The Truth Against the World Read Online Free

hair.
    He frantically scrolled ahead again, to the picture of the cairn. He could see the girl’s face relatively clearly now, though her whole image looked like someone had gone into Photoshop and smudged it with a Gaussian blur. He grasped onto that thought—maybe this was someone’s idea of a joke? Had Amit gotten hold of his phone? Altered his photos somehow?
    But Gareth’s entire body had gone cold, because he knew for a fact that there was only one person who’d handled his phone in days, besides himself.
    And he wasn’t even sure that person was real.

4
    Hir yw pob ymaros.
    All waiting is long.

    Welsh proverb
    I picked up my spoon and slurped up a mouthful of minestrone soup, organic store brand. My parents were arguing without trying to sound like they were arguing. I stared blankly across the dinner table, thinking about verb conjugations and wondering how I’d ever learn to pronounce the letter “ll” and trying not to worry about Gee Gee, alone in the hospital overnight.
    â€œ Ll ,” I muttered, but I couldn’t seem to do it without spitting. “Llangollen. Llanelli. Llyn y Bala.” I could just see myself visiting Wales someday, riding the bus somewhere, asking where Llangollen was and everybody laughing at me. “ Llwy .” Spoon.
    â€œEveryone speaks English there, Wyn,” my mom burst out, sounding annoyed.
    â€œDon’t take this out on Wyn,” Dad said mildly.
    I was sick of this. “Don’t take what out on me?”
    There was a long silence, then Dad put his spoon down inside his empty soup bowl. I got a strange feeling, suddenly scared of what he might say, and I stopped eating.
    â€œWhat?” I asked.
    Mom sighed. “There’s no sense in keeping it from her, Rhys.”
    â€œI know.” Dad looked right at me, shut his eyes tightly for a moment as if in pain, and then opened them again. “It’s Gee Gee. She wants to—” He broke off.
    I twisted my hands in my lap, looking from one to the other.
    â€œShe doesn’t want her life to end without having seen her home one last time,” Mom said bluntly. “She wants to go back to Wales.”
    Dad pressed his lips tightly together. “We can do this. As a family.”
    â€œWait—what?” I stared at him. “Right now?”
    â€œSummer,” Mom said shortly.
    There was a long, painful pause. “It’s going to be expensive.” She was talking to Dad again, and I could sense the argument threatening to boil over. “A month, maybe two, abroad? With only a few weeks to plan?”
    I couldn’t believe it. I’d always wanted to go to Wales. And yet now I wanted to cry, because I knew what it meant. I knew what they weren’t quite saying.
    Gee Gee wanted to die there.
    Dad put a hand on my shoulder. “Your Welsh will come in handy,” he said, his voice strained. “You’ll be able to pronounce all the place names.”
    He was trying so hard. Too hard. I forced a smile.
    â€œJust don’t let it interfere with your sleep,” my mother added. “You’ve been awake a lot lately. I hear you muttering in there.” My smile disappeared. I hadn’t been sleeping well and the whole family knew it. It was impossible to hide anything in our house; all four of us were crammed into our second-level flat. It had only been a few months since Gee Gee first moved in, and I started having the dream soon after that.
    Stress, my mom said. I wasn’t so sure.
    I’d always had vivid dreams, but this was … different somehow. Maybe because it just didn ’ t feel like a dream. Or maybe because I would wake up with my heart pounding, covered in sweat. Sometimes more than once a night.
    â€œMy sleep is fine,” I said flatly, not meeting my mother’s eyes. Lately, whenever I woke up in the wee hours, I’d turn on my laptop and start listening to things in