The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman Page A

he told her. “I want you to look.”
    “No,” she pleaded.
    “I’m right here.”
    “But the waves,” she said. She was trembling with fear. The water was going to swallow her up. Without realizing it, she began to pray. The words came rapidly as she had been taught in school. “Hail Mother, full of grace, the earth is with you, the sea is with you, the storms sink down before you . . . Teach us your ways, Mother, lead us and guide us . . .”
    “Stop that!” Honor’s father set her down and shook her hard by the shoulders.
    Honor opened her eyes in shock.
    “Never pray to her.”
    “Don’t you believe in Earth Mother?” Honor asked.
    “No, I don’t,” said Will.
    “Don’t you believe she’s real?”
    “Oh, she’s real, all right,” said Will. “But I don’t worship her. I don’t trust her.”
    Honor shrank back. “My teacher says Earth Mother is everywhere.”
    “Everywhere we allow her to be,” said Will. “Don’t you see? When you pray to her the Corporation controls you.”
    Honor did not see. She shook her head.
    “Use your head, Honor. Use your eyes. Do you want Enclosure to Enclose you?”
    “I want to be safe.”
    “Yes, Earth Mother’s Corporation is counting on that. As long as you want to be safe, they win. They get to decide how many children families have and what those children will be called and where they go to school and what they think. They get to choose where people live and what people buy and wear. They control what people read. They try to control the weather. There are islands out there you can’t see.” Will pointed to the dark water. “Hundreds of islands like this one. Some are populated. Some are experimental islands for farming and for growing food. And some hold Weather Stations. Our regional Weather Station is on Island 364. The computers there run the clocks and the hourly broadcasts. They store all of our security information. Names, ages, job and school selection, possible criminal activities. The Corporation keeps data on all of us. Data on recycling patterns, food supply. The goal is to manage everyone.”
    “No—the goal is to manage storms.” Honor was trying to get away from the water. She was pulling with all her might, but her father held her by the wrist.
    “The world is big,” he told her. “Weather is complicated. Do you really think the Corporation should control it all? Do you want regulated skies and filtered light? Do you want every day to be the same as the one before?” He pointed at the ocean. “Don’t you see how lovely water is? The Corporation is an overlay like the seven stars and the moon,” he whispered in Honor’s ear. “Enclosure covers the Polar Seas, but she hasn’t covered the Northern Islands yet. Not at all. Why do you think everyone is still living in the Colonies? Why do you think the Corporation retrieved us and brought us here? Because the Northern Islands aren’t ready. They aren’t safe. She’s got these islands the way she wants them. She’s got everyone living under her control, but she hasn’t got the wild places. She hasn’t even got the other side of this island. She hasn’t got the whole world ceiled yet. Not the half of it.”
    Together they looked out at the water. The ocean was huge and black in the distance, but up close on the sand the rippling waves looked silvery and clear. The sea was calm. There were no big waves, just little ones.
    Will bent down and trailed his hand in the foam. “Touch the water,” he said.
    “It’s Unsafe.”
    “No,” Will said. “It’s beautiful.” He scooped up wet sand and water and poured it over her hands.
    She began to cry. Her father’s ideas were dangerous. To call the wild ocean beautiful was crazy. To say don’t pray to Earth Mother—people who spoke like that got taken. They disappeared and never came back.
    “Is this water going to hurt you?” Will asked.
    “Let me go home.”
    “Is this water going to hurt you?” he demanded.
    The