Free Beautiful Blue World by Suzanne LaFleur Page A

several bookshelves full of books.
    Miss Ibsen snapped on the electric overhead light with a switch by the door. “Always make sure your curtain is pulled before putting on your lights at night.”
    I nodded.
    “There’s a washroom down the hall.”
    I nodded again.
    “Get some rest now.”
    She left, shutting the door, but she didn’t mention breakfast. Or seeing me in the morning. Or what to do if sirens sounded in the night.
    Her footsteps faded away, and it was too late to ask; I’d wake everyone up by calling or running after her, and she’d been so careful to be quiet.
    I left my door open and tiptoed to the washroom. I flipped the light switch and found three separate toilets behind their own doors, three bathing tubs behind pull curtains, and three sinks along the wall.
    I went back to my room, turned out the lights, and lay down.
    What kind of job was this, what kind of place, where you could get up in the middle of the night just to think about your board game and not get in trouble for being out of bed?
    I stared into the darkness.
    How would I ever get to sleep?
    No Kammi and Tye, softly breathing, occasionally turning over.
    They hadn’t even given me other girls sleeping near me that I could imagine were my sisters.
    The night was eerily quiet.
    I got up and opened my suitcase to find my nightclothes. Instead, I lifted out the handprints painting, and hugged it to my chest.

I LAY FLAT ON my stomach in bed.
    It was still dark.
    And quiet.
    But a different sort of dark and quiet.
    A bird chirped. A child laughed.
    I stood and drew back the black curtain. Bright sunlight poured in. Blinking, squinting, I took in the yard below, the green woods around the house. Beyond that rolled dark, green hills and more woods until the alternating patches sloped into steep purple-gray mountains.
    For sun that bright in winter, it must have been midday.
    “Midday!”
    I was late on my very first day!
    I tried to straighten my clothes, which were rumpled from the train and then from sleeping in them. There wasn’t any hope of fixing my braids, so I just smoothed the loose strands behind my ears. No one was along the hallway to ask where to go. I spent a minute in the washroom, and then thundered down the nearest stairs, and the next set after that, and raced down the main staircase toward the grand foyer.
    And there was the Examiner.
    I froze on the steps. What could I say to apologize for oversleeping?
    But she smiled and said, “Ah. Mathilde. Welcome to Faetre. Did you have a good rest?”
    “I—uh—I…”
    “Come on, it’s time for your haircut.”
    “My what?”
    “Haircut. Come on.”
    Oh no! I hadn’t gotten my braids in order and now they were going to chop them off!
    I scurried to keep up with her as she left the foyer and headed down a hallway lined with closed doors. She pushed one open.
    There was Miss Ibsen, looking refreshed and not as if she had been up driving pony carts in the night. She sat at a desk, tapping something out on a typewriter.
    “Mathilde, for her haircut,” the Examiner said.
    “Oh!” she said, hopping up. “Mathilde! How was your sleep?”
    “Good. Um…”
    They both remained silent, waiting for me to continue.
    “Why do I have to have my hair cut?”
    “We feed you and wash your clothes, but we can’t be chasing after all of you to brush your hair every day. Short so you can take care of it yourself. No fuss, please,” the Examiner said.
    Miss Ibsen set newspaper on the floor and placed a wooden chair over it. She got sharp silver scissors and a comb from her desk and stood by the chair.
    No fuss.
    It was like sitting another test.
    I took a deep breath and sat down.
    Miss Ibsen’s touch was more gentle even than Mother’s as she loosened my braids and combed my hair out straight. The scissors snipped loudly. I kept my head down, watching my blond tails collect on the floor.
    After a time, Miss Ibsen set aside the scissors and pulled some of the hair from the top