Matched

The darkness behind doesn’t worry me; neither do the stars ahead. I think of how perhaps the best way to fly would be with hands ful of earth so you always remember where you came from, how hard walking could sometimes be.

And I look at my hands, too, which move in the shape of my own inventions, my own words. It is hard to do, and I am not good at it yet. I write them in the soil where I plant and then step on them, dig holes in them, drop seeds in them to see if they wil grow. I steal a piece of black burned wood from one of the cropfires and write on a napkin. Later, at another cropfire; my hand brushes over the flames with the napkin, and the words die. Ash and nothing.

My words never last long. I have to destroy them before anyone sees them.

But. I remember them al . For some reason, the act of writing them down makes me remember. Each word I write brings me closer to finding the right ones. And when I see Ky again, which I know wil happen, I wil whisper the words I have written in his ear, against his lips. And they wil change from ash and nothing into flesh and blood.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deep gratitude and appreciation to: Scott, my husband, who makes writing not only possible but probable; My three boys, who make everything exciting—I love you, and you, and you; My parents, Robert and Arlene Braithwaite; my brother, Nic; and my sisters, Elaine and Hope, who read every word, every time (and in Elaine’s case, over and over again); My reader friends and writer friends, who give essential feedback and encouragement; Alec Shane, who went the extra mile even though he is a fourth-degree black belt, not a distance runner; Jodi Reamer, who is bril iant and down-to-earth (and fun!), the advocate of every writer’s dreams; Julie Strauss-Gabel, a woman of unparal eled graciousness and genius, who makes every page better; And the wonderful team at Penguin who al believed and who exercised their myriad talents on the behalf of this story, including, but not limited to, Theresa Evangelista, Lauri Hornik, Rosanne Lauer, Linda McCarthy, Shanta Newlin, Irene Vandervoort, Don Weisberg, and Lisa Yoskowi