Sketch: Koa

Pencil, 5½×3½ in. » ©2008 Sharon Rosa

Koa and her parents are illegal immigrants who hopped the fence when Koa was a child. Some of her siblings made it over with her… some didn’t. At the moment, two of her siblings are in jail for trying to flee the country, six are in a rebel army fighting the corrupt Adistanian government – and three have been executed. Most of Koa’s family works under the radar in a factory where the bosses don’t bother double-checking the green cards, and they all frown upon the rebellious activities of Koa’s siblings still in Adistan. “Better to come over here, where it’s safe,” her parents always say.

Koa, however, is different. Yes, she works in the factory alongside her parents and sisters, but when the rest of them throw away damaged parts, she hoards them. Every week, she’s down at the local junkyard – and every month, she sneaks back to the border to smuggle salvaged computer equipment and weapons to her freedom-fighter brother.

And one day, she’s going back across the border.

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