Still Point by Katie Kacvinsky Page B

that?”
    â€œYou’re all about power and control. But you hold it all on your own shoulders. It’s like trying to hold up a mountain that doesn’t have any foundation. You need to spread it out,” I said. “Give everyone a voice. You put all the pressure on yourself. You can’t do that. The foundation is everything. You like to imagine it’s the other way around. You’re standing by yourself, trying to hold up the world, Dad. We’re going to topple you.”
    â€œInteresting theory,” he told me.
    â€œNew offer,” I said. “I’ll wear the tracker so you’ll always know where to find me, if that’s what you want. I’m not trying to hide anything from you. But then let me talk to my friends.”
    He rubbed his eyes. “Maddie, we can’t take the risk right now. Your phone could be tapped. Everything you do online, digitally, is followed. I have enough issues over the detention centers to deal with. You are an additional, volatile concern that I can’t have loose right now. I need it to look like you’re at home and cooperating.”
    â€œFine,” I said. “I won’t interact with anyone digitally. But what if I should happen to see them face-to-face? At least you’ll always know where I am.”
    My dad thought about this. He knew as well as I did that if something happened outside, it was as if it never happened. No one took the time to wonder about the real world anymore.
    He handed me the tracker, and I stuck it on my wrist, below my tattoo. The adhesive rose on my skin like a bug bite.
    â€œDeal?” I asked him.
    He nodded and left me there, inside the walls, inside a heavy block of time.

Chapter Six
    I woke up to the sound of a woman screaming and bolted upright in bed. My hand went to my heart, and for a brief second I thought I was back in the DC, until my soft comforter and Baley’s barks howling through the dark house reminded me I was home.
    Another high-pitched shriek flooded through my bedroom window. I flipped the covers off my bare legs and pulled back the blinds, but the usual electrical shower of streetlamps was out. It looked as if there was no world beyond my window, just a black, inky canvas.
    â€œOn,” I said, and rubbed my eyes, but nothing happened. “On,” I muttered again. I looked around at a pitch-dark room. Did the voice-recognition system cut out? I reached blindly for a pair of shorts at the side of my bed and tugged them on.
    My dad’s voice called out in the hallway, shouting for Baley to be quiet, and my door tapped open as I was pulling on a sweatshirt.
    â€œThe power is out,” he said. Our house generator kicked in, and emergency ribbons of light streamed along the edges of the ceiling. I followed my mom and dad downstairs.
    Baley was still barking at the foot of the stairs, and I ran my fingers down her back to quiet her. My mom pulled a white robe tight around her waist, and I opened the curtains in our foyer to look outside.
    â€œAll the streetlights are out,” I said. “The whole block must have lost power.”
    My mom pointed out a group of people huddled around flashlights and pulled the door open. “Maybe they know what happened.” Her hand hesitantly unlocked the screen door, and Baley took the opportunity. She pushed the screen door wide enough to wriggle through and jumped down the porch steps.
    â€œBaley!” my mom screamed after her.
    I grabbed an old leash hanging in the closet and kicked on a pair of tennis shoes. “I’ll get her,” I said, and ran past my mom.
    â€œMaddie!” my dad yelled after me, but I ignored him to chase Baley. I spotted her halfway down the block, sniffing the ground, but she started to run when she saw the leash in my hand. Neither of us liked to be tied down. I chased her down the block and around the corner. I smiled as I ran, silently thanking Baley for giving me a reason