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where the four
     of them slept in the sunroom, all of them near death from starvation.
    No, that wasn’t true. Jon had never been that close to death. The others had given
     their food to him. He’d been hungry, and he’d been tired from the endless labor of
     chopping firewood, but they’d seen to it that he would survive.
    He looked at his mother, his brother and sister and thought about how he alone was
     living in the enclave, with its well-heated homes with breathable air, and fresh vegetables,
     chickens, and eggs. Before, somehow it had felt right. He was the youngest. He was
     the closest to Lisa. When they’d learned that one of the three passes Alex had given
     to Miranda would have to be used for Gabe, it made sense that Jon be the one to live
     with him and Lisa. They’d talked it out. Miranda, holding on to the thought that Alex
     would return, had refused to move to Sexton. Matt and Syl had decided to make a home
     somewhere else. Mom said it wouldn’t work for her and Lisa to live together. They
     got along remarkably well, given they’d both been married to the same man, but enough
     was enough.
    So, just as they’d given their food to Jon, they gave him their chance at a decent,
     comfortable life.
    The passes had been meant originally for Alex, Bri, and Julie.
    “Julie would want you to have her pass,” Lisa had said. Lisa had loved Julie and been
     closer to her than any of them, except Jon.
    But Jon knew something Lisa didn’t, something Lisa would never know. Julie might still
     be alive if it weren’t for him. Taking the pass was like stealing from the dead.
    Still, he took it. Miranda and Alex, who could have used the passes for themselves,
     were grubs now. Their baby was coming into a world of inequality at best, hunger and
     cold at worst.
    “How’s the teaching going, Mom?” Matt asked.
    Mom shook her head. “Sometimes I don’t know why I even try,” she said. “I teach three
     classes, fifty kids in a class. Most of them don’t care. They’re killing time until
     they’re sixteen and can start working in Sexton. But there was this boy. I’ve never
     seen a kid that intelligent. Not book-learning smart. He hasn’t had the chance. But
     he grasped concepts faster than I could discuss them. Brilliant kid. I thought maybe
     he could get into Sexton University. There’s no rule against it, and a boy that smart
     should be able to find sponsors.” She sighed. “He left two weeks ago. He was nice
     enough to tell me, which is more than most of them do. His father got arrested, and
     his mother is dead, and he has two younger brothers. The kid is fifteen. He’s going
     to work in the mines. You don’t have to be sixteen to work in the mines. He’ll send
     the money home to support his brothers until the older one is sixteen and can go to
     work.”
    “These are hard times, Mom,” Matt said. “The important thing is not to quit.”
    “I’m not quitting,” she said. “Just despairing.” But she laughed, and Jon knew things
     were all right again.
    “The moon crash anniversary is a week from Monday,” Miranda said. “I guess I should
     look at it as a day off, but I dread it.”
    “Sunday night will be worse,” Mom said. “Matt, will you be on the road?”
    Matt shook his head. “I’ll get home Saturday afternoon. I won’t be going out again
     until Tuesday.”
    “Mom, do you remember that first anniversary?” Miranda asked. “When you and Syl and
     I had that crazy ceremony?”
    “What are you talking about?” Jon asked.
    Mom and Miranda had just finished telling the story of their ceremonial sacrifice
     to the moon goddess Diana when Alex came in. He hugged Miranda and Jon and shook Matt’s
     hand.
    “You look tired,” Matt said to him.
    Alex shrugged. “I am,” he said. He sat next to Miranda and squeezed her hand. “But
     it’s worth it.”
    “I’ve been waiting until you got home before I mentioned something,” Matt said. “It
     involves you