10
The afternoon sun soaked into Harper’s skin as she lay in the bed of Mason’s pickup truck. She’d borrowed it for the afternoon and was enjoying just lying in the back with a thick picnic blanket beneath her and Seth by her side.
“Do you ever think about what things would be like if the Ks hadn’t come?” she asked him.
He lay flat on his back, her head resting against one of his biceps. “Sometimes,” he answered, but didn’t elaborate. “You?”
“Yeah, a lot.” She closed her eyes, letting the sunshine turn the backs of her eyelids gold.
“Because of your parents?”
“Not just them. Sometimes I wish I lived in a big city near a K Center. I’d like to see their technology up close. Just to get a sense of things, you know?”
“You really are curious about them, aren’t you?” Seth’s laugh was gent
