times. It gets tedious, like anything else. You wake up, you grab a bite to eat, wander around for a few hours... ." He trailed off, seemingly lost in the past. I watched his eyes closely, thought I could see things flitting through them; a bed of pine needles, a tree swaying in the wind, two human-shapes running, screaming. He sighed and continued. "But it's not for everyone. We run across the others now and then, because most of us prefer the North."
"Why is that?"
We were parked in front of my house now, and he'd turned off the truck. It was very quiet and dark; there was no moon. The porch light was off so I knew my father wasn't home yet.
"Did you have your eyes open this afternoon? Are you blind or are you stupid?" He teased. "Do you think I could walk down the street in the sunlight without causing traffic accidents? There's a reason why we chose the Olympic Peninsula: it's one of the most sunless places in the world. It's nice to be able to go outside in the day. You wouldn't believe how tired a person can get of the nighttime after seventy-five years."
"So that's where the legends come from?"
"What legends?"
"Oh you know, silly! About vam— um, about your people."
"Probably."
"And so then Alice came from another family, like Jasper?"
"No, and that is a mystery. Alice doesn't remember her human life at all. And she doesn't know who created her. She awoke alone, unwanted. Whoever made her just walked away, and none of us understand why. If she hadn't had that other sense, if she hadn't seen Jasper and Carlisle and known that she would someday become one of us, she probably would have turned into a total savage, devoid of culture, philosophy, language, manners and etiquette."
There was so much to think about, so much I still wanted to ask. But, to my great embarrassment, my stomach growled. I'd been so intrigued, I hadn't even noticed I was hungry. I realized now that I was.
"I'm hungry," I announced.
"I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from dinner."

292

Chapter 14

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