The Gardener

  “No!” The pause feature must have had a timer to automatically start up. I restarted, played the part that woke her up, then hit the off button and pulled out the DVD.

  “What happened?”

  I held up the DVD. “I played this and it woke you up. But it also put you back under. So I just played the wake-up part again.…” Idiot. Shut up.

  She put both hands to her face and rubbed, then started to look herself over, flex muscles and things. And that’s when the sleeve of her white shirt slipped up and I saw a tattoo. A tattoo on her right forearm. A tattoo of a blue butterfly. Maybe it was just the lighting of the room, but I could have sworn it was the same as the one on my father’s arm.

  I didn’t even have time to think about it. When she saw the tattoo, she started repeating the same phrase, gradually getting louder: “Don’t let the gardener find me, don’t let the gardener find me, don’t let the gardener find me.…”

  I didn’t know what to do, so I just told the girl it would be okay. It didn’t seem to help. She got quieter, but she still kept saying it over and over.

  “Don’t let the gardener find me.”

  Was she somehow upset over that line from The Runaway Bunny? Whatever the reason, she was really creeping me out.

  The girl stopped talking suddenly and looked at me. “I need to leave.”

  I tried to smile a bit, and made sure my voice was calm and reassuring. “My mom will be back in a minute and—”

  “The gardener will find me!” Her eyes were misting over as she looked at me. “Please, help me.” The girl put a hand on each side of her head and started to moan.

  My mom came back in then and took one look at the girl. “What did you do? How did she wake up?” Her hand flew to her chest.

  I kind of expected a different reaction as Mom grabbed the girl’s arm and started to take her pulse.

  “This is good, right?” I asked her. “You can call her parents, tell them she’s awake.”

  Mom’s head moved from side to side, almost slow motion as she continued to stare at the girl. “She’s not supposed to wake up.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “They aren’t ever supposed to wake up.”

  What kind of freak show was this? Mom was acting so weird.

  “I don’t understand how this could have happened.” Mom’s hands shook as she noticed me watching her. “I have to tell someone, so they can take her.” She wasn’t making sense.

  I asked, “You mean call her parents, right? So they can take her home?”

  Mom finally snapped out of it and dropped the girl’s arm as she looked at me. “No, I don’t mean her parents. Her parents have nothing to do with it.” Her shoulders straightened and she thrust her chin out. With a commanding tone in her voice, she said, “You need to leave.”

  My eyes narrowed. “What? Mom, what’s going to happen to her?”

  “Mason, just go, go find Jack and have a nice weekend at the cabin.” She patted my face. “You’re done here. And I need to do my job.” She turned to go out the door.

  Looking back at the beautiful girl, I called after Mom, “Where are you going? You can’t just leave her here.”

  Mom paused to look at the girl. “I have to go get someone.” She took a quick breath. “And you need to not be here when we get back.” She left.

  The girl had quieted and was staring at me.

  Black Sabbath blared from my cell phone.

  Jack said, “I’m getting off a little early. I’ll be at the end of the parking lot in about two minutes.”

  “Your two minutes always seem closer to ten.”

  “Two minutes, I swear. Just come out the same door you went in.”

  I stuffed the DVD into my backpack. “I have to go.”

  As if the girl cared, but I felt like I should explain.

  “My mom will be back to…” I had no idea what would happen when my mom got back, or who she was bringing with her, or what it would mean for this strange, beautiful girl. But there was nothing I could do about it.

  The girl stood up.

  The top of her head cleared my chin, which meant she had to be close to six feet tall. And her athletic body looked taut, like she was ready for fight or flight. “We need to go. So the gardener doesn’t find me.”

  Was she thinking about leaving with me? “Listen, I’m really sorry.” She had no idea how sorry. “But I have to go.” I motioned toward the door. “My mom will be back any minute.”

  Before I could react, she turned and ran through the open door.

  FOUR

  “WAIT!”

  I followed the girl into the hall, where she had already disappeared through the fire door. As I went through the doorway, she pounded down the stairs, her flip-flops slapping on the stairs while I tried to keep up. “Hold on!” My voice echoed in the stairwell, way too loud.

  As she descended, the girl looked more and more certain of her steps. She sure as hell didn’t move like someone with a traumatic brain injury.

  I tried to close the gap. She reached the emergency door, which opened to the sidewalk. Her hand reached out to push the silver bar, but then she turned and opened the door leading out of the stairwell and back inside.

  A second later, I lunged through, bumping into her, righting myself just as I realized we were not alone.

  A man dressed in a white orderly uniform had snagged the girl by the arm and held tight while she struggled. His name tag read Dennis. His eyes widened slightly as he noticed my scar, but his voice was gruff when he asked me, “What’s this?”

  I looked down for a second to catch my breath, wondering how I was going to get out of it.

  “Steve?”

  Was he talking to me? Then I realized I was still dressed the same as he was. Maybe I wasn’t screwed. As I raised my head, I put a grin on my face. “Yeah, I’m … uh…” I tapped my name tag. “Steve. I’m Steve.”

  “Oh. Didn’t know we had two Steves.” Dennis glanced at the girl again.

  “I’m new.”

  He rubbed his chin as he asked, “What floor she from?”

  Took me a minute to remember. “Sixth.”

  Dennis looked at my backpack.

  “I was just about ready to check out and then she took off running.” Trying to play the part, I shook my head and swore.

  “Believe it or not, that happens on the geezer floor, too, sometimes.” He grinned. “But they’re a little easier to catch.” His eyes roamed to the girl’s chest and farther down, then back up to her face. “She’s a looker.” Dennis licked his lips. “So you want me to take her back up?”

