1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 89
“The purifier works so well, you can even pee in it.”
Tally sat down on the bed, reading the labels on the
food packs. “Two weeks?”
“Two weeks for two people,” Shay said carefully. “Four
weeks for one.”
Tally didn’t say anything. Suddenly, she couldn’t look at
the stuff on the bed, or at Shay. She stared out the window,
at New Pretty Town, where the fireworks were starting.
“But it won’t take two weeks, Tally. It’s much closer.”
A plume of red soared up in the middle of town,
tendrils of fireworks drifting down like the leaves of a giant
willow tree. “What won’t take two weeks?”
“Going to where David lives.”
Tally nodded, and closed her eyes.
“It’s not like here, Tally. They don’t separate everyone,
uglies from pretties, new and middle and late. And you can
leave whenever you want, go anywhere you want.”
“Like where?”
“Anywhere. Ruins, the forest, the sea. And . . . you
never have to get the operation.”
“You what?”
Shay sat next to her, touching Tally’s cheek with one
finger. Tally opened her eyes. “We don’t have to look like
everyone else, Tally, and act like everyone else. We’ve got a
choice. We can grow up any way we want.”
Tally swallowed. She felt like speech was impossible,
but knew she had to say something. She forced words from