Read Last Wild Boy for Free Online Page B

lamp sat a small metal box. Nora lifted Adam up out of the basket and placed him down gently on the narrow cot, then walked back to the table and picked up the small tin box. She struggled for a few moments with its tight-fitting lid before she got it open. Inside she found several dozen waterproof wooden matches.
    She wondered if the matches would still light in this damp, stagnant room. She put her flashlight down on the table, then struck a match along the side of the metal box. The blue head exploded with fire. Nora touched it to the darkened edge of the lamp wick and watched as a smoky yellow flame began to dance across it. She adjusted the wick and replaced the glass globe. The flame brightened. It gave off a pleasant, warm light and lit up the room enough for her to see the room’s unpainted walls. She guessed by the discoloured cinder blocks that she was in the sub-basement of a church from the previous civilization.
    Nora walked back over to the bed and checked on Adam, who seemed contented with his place on the cot and had fallen asleep. On a small table beside the cot she discovered several pairs of shoes and a neat pile of clothing. She picked up one of the shoes and held it against her foot. It looked like it might fit her. She unfolded a dress from the top of the pile of clothes and held it up to her chest. It, too, looked to be about her size, though maybe a bit snug. On a shelf above the table she found a stack of tubes with labels that read “Infant Nutrifier.”
    Above the cot, a yellowing calendar displayed the page for December 2055. In its faded picture, a bearded outsider in a flowing crimson and beige robe stood high on a hill addressing a large assembly of similarly dressed outsiders.
    Beside the cot, an open door led somewhere deeper in the basement. Nora found a second glass lamp in a corner, wiped its globe clean, lit it, and stepped through the open doorway and into a long corridor. She could see more open doors up ahead to her left and right.
    Before exploring further she stepped back to check on Adam. She knew she should rouse him so she could feed him, but he was sleeping so peacefully that she couldn’t bear to wake him.
    Nora didn’t really want to venture farther into the dark corridor, but she knew she wouldn’t have another chance to look around and, although she couldn’t admit it to herself yet, a dangerous plan was forming in her mind, a plan that would require her to get to know this place. For the moment, she told herself it was only a brief adventure. She was free of Alice for a little while and could roam wherever her heart desired. In a short time she’d have to be back at the summer house, and that would be the end of exploring.
    As Nora made her way through the shadowy hallway, she passed half a dozen open doors. At the end of the corridor, another door opened into a second hallway, which came to a sudden dead end to the right, but continued on into the distance to the left. She followed it for a few feet, until she came up against a pile of broken concrete and dirt that sat beside a crude hole in the floor. Perhaps this was Minn’s attempted tunnel to the outside. Nora set the lamp down and climbed into the hole. It was deeper than she had expected. It was much too dark down in the hole to see clearly, but with her hands she could feel solid concrete along the side of the shaft. The wall. Nora imagined how frustrated and disappointed the Minn must have been when she’d found out how deep it went.
    Nora lifted herself up out of the hole, picked up the lamp, and cocked her ears, listening for sounds from the child. Satisfied that Adam was content, she headed back toward the first hallway, passed through the door, and entered the first room on her right. A dusty table sat against the wall. Tiny chairs circled it in anticipation of five small bottoms that would never arrive. A shelf along one wall held several tins of wax crayons and a sheaf of