11

The next morning, I can’t quite look Krysta in the eye as I remember the conversation I overheard at her house the other night. Who were those people her dad was arguing with? Why does thinking about them make my stomach churn?

“So? Do you feel different?” Krysta asks as we walk our bikes toward the sidewalk.

“About what?” Can she tell what’s on my mind?

She laughs. “Duh! The Amber! You started taking it, right?”

Oh. “I haven’t noticed anything yet. My mom said it might take a while to start working.” But today Mama said I could take two doses like the other kids in my class. I can’t wait.

The day creeps by, and after what feels like an eternal gym class, instead of heading to the library, I finally join the rest of the kids for our magic lesson. As I walk to my seat, my breath comes out in short gasps like an excited puppy’s. Waiting for me at my desk is a thick, gleaming textbook. The Uses of Amber. I run my fingers over the smooth spine, almost afraid to open the book.

“All right, class,” Miss Patel says, flashing me a small smile. “Today we will be talking about Amber in medicine. Please turn to chapter eighteen and look for the section titled ‘Medical Applications.’ ”

The other kids absently flip through their worn textbooks as if they’re in any other lesson. I carefully open the cover of mine, the pages crackling with newness. Slowly I browse through the chapters until I find the right spot.

“Some of this I assume you already know,” Miss Patel says. “Have any of you broken an arm or a leg or maybe gotten a bad cut or burn?”

Several of the kids in the room raise their hands, and I realize that I’ve been lucky. The only real injury I ever had was a bad fall off a kitchen stool when I was four. It left a faint scar along my hairline that I cover up with my wispy bangs.

“Then most of you were probably given Medical Amber,” she continues. “Some of you might not have even had to go to the hospital. For certain types of injuries, simply applying Amber to the wound can do the trick.”

I think of Daniel’s aunt dabbing Amber onto the back of Mikey’s head, just in case. Maybe that’s why she reacted so strangely to my suggestion of going to the hospital, because here people don’t need to be treated by doctors for those kinds of things.

“When I broke my collarbone, I had to go to the hospital,” Yuli volunteers in her thin voice, half raising her hand as she speaks.

“Yes,” Miss Patel says. “For broken bones, the doctors might give you more concentrated doses that will help mend the break. They might even inject it into the bone once they’ve set it, so that it will heal faster.”

“Mine healed in a week,” Yuli says.

I’m the only one who seems impressed by that number. In fact, a few of the other kids shout out that their broken bones healed in a matter of days.

“All right!” Miss Patel says, getting them to quiet down. “The point I’m making here is that before we had Amber, this kind of healing would have been unimaginable. But Amber has revolutionized medicine. People heal more quickly and are sick less often. Many major illnesses can be cured or prevented.”

“But not all of them?” Anton asks.

“No,” Miss Patel admits. “Amber can strengthen one’s body so that it can endure more, but it can’t win against everything. Some diseases are still untreatable. And we have yet to find a cure for baldness!”

She chuckles, but I shiver as I remember the bald man behind Krysta’s house the other night, taking Amber from the Perezes’ secret well.

“Although people who use Amber live longer than people who don’t,” Miss Patel goes on, “they still don’t live forever.”

I glance at Mister Whiskers, who’s lazily chewing on a piece of lettuce. It’s strange that people have to die, even here where we have magic flowing underground. Mama seems convinced that Amber could have saved my baby brother, but I guess we’ll never know for sure.

“Also, because of the use of Amber in medicine,” Miss Patel goes on, “we have fewer hospitals and doctors and medications than other countries.”

Before I know it, my hand shoots up into the air. “That’s why my dad can’t get a real job here,” I say when Miss Patel calls on me. “He was a doctor before we came here, but he’d have to go to medical school all over again. Even though we’re citizens now.” I drag out the last three words, testing out how they feel in my mouth.

Some of the kids flash me uncertain looks. Meanwhile, Miss Patel nods and says, “Yes, there’s very little exchange of information between countries these days. We don’t know much about the healing methods of other places, for example.”

“My dad says we don’t need other people’s stuff,” Eileen chimes in. “He says we’re the greatest country in the world.”

“It’s nice to think so, isn’t it?” Miss Patel says with a laugh. “I imagine other countries feel that way about themselves too. Perhaps that’s part of being human.” She starts handing out a worksheet. “All right. I’m going to have you go through these on your own, and then we’ll review the answers.”

I scan the fill-in-the-blank questions based on the chapter we’ve been looking at, which test us on the different diseases that have been cured because of Amber, and the various ways to treat burns and scrapes and cuts. The other kids grumble as they get to work, but my mind is still humming with excitement. It feels as though an entire world has been unlocked, one that’s been behind an iron door for my entire life.