Libby Thorne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Libby set down the water jug at the edge of the crop rows and watched her niece from across the yard. The orange neon along the planted beds buzzed soft in the dusk. Libby had come to this place with one goal: a spot in Hazel's group for Lyra, with or without her. She had been patching boots all morning to prove it. Now Lyra stood alone by the gazebo, talking to Hazel, and Libby had not sent her. Hazel was on the gazebo steps, pulling weeds from between the glowing rows. Lyra had stopped on her way back from the well. Libby could not hear them. She could only see Hazel's hands go still in the dirt. Lyra was holding the bronze locket open in her small palm. Libby knew both sides by heart. One photo of the two of them. One empty oval, waiting. Hazel looked at the locket a long time. Then she looked at Lyra's face. Then she looked across the yard at Libby, and her eyes were not the same eyes from this morning. Libby's stomach dropped. She did not know what Lyra had said. She only knew Lyra had gone to Hazel without her, and that whatever passed between them had landed. Hazel walked over slow, wiping her hands on her pants. She stopped a step closer than strangers stop. "Your girl told me the empty side is for more family," Hazel said. "She told me you said that. She also told me you've been eating half rations for a month." Libby's mouth went dry. That was not Lyra's to give away. Hazel watched her steady. "You were going to make me choose between you," Hazel said. "She figured it out on her own." Libby could not answer. Hazel nodded once, like something had been decided without a vote. "Both of you sleep inside tonight," she said. "We're going to have a longer talk in the morning, you and me. Not her." She walked back to her weeds. Across the yard, Lyra closed the locket and would not meet Libby's eyes.