I was ready to go, but first I wanted to make sure my parents would be watching. I asked my friends, “Can you see them on any of the screens?”
We all started looking. I scanned quickly, not lingering on any one room for long; when we had visited the Monitor Center as a class, I hadn’t understood the difference between monitoring and watching, but now I got it. I looked more at the coordinates and Colony-assigned names than the actual images on the screens. In the rooms across the Colony, people were getting ready to go to bed. Many played with their consoles, or talked with their Others. Some were setting out their pills. The only ones already asleep were young children my sister’s age.
From across the room, Kyer said suddenly, “Look who I found.”
The three of us hurried to join him. On
