IT WAS A hard day working without Waverly in the fields. She had told me she didn’t feel well and was going to stay back—a privilege the rest of us didn’t have, but I didn’t argue with her. Breakfast and lunch felt lonely. Katherine and Janet don’t have much to say these days. No one has had much to say over the last couple of months. There was a sense of hopelessness in the air that didn’t exist when I first came here.
“I wonder what’s wrong with her,” Janet said, her eyes fixed on her bowl in front of her.
Katherine shook her head and sighed. “Won’t be good if she’s sick. Won’t be good if that gets passed around.” She nodded at me. “You’ve probably got somewhat of an immune system left in you. The rest of us…” She sighed again, this time it was a deep, long breath. “Maybe it’s the best way to go.”
No one said another word during the meal, the weight of Vulture Hill resting heavily on our shoulders. People hoped for an end. An escape. Whether that be through the gates of the prison or through the gates of heaven, it didn’t matter to most anymore.
During the afternoon break, I find Waverly asleep on the bed. She rolls onto her side when I come through the cell door and holds out a piece of paper. There is a single word written on it: soon.
I look up at her, my mouth open. “You saw Papa?”
“Yes,” she says. “It’s happening.”
I set the paper in the toilet and flush it down as I always do with notes he leaves me. “That’s why you stayed behind today.”
“Yes,” she says.
“What day?”
“I’m not sure. I just know it’s soon, as the paper says.”
I feel a flutter in my chest, a sense of excitement mixed with a feeling of dread.
“You say it’s not going to happen the way we think,” I say. “How many people are going to die because of this?”
“I don’t know,” she answers.
“Are people going to die?”
“Yes.”
“What are the chances things are going to happen the way you’ve seen it?”
“That depends,” she says. “How much do you and your father know of the future? It is possible that even with the little bit of information I’ve given you, you could make decisions based on that and change something. I think it’s unlikely that will happen, but I can’t know for sure.”
“I thought it was your power to know for sure,” I snap.
“Just be ready,” she says. “We will know when the time comes.”