Sleeping Jenny Read Online Free Page A

whistled, and Thunderbolt didn’t move .
    Mom seemed oblivious. “Who knows, they might wake you up in a year.”
    â€œWhat?” I reached out and touched Thunderbolt’s hide. The fur was cold and coarse. My heart raced, and I swallowed a rising current of dread. I leaned over so far I almost fell off the bed and stretched my arms. My fingers caught around the saddle. I yanked him out of the trees and screamed .
    A stuffed horse fell on the grass below my bed. His glass eyes stared at me as if asking why I abandoned him. I rubbed the hand that had touched his hide on my good leg to wipe away the feeling of his fake skin, but the feeling of the dead hair kept coming back and my spine tingled .
    â€œMom, how could you let me sleep for so long?”
    When I turned around, she was gone .

    I awoke shivering and reached for my sheets. My hands groped in the dark and closed on air. Had I kicked them off? Why was my pillow stuck down?
    My eyes adjusted to the green light of the heart monitor, and my horrible day rushed back like a slap in the face. I relived the horrors of learning everyone I knew was dead. It left me with an emptiness so large it could eat me alive. I wanted to squirm it off, but it clung to me like mold.
    I cried until I had no tears left and my stomach muscles hurt from sobbing. I felt so alone that I could have been the last person alive on Earth. Curling up into a fetal position, I wanted to feel Mom’s arms around me, hear the sound of Dad’s voice. All those times Timmy wanted me to play cars with him on the floor and I said no hurt like stabs in my heart. I was too interested in my stuff, the latest gossip in school, and shopping. How could I have been so distracted?
    In the middle of the night in my futuristic hospital room, I finally realized what was important in life. Not some school dance, my gym grade, or the latest accessory from Abercrombie. When everything was stripped away, family and the people you cared about were all that mattered. Too bad I realized it too late.
    â€œWake me up.” I cried out loud to whoever would listen. “Get me out of here.”
    No one answered. Only the beeping of the heart monitor, and it always said the same thing. The emptiness was so complete that I could have died right there and not cared. But that’s not what my family would have wanted. They invested all of their money and hopes on this project, and it worked.
    To fight the depression, I had to keep going. I owed it to them.
    They’d want me to give this new world a chance. If anything, I couldn’t let the thousands of dollars Dad had paid for me to have this second chance go to waste. Besides, I couldn’t lie in BMC forever. I hated hospitals. Anything would be better than this, even if I had to put up with people I didn’t know, people who looked like they’d stolen my family’s faces right off them.
    I reached around the bed for the button to hail the nurse, but the sleek chrome had no panels.
    â€œDamn. Stupid futuristic bed.”
    How did they call people on Star Trek? I cleared my throat. “Computer, get me the nurse.” I felt like the biggest geek ever, but after a second, the wall on my left flicked on like a giant TV. I jerked back, expecting something to explode. An older woman’s face peered at me.
    â€œYes?”
    Um. Do I just talk to the wall?
    The older woman tilted her head. “You hailed?”
    My voice came out as a mouse shriek. “Yes.”
    â€œIs anything wrong?”
    â€œNo.”
    It took me a moment to remember the weird names of my new legal guardians. “Call Valex and Len Streetwater. I don’t need to talk to the counselors. I’m ready to go home.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Metropolis
    I dragged my feet like a zombie, following Valex and Len through the corridors of the Cryonics Institute of New England. Dr. Resin’s picture hung on the wall along with a plaque that said, Founding