Half a World Away: Chapters 15–18

There was a long couch in a big open space with a rug on the parquet floor.

What was this place anyway? This place where parents converged and babies were taken from their homeland to live half a world away?

It was stifling in the bonding room.

"You are hooligan, you try to make trouble."

Sam solemnly put out his fist, which Jaden tapped with his own.

Sam leaned back importantly, and then, as if he was trying to be modest but just couldn't, he said, "I know this word 'cool.' Huh? You said that to test me, didn't you? I have been to America, I know this word. Eh? Eh? I am right, that is why you don't answer."

Sam chortled. "Eh? You make me laugh. That is not so easy to do."

One doctor had said he had a knack for drama, and ever since then, whenever he lost his temper, he could step outside his body and view himself being dramatic.

They walked just a few minutes and came to an area full of shops, kiosks, and restaurants.

Sam was in a jovial mood.

Jaden mussed up his own hair.

Basically, someone who's an underdog triumphs.

"It is eye that wards off evil eye that some evil people give to you. If someone breaks my windshield, it is not their fault. It is fault of evil person who has given my windshield evil eye. You must be ready at all times for this eye; therefore you must have glass eye everywhere you go to protect yourself."

They spent the next couple of days wandering aimlessly through the city, shopping at the bazaar, and watching the few channels in English on television.

They spent the next couple of days wandering aimlessly through the city, shopping at the bazaar, and watching the few channels in English on television.

Then he watched a show on ESPN about women's billiards, which he ordinarily had no interest in.

That is, he might have been able to manipulate them to change their minds, but he liked to hold back some of his manipulations so that he wasn't doing it too much.

A while back he did it all the time, but that backfired because Penni and Steve got so used to him trying to manipulate them that they grew immune to it.

After about an hour of driving through the desolate grasslands, Sam announced that they'd arrived.

They pulled up to a domed structure, which Jaden knew was a yurt, in the middle of a field.

"I know an American woman, almost as small as you, who, ah, excelling in eagle handler."

The way Kanat treated her, with rapt attention, she seemed like royalty to Jaden.

They rode for a long time, maybe an hour and a half. But Jaden felt at peace in this bleak landscape.

Kanat called out, "Meeeeeh, meeeeeh" in a voice so animal-like that Jaden could only deduce that Kanat was part animal.

He liked the way she so obviously relished eating raw meat, and he related to that, but the hare was suffering.