Read Behind the Eyes of Dreamers for Free Online

directly and realized that they were paying her little attention. “I mean, I feel like walking around.”
    “Okay.” Gabe hoisted himself off the ground and brushed off his dirty rumpled trousers. Oddly enough, he seemed to be maintaining his girth on the Aadaen diet. He took her arm gently. “Back to your room?”
    “Joel’s there. I mean, I think he’s still asleep.” She recognized a face in front of one of the domes and waved at it while nodding her head. “Let’s walk on the highway.”
    The weather was warm but not humid. White clouds danced across the blue sky under the benevolent gaze of the sun. A group of adolescent boys had somehow gotten hold of a baseball and bat and were playing a game on the highway. Farther down the road, Suzanne could see a group of children with some Aadae. They too were playing a game, chasing what looked like cylinders on wheels across the safety islands. Suzanne and Gabe walked toward the city, past the baseball players.
    “I have to talk about Joel,” she said. “I’m worried.”
    “What’s the problem this time?”
    “It isn’t just a personal thing, Gabe. I’m scared. Joel’s been out nights, I don’t know where he goes. Maybe it’s none of my business, I guess I should be used to it by now. But the thing is …” She lowered her voice. “A couple of other people want to know where he goes, too, Gabe; they were asking me about it this morning. They weren’t being gentle. I think they would have beaten it out of me if they thought I knew.”
    Gabe scratched at his beard. In the absence of razor blades he, like most of the men, was looking shaggier than usual. “You don’t know where he goes?”
    “For God’s sake, Gabe. No, I don’t. I thought you might. I thought you could tell me what’s going on.”
    “I think you should tell me who wanted to know about Joel, Suzanne.”
    “Asenath Berry. You’ve seen her, the good-looking redhead, the whore. She and her friend Warren wanted to know. I was dumb enough to think Asenath wanted to be my friend.”
    Gabe sighed and was silent for a few seconds. She could hear the shouts of the baseball-playing boys in back of them. “I’ll talk to her,” Gabe said at last. “She won’t bother you again.”
    “Then you do know something.” She stopped walking and faced him. “Tell me. What is it?”
    “I shouldn’t tell you. I tried not to; I thought it was best that you stay out of it. But I guess you have a right to know. A group of us have been making some plans; that’s all I can say. Joel’s part of the group. So is Asenath. Some of us have been a little suspicious of Joel lately. It seems he doesn’t go directly home from our little get-togethers. Asenath must have taken it upon herself to find out why.”
    She turned away from Gabe, bewildered. “Now I’ve just upset you,” he muttered. “It’s probably nothing. We’re all a little paranoid; we have to be. We’ll probably find out he’s just visiting a friend or something. Don’t worry, he’s not that involved with us anyway; we’ve been holding meetings without him once in a while. I don’t think he wants to get tangled up in anything too dangerous. You know Joel.”
    Gabe was leaving something out. Suddenly she didn’t want to hear any more, didn’t want to know what Gabe or Joel or anyone else might be planning. “He’s seeing someone else,” she said. “He’s seeing another girl. It’s happened before.” That must be it. The thought left her empty, almost relieved.
    “Why do you stay with him, Suzanne?”
    “I don’t know. What difference does it make now?” She turned to the city. “Let’s just keep walking, Gabe, let’s go back to the city; they’ll never find us there, we’ll get Joel and go back and we can sit around drinking at Mojo’s like we used to.”
    “You know we can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “They’ll find us. We should go back, Suzanne. Come on, I’ll walk you to your dome.”
    “I’d rather not go