Jo Treggiari: Ashes, Ashes

Lucy had been anxious. Mostly for Aidan. She knew what Del’s friendship meant to him.

“We talked. It’s cool,” Aidan had said. “She made a mistake. And you know, maybe I…” He’d stopped and looked at her carefully then. “Maybe I wasn’t straight with her. About you. How I felt about you. That was wrong of me.”

Lucy had dropped her eyes, suddenly shy.

“You’ll make it up to me, then?” she’d said, teasing to break the tension.

“Lucy, you know how I feel about you, right?” he whispered now.

She was breathless. “Why don’t you tell me?”

He tilted her face up. “Why don’t I show you?”

“How?” she said, fighting the urge to giggle. If she started laughing, she’d probably fall out of the tree.

“Like this,” he said, kissing the lobe of her ear. She closed her eyes, looking at him through her lashes. Her hands tightened on the tree limb. She felt dizzy all of a sudden.

“This,” he breathed, planting more kisses along her hairline. His fingers tangled with hers. She was holding on to nothing but him. He was kissing her eyelids now. Each movement of his lips made her shiver. Aidan murmured her name. She was melting. She couldn’t feel the hard bark against her hip. Nothing existed but his gentle hands and his warm lips.

“You smell like blackberries in the sun,” he said. “You taste like honey.”

He could do this for hours. Kiss every inch, every centimeter of her neck and face except for her mouth. It drove her crazy, made her want to scream Enough !

“Aidan. Aidan! I’m going to fall!”

“Hmmm,” he said, against her neck. He opened his eyes. They were sleepy, but she saw the glint that hovered in them.

Lucy leaned back in his arms and rested her head against his shoulder. Rocked in the elm’s broad branches, she felt safe. The fires weren’t visible through the heavy screen of leaves, but up above where the branches thinned were the stars. Aidan had shown her the North Star, tracing its path from the handle of the Big Dipper, which was pretty much the only constellation she could identify with any certainty. It hung low, not the brightest star, but special now after so many nights of picking it out together, as though it somehow belonged to them. “Are you sorry you didn’t go?”

He took a moment to reply. “Some day, when we’re ready. If you want to,” he said, drawing his eyebrows together. The crooked smile was still there, dancing in the corner of his mouth, but he looked serious.

Lucy followed his gaze northward.

Writing a book is often a solitary endeavor but making it good takes many people.

A million heartfelt thanks to: Silvia Rajagopalan, Charise Isis, Alison Gaylin, Jennifer May, and Charity Valk, who were there at the beginning. Without all your enthusiasm and help it is very possible there never would have been a book.

My family and friends, in particular, Arnaldo Treggiari, the Rajagopalans, Gail Parris, Lesley Sawhill at the Woodstock, NY Children’s Library, and all the kids who have workshopped with me.

I’m indebted to my agent, Garrett Hicks, who digs deep; my über-editor, Lisa Sandell, who knows her way around words and then some; and the Scholastic team, especially Jody Corbett, Starr Baer, and Elizabeth B. Parisi.

To Milo, who understands when Mommy has to shut herself away for a few months, and still thinks the whole author thing is cool.

As always, to my husband, Marcus, who gives good advice and delivers mega cappuccinos to order.

And special gratitude to my dearest, brave friend Sacha McVean, who tried to outrun a tsunami and inspired a heroine.

JO TREGGIARI was born in London, England, and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. Her first attempts at writing were when she started revising classic fairy tales at the age of eight. Jo has also lived in New York City and San Francisco, where she trained as a boxer, wrote for punk magazines, and owned her own record label.

She Snow lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, with her husband and their children, and still enjoys shadowboxing.

Copyright © 2011 by Jo Treggiari

Cover art © 2011 by Steve Stone

Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920 . SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Treggiari, Jo.

Ashes, ashes / by Jo Treggiari. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: In a future Manhattan, devastated by environmental catastrophes and epidemics, sixteen-year-old Lucy survives alone until vicious hounds target her and force her to join Aidan and his band, but soon they learn that she is the target of Sweepers, who kidnap and infect people with plague.

ISBN 978-0-545-25563-9

[1. Science fiction. 2. Survival — Fiction. 3. Epidemics — Fiction. 4. Environmental disasters — Fiction. 5. Dogs — Fiction. 6. New York (N.Y.) — Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.T717Ash 2011

[Fic] — dc22

2010032398

First edition, June 2011

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eISBN: 978-0-545-38880-1