Free Jade by Olivia Rigal Page B

sure,” she says.
    Her eyes cloud, and, suddenly, the carefree teenager is replaced by an ancient and lost soul. Even her voice is not the same when she speaks again.
    “I’ve lived alone before… I was ten at the time. I’m not sure I’m ready to do it again.”
    She’s staring into the distance with so much pain in her eyes, that my heart goes to her. She opens her mouth as if she’s about to say more, but she doesn’t. I wish I could do something to make her feel better, but I can’t think of anything. 
    I know if I chance to say something it would probably be inappropriate. I can’t even pat her hand because in this part of the world I’m not certain that type of physical contact is acceptable. So I just stay put next to her for a while and hope that a presence helps.
    I wonder what she had to do to survive, all alone, at ten.
     
    ❦

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    CHANLINA AND I HAVE BEEN spending a lot of time together. She gets to the cascade shortly after me. With her cell being next to mine, it seems that no matter how quiet I try to be, I wake her up when I go. 
    After our swim, she sits at the breakfast table with Agatha and me. When we’re done talking about the progress of Agatha’s study, Chanlina asks us about life at home, and what it’s like to be a college student. 
    Under her brave facade, there’s a lot of anxiety.
    I thought that, having survived alone in the streets, she would not fear anything, but it’s the opposite. 
    Chanlina is scared about living with her grandmother next year. She’s terrified that she won’t fit in with the other college students, and she’s afraid that she won’t find her place in this world. 
    Agatha and I try to help her with those fears, because they are the same as a lot of girls her age. We promise her all her questions about her student life are healthy. She’s going to have to make choices without knowing for sure if they’re the right ones. Except for a few chosen ones who have a calling, we’re all in the same boat when the time comes for those choices. 
    Agatha jokes that, even though I’m the most accomplished student she’s ever met, I still have no idea what I’m going to do when I grow up. 
    I correct Agatha and say that I’m not sure that I ever want to grow up. I may stay in school all my life. That seems to amuse Chanlina.
    But then she hints about her biggest fear, and I understand it’s eating her alive. Chanlina lives as if she’s walking on the edge of a cliff that can crumble at any second. 
    All the people she loved when she was a kid have died; her entire family. Today she only has one anchor left, her “new” father. He works in the mines, which is a dangerous place to work, she knows, and every single day she fears for his life.
    That’s a fear that can’t be brushed away; it’s a perfectly reasonable fear.
    “When I’m in school, there are long periods of time each day that I don’t think about him,” she says, “but this week, I can’t help myself. I’m here, waiting for him to come back. We were supposed to spend some time together before the New Year festival is over, and I return to school. I’m sure something bad has happened at the mine, otherwise he would be back, already.”
    It’s true that, with all the pouring rain, there could be landslides. Fear can be contagious, but I will not let myself be contaminated.
    I shake my head to chase away the images of lifeless bodies drowned in mud, or crushed under enormous boulders that her fear has conjured up in my brain, and I try to keep her occupied. 
    “Bad news travels fast enough. If there had been an accident, we’d know about it,” I tell her when I see her cringe and frown.
    To make sure she’s okay, I have her stay with me at the lab when I work. I download fun books on my tablet for her to read, and I spend time with her and Cook in the kitchen.  
    Nevertheless, as the week goes by she becomes more and more