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Back Malorie Save as PDF
Chapters (40)
  1. The Jane Tucker School for the Blind
  2. Ten Years On
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. The Blind Train
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. Safer Rooms
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. Dedication
  37. AFTERWORD/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  38. BY JOSH MALERMAN
  39. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  40. What’s next onyour reading list?

NINETEEN

Tom’s eyes are open. Because damn it all. Why not? The man who runs the train walks with eyes open. And he’s ridden it every single time it’s gone! Malorie’s crossed a line. That’s all there is to it. Maybe it all made sense when they were little kids, when they were going to take the rowboat to the school. Maybe then Mom had reason to be the way she is. But today? Here? They’re out in the world now. Tom has never felt, heard, smelled, or seen anything like this. He’s walking the hall. Doors to his left. A black wall to his right. It all shakes. It rattles. Why? Because they’re on a train. A thing he and Olympia have never done before. Christ, they haven’t done anything before!

Malorie has gone too far.

It’s the first time she’s struck him since using a flyswatter when he and Olympia were babies, teaching them to wake with their eyes closed. And this wasn’t a lesson. This was anger. Darkness, darkness, darkness. Doesn’t Malorie get it? Whether you were born into this world or not, you’re told how it used to be. And then? Then, you want to know that world for yourself.

You want to see it.

The door opens at the end of the hall, and a woman steps through. Her eyes are closed until the door shuts behind her. Then she opens her eyes. She sees Tom and smiles nervously. He wonders if she thought, for a second, that he was a creature. He doesn’t know what to make of her. How many women has he seen in his life? How many men? Back at the school for the blind there were lots of people. But Tom was six years old. He’s sixteen now.

Doesn’t Malorie get it?

Tom waves. He didn’t mean to do it. It just happened. The woman, older than him but not quite as old as Malorie, nods back. She’s walking toward him. He’s walking toward her.

He thinks he’s got to say something, because he’s electrified by this moment. His face is still red from being hit and yet he’s as excited as he’s ever been.

He realizes, suddenly, ecstatically, how true this is.

This really is the most liberated he’s ever felt in his life.

And all he had to do was walk out on Malorie to find it.

He makes to speak, he opens his mouth, but the woman slides open the door to her right and slips into the cabin.

She closes the door.

He wonders if there’s someone in there who makes endless rules, too. He wonders if she closes her eyes in there, pretends she didn’t just have them open in the hall.

Tom smiles. Wow. It feels good.