Dev Dreams, Volume One Read Online Free

house was raised up not to keep
out floods, but to separate society from all the people it didn’t
want to see. As they climbed up Em counted the steps. Forty.
    At the top, Em asked Kyle to wait for the
table. She walked around the outside balcony where people waited at
metal tables to be seated inside. The night was dark. The lights in
the rooms behind Em were so bright that the stars outside were
dim.
    She found the ramp around the back. There was
a gate with a handicapped sign on it that would open onto the
balcony. Ember tried the latch, but she couldn’t get the gate to
open. She pulled on it as hard as she could, tried all different
directions, but nothing worked. And then she looked at the path
from that gate to the front door. There wasn’t a chance that
James's wheelchair would be able to maneuver through all these
tables and chairs. She looked down at the parking lot far below her
and she felt like a traitor.
    Kyle called for her and Em ran back to him.
The main room was huge. Three stairs led down into it and the walls
were long and wide. Tall windows along the walls looked out on
nothing but darkness. High on the ceiling, crystal chandeliers
provided the false brightness. People talked in low, refined voices
and looked around themselves haughtily. Kyle held out the chair for
Em to sit on. She looked at the menu. Kyle ordered them some
wine.
    “Em, put down your menu for a minute,” Kyle
said.
    “Yes?” Em said, laying it on the table beside
her.
    Across the room a woman’s laugh bubbled over
her champagne.
    Kyle took her hand from across the table.
    “Look at me,” he said.
    Em looked at him. There was a deep sincerity
in his face that she didn’t see in him very often.
    “I asked you to come here so I could ask you
a very important question.” He held her hand tighter and said,
“Ember Matthews, will you marry me?”
    Suddenly Kyle had her full attention. “I...”
she started, but she couldn’t get out another word. The house on
stilts was suddenly swaying.
    Kyle began to talk. He seemed to be giving
her reasons why marriage was a practical decision. He probably used
sweet words, but Em didn’t hear them. She could almost see James
sitting outside in the dark looking up at the gay pretense. None of
it was real. It never would be.
    “Well?” Kyle said. “What do you say?”
    “Could I have some time to think about it?”
she asked timidly.
    Kyle looked taken aback, but he said, “Of
course.”
    “We can meet on Saturday? I can tell you
then?”
    “Certainly,” he said.
    The next day Ember stayed home from class and
called in sick to work. She couldn’t in good conscience agree to
marry Kyle while she was in love with another man. Kyle was just
what she needed. Kyle was the only choice. No one could be as
perfect for her as Kyle was, except that she felt passion with
James. She decided that she had to spend the next few days trying
to forget James and teaching herself to live without him. She
called in sick for the rest of the week.
    Every day it grew more and more painful, and
Em became more and more afraid of that Saturday. Julia asked her
what was wrong, but Em wouldn’t tell her anything.
    Saturday morning Em couldn’t stand to be in
the apartment waiting around for Kyle to show up that afternoon.
She rushed out, not knowing where she was going. She wasn’t
thinking anymore. Her mind would not be logical. Her feet led her
straight to the hospital. She had to see James.
    He wasn’t in his room. She checked everywhere
she could think of. The wing where his patients were, the break
room where they had played scrabble, the window they had cleaned
together, and finally the garden.
    She saw the back of his wheelchair. James was
looking down at the ground where he and Ember had made love.
    “James,” Ember said.
    His chair struggled around in the confined
space and he looked at her.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    “I’m okay, I guess,” Ember said.
    “I was worried when they