Never Let Me Go Page #3

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been set out for you.

You will

become adults,

but only briefly.

Before you are old,

before you are

even middle-aged,

you will start to donate

your vital organs.

That's what you were

created to do.

And sometime

around your third

or fourth donation,

your short life

will be complete.

You have to know

who you are

and what you are.

It's the only way

you'll lead

decent lives.

There will be only one

announcement this morning,

which is that Miss Lucy,

who was guardian

to the fourth-year students,

is no longer

working at Hailsham.

A replacement

will be found for her,

and in the meantime

her classes

will be divided between

Miss Geraldine and myself.

It is hard, is it not,

to continue in the face

of deliberate subversion.

There are those who seek

to thwart us, this is clear.

And we are aware that the tide

is not with forward thinking.

It never is.

No, the tide is with

the entrenched mindset.

With values that

are still unexamined.

But I will not be coerced.

I will not be coerced.

And neither will Hailsham.

I didn't understand why,

after all her teasing,

Ruth would decide

that Tommy was the boy

she liked most of all.

They say girls are always mean

to the boys they like.

So maybe Ruth

had liked him all along.

Maybe I should have

teased him, too.

I kept hoping

they would separate,

like the other childhood

and teenage romances

at the school.

They never did.

We were moved

from Hailsham at 18

and sent to various

accommodations

around the country,

to wait

until we were old enough

to start the donations.

Tommy, Ruth and I

were sent to a collection

of farm buildings

called The Cottages.

During our stay there,

we were told

that some of us

would be permitted

to volunteer as carers.

But, apart from that,

we'd be left largely

to our own devices

and even allowed

to take day trips into

the surrounding countryside.

The Cottages were also

our first contact

with those who had not

grown up at Hailsham.

There were people

from White Mansion,

Oakhill, Morningdale

and other homes

I'd never heard of.

Everyone seemed wiser

and more worldly than us.

None more so than

Rodney and Chrissie.

They'd already been

at The Cottages

for over a year

and would soon be leaving

for the completion centers.

Ricky?

I don't know what

you're talking about.

Oh, I can

help you out there.

He's talking about

blue eyes, blond hair,

cute dimples when he smiles.

And biceps that

could crack walnuts.

Jennifer, get real,

I saw you with him.

Jen and Ricky

sitting in a tree,

K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

That is so not true.

We weren't in a tree.

Hey.

Where you going?

I thought

I'd go for a walk.

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