Читать книгу All Rights Reserved - Gregory Scott Katsoulis - Страница 5

“A chilling, unnerving, and timely debut novel

about what it means to speak out, even in silence.”

—Katharine McGee, New York Times bestselling author

of The Thousandth Floor

The speech in my hand had no words of comfort or mention of Beecher. I couldn’t say how I felt about his death; I wasn’t allowed to speak other words.

Suddenly, a tide of rage coursed through me. My hands seemed to burn. I crumpled the speech into a ball and threw it as hard as I could toward the highway. It fell uselessly into the astonished crowd, not even a quarter as far as I’d imagined it would go. Gasps rose all around.

Everyone knew what came next. I would be one of those few pathetic kids you see on the news who squeak out a few words of protest before being carted off. Then, suddenly, another option blossomed in my mind. I seized it, because it was a choice—my choice—and one I’d never heard anyone suggest or seen anyone do.

I put a shaking thumb and finger to the corner of my mouth and drew my hand slowly across. I made the sign of the zippered lips—a rare gesture still in the public domain—and I silently vowed I would never speak again.