever seen."Ryan mimed the shape of it with both hands.Sophie picked it straight up."Exactly. School grinds us down for years, and for what? You get into a good university and then the pressure just gets worse."Living isn't that interesting. Better to burn bright once, up in the air."The man beside me came out of his seat so fast his belt snapped taut.He'd introduced himself as Gary Whitlock when he sat down, somewhere in his fifties, flying out to see his daughter."What kind of sick thing is that to say?"Are their parents going to do something about

"Claire, don't be a killjoy. The kids are filming their graduation video."Thirty minutes later my body came up. They took hold of my hair and mugged for the camera over it.Once they understood I'd actually drowned, the family panicked for about a minute. Then, without hesitating, they tied stones all over me and pushed me out into deep water."Claire, the kids didn't know any better. Don't hold it against them.""Your life for the futures of two Hartwell students. That's a fair trade."I died on that beach.This time, whatever they do, I'm not getting involved.Over on the other side of the aisle, Ryan climbed up onto his seat and announced it to the whole cabin."Consider this a free lesson."Not everybody in this world wants to be a good little student."Sophie held her tablet up and turned a slow circle with it, filming, giggling."Look at them."Look at these faces. All of them terrified of dying."It's kind of pathetic."Somebody shouted that they were calling the

The moment the police had Ryan and Sophie secured, Laura went off first.She rushed them, screaming."He's still a kid! What do you think you're doing!"Daniel grabbed her to hold her back.She turned and backhanded him across the face, flat and hard."You useless piece of nothing!"Your son is being arrested and you're standing there?"Daniel's head snapped sideways. He didn't dare say one word.Ryan was held down with his cheek against the floor, shouting himself raw."I'm a Hartwell freshman!"My future is gone and you people can't pay for it!"Sophie was so frightened she wet herself. A dark patch spread down her jeans and her makeup ran everywhere.She held her phone up and screamed into the screen."I'm live! Police brutality! You all saw that, didn't you!"That one sentence set the passengers off.A man who'd been holding it in the whole flight came through and put a boot into Ryan's side.An officer hauled him back, and there was no holding the rest of them.Th

The next morning I sent my parents one message."I'm working on the money. Stop making scenes for now — the more noise there is, the worse it gets for the kids."The reply came in under five seconds."Good girl. Your mother knew you'd soften.""Your father didn't raise you for nothing."I looked at those two lines for a long time. Then I locked the phone and went in to work.I put in for my annual leave.Called an agent and listed the apartment as a short-term rental.Moved into Nadia's place.Every call from a relative went unanswered. The only person who got my new number was Detective Ortiz.When my parents worked out they couldn't reach me, they brought several relatives down to my office and waited for me there.Building security stopped them in the lobby.My mother's voice carried through every floor of it."My daughter took the money and ran!"She's destroyed my grandchildren!"And now she won't even acknowledge her own mother and father!"Somebody in the office

Trouble found Ryan on his first day inside.He was put on a wing with men serving long sentences.In the dinner line somebody came into him from behind. His tray went across the floor and hot soup went down his chest.He'd barely started to swear when a boot caught him behind the knee and put him on the ground with his face against the grease.The man who ran the room came over and rested a foot on the back of his head, and there was a smile in his voice."Hartwell boy."Let's hear you beg."Ryan struggled to lift his head and was pushed back down.Once.Twice.In the end he begged.The room laughed.After that he was everybody's errand boy.Scrubbing toilets. Emptying buckets. Washing other men's underwear.If he was slow, wet laundry came back across his face."Do it properly, genius."He learned not to lift his head and not to answer back.Every night he curled into the corner of his bunk with the blanket over his head and ran it back again — himself standing on an