Because You'll Never Meet Me
Language: English
Pages: 352
ISBN: 1619635909
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist
A Carnegie Award nominee
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie has a life-threatening allergy to electricity, and Moritz’s weak heart requires a pacemaker. If they ever did meet, they could both die. Living as recluses from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times--as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him. But when Moritz reveals the key to their shared, sinister past that began years ago in a mysterious German laboratory, their friendship faces a test neither one of them expected.
Narrated in letter form by Ollie and Moritz--two extraordinary new voices--this story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances blends elements of science fiction with coming of age themes, in a humorous, dark, and ultimately inspiring tale is completely unforgettable.
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Silver cable wriggled in my direction, teasing me. You haven’t won this one yet. Finally I nodded. Liz hefted my bike upright and began to push it into the woods for me. “Come on,” she called over her shoulder. “We can follow the deer trails.” I followed her, Mo. Dream-walking. It was a short hike through the forest to Junkyard Joe’s, and the afternoon sky was visible above the pines. Even so, the path was mottled with shadows, and it wasn’t a path I was used to taking, so I should have.
Good look at my face. I wondered when she’d called him. How quickly did he drive to get here? Usually Auburn-Stache came by only every other weekend. Did he leave another patient waiting on a table just so he could tend to the woodland invalid again? “Ollie, sometimes you are an idiot.” “It was only a few hours.” He sighed. “Ah. But try to think about it from her perspective, kiddo.” I put my head on my arms. “Can you please go get her?” “I can try. What the blazes happened to your nose?”.
Enough to knock against her teeth before it fell to the forest floor. She whimpered and covered her mouth and stared at me like I was … “Liz—” I reached for her, and she withdrew, eyes wide. “Go. Get away from me!” “Liz—I’m so sorry,” I mumbled. “The campers. I’ll go get the other campers. Maybe …” “Anyone else and this couldn’t happen.” She was so quiet. But there was no way I’d miss a word of it, even as I backed away from that look in her eyes. “Anyone in the whole world, and instead it.
Something else!” “Do what else?” she shouted, and her voice broke like it never had before. “Mom?” No reply. I don’t know how she came to be here, what exactly happened to Dad and whether she was guilty of bringing this on herself. Maybe she wanted to start a rock band. Maybe she wanted to study astrophysics. I didn’t know what she used to do on rainy days, what she used to dream about, who her friends had been. I didn’t know. I’d had one shitty day where no friends came to visit; she’d had.
Them. Two people, Oliver, who are content to follow me into the dark. Fieke’s cheeks twitching, despite her fixed scowl. Owen’s eyes, wide but determined. I made my way to the stage. Pushed past the quiet crowd of regulars. Climbed into the spotlight. Adjusted the microphone. Finally, I peeled off my goggles. Perhaps someone gasped. Perhaps the bartender dropped a glass. But I was not listening for it. Such a hullabaloo was coming from the table in the corner. Such a large amount of whooping.