Chapter 18

My mother must have checked her console before I came in because she gave me a smile and teased, “You’re a growing boy, Aine. Your new pills arrived ten minutes before you did.”

“There was some commotion on the train, I heard,” my father said, looking my way.

News traveled quickly in the Colony. “A woman off her pills,” I told them. “She said they were a lie.”

My mother’s brow furrowed. “How so?”

I sort of shrugged, not really interested in discussing it with them. She let it drop, and we ate the rest of the meal in relative silence broken only by my little sister’s peals of laughter when a noodle dropped off her fork to fall back onto her plate.

Afterwards, I went to the bathroom to freshen up, and when I stepped into my bedroom, my mother was waiting for me on the edge of the bed. “Aine,” she said, holding a hand out to me. I stepped closer so she could touch my arm, and she gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Something you want to talk about, son?”