Short story where aliens colonize earth, a boy is made immortal and separated from family

Question

I'm looking for a short story I read sometime in the mid-2000s. It was one of the "related readings" to one of the stories that I read when I was in middle school, and I'm almost sure that it had been from "A Wrinkle In Time and Related Readings" as published by Littell though I could be wrong.

The story was split into three parts. First part was when the aliens colonized the Earth and there was a scene of some school children were being taken away including the main character. Second part was set 100 years into the future where the same boy was in NY Times Square selling things at a festival for the aliens. Third part was set 1000 years into the future, where the boy was at some new alien colony in some other star system and the Earth was now uninhabitable to humans.

I don't remember the title or possible author, and I'd really appreciate it if someone knew.

Answer 1

You're looking for the short story called "Colony" by the author Rick Wernli. I remembered it clearly from when I read it in late grade school so I had to order the book for about 5 bucks on Amazon. But it was really good. But I can't find many references to it. I do know it was included in an anthology of short stories called "A Gathering of Flowers" which was edited by by Joyce Carol Thomas. I'm wondering if the new TV Show called Colony borrows any from this story. But it seems like this may be the only thing this Rick Wernli ever wrote.