  Yes! That was it. My out.

  One word from me and I was out the door, off to the cabin. I could forget ever being at the Haven of Peace.

  My mouth opened, but my breath caught in my throat. What was I doing? There was nothing I could do to help her. Was there? Maybe the bigger question was, did I want to be involved? Saving people was what I did. I wasn’t one to back down, ever. But this situation involved my mom, to some degree. She was responsible for the girl. Did I truly think my mom wouldn’t do the best thing for her?

  My mind was saying, Go, dude. Find Jack and leave.

  But my gut was saying something else. That something just wasn’t right. That the girl did need saving. And I was the one to do it.

  Her eyes were still on me, almost like she knew what I was thinking. Dennis the orderly still stared at the girl, a smarmy expression on his face that made me want to cringe. I allowed myself one more look.

  Her brown eyes pleaded with me.

  And it was those eyes that made me do what I did next. With one hand I reached out and held her firmly by the elbow. “No, I’ve got her.”

  With what seemed like an effort, Dennis took his eyes off her and released his grip. “Okay, big guy.” He pointed at me. “Big Steve. That’s the ticket. You’re Big Steve. That’s how we’ll tell you two Steves apart.” He gave me a little wave and headed down the hall.

  I waited until he was ou
t of sight, then pulled the girl through the door and outside as I muttered, “This is so dumb, this is so dumb, this is so dumb.…”

  Still pulling the girl along, I ran down the sidewalk toward the parking lot. Two men dressed like me turned the corner, and I yanked her behind the hedge, where we crouched until they passed. But when I stood back up, I could see they were blocking our path to the sidewalk. “Perfect.”

  The girl frowned, then stepped over to the brick wall that bordered the back of the parking lot. “We need to climb over.”

  Even at my height, the top of the wall was nowhere near reachable. “How?”

  She bent in front of me and made a cradle with her hands. “Step up.”

  “Oh, come on,” I protested. “I’ve got at least a hundred pounds on you.”

  “Step up.”

  Just to prove my point, I lifted my foot and prepared to give her a little sample of my weight. But before I knew it, she’d hoisted me up like I was some tiny cheerleader.

  I almost lost my balance and grabbed her shoulder as I planted a hand on the wall. “Whoa!”

  “Grab the top of the wall and pull.”

  I didn’t need to do much pulling, because she practically launched me up and over.

  I had just dropped to the ground when her feet landed next to mine. The top of the wall seemed very far away. “How did you do that?”

  She didn’t answer.

  I heard a vehicle approach and saw Jack pulling up.

  Chilly rain dripped on us as we stood there. Her shirt was getting wet in spots.

  “That’s my ride.”

  She looked from the truck back to me. “I need a ride.”

  “Yeah, but—” But what? There was no use saying I wasn’t involved. Yes, she had run from the sixth floor all on her own, but I became part of that escape the moment I took her from Dennis. Could I really just walk away and leave her standing in the parking lot?

  Yes, I could. I had to.

  Didn’t I?

  “Holy crap.” So I ran to the truck, the girl right behind me. My hands trembled so much that it was difficult to open the door. The girl slid into the middle and I hopped in beside her and slammed the door.

  Jack turned to me, mouth open. “They have babes working here?”

  “Jack! Drive.”

  “Geez frickin’ Louise.” Jack shook his head, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed toward my house. “I work here all this time and don’t meet anyone under the age of eighty, and you’re here for, like, twenty minutes and—”

  “She doesn’t work there.” I needed to tell him. “She’s a patient on my mom’s floor.”

  Jack slammed on the brakes and we jolted forward as far as the seat belts would give.

  I probably should have waited until he was parked to tell him that. “Jack! Just keep driving.”

  He tromped on the accelerator and turned into the deserted parking lot of the Washington State Bank, then screeched to a stop. “She’s a patient? You stole a patient?”

  The girl watched Jack.

  I tried to explain what happened on the sixth floor. “She took off and I followed and this orderly saw us. I couldn’t just let her go back up there.”

  Jack’s eyes were wide. “So what? You just what, figure, oh, I’ll STEAL HER? What were you thinking?”

  “I didn’t steal her. She left first. I just chased her.” My voice was quiet. “She wanted to go.”

  “Oh, great, Mace.” Jack dropped his forehead onto the steering wheel. “This is just great.” When he lifted his head, his eyes blazed as he reached past the girl and stuck a finger in my chest. “You can’t do this all the time! Be the frickin’ hero! Some people aren’t supposed to be saved. Some people can’t be saved. Not by you, anyway.”

  I leaned away from him, resting my head on the cold window.

  But his curiosity seemed to overcome his anger for a moment. “What’s your name?”

  “I don’t know,” the girl answered, rubbing her eyes as she peered out the windshield.

  “Great,” said Jack. “I suppose you don’t know where you’re from, either.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’m not from here.”

  Jack smacked the edge of the steering wheel with a fist. “God, Mace! You know how much trouble we’re in?” He shook his head. “We’re taking her back.”

  “And telling them what?”

  I unbuckled and jumped out, stripping off the orderly uniform and rolling it into a ball, which I tossed behind the seat before climbing back in. “Jack, just go to my house. I’ll call my mom, figure this out.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed and he said something not very nice under his breath.

  “I mean, really, how are you going to explain all this? You snuck me in, gave me an orderly uniform, I steal a girl.…”

  He put the truck in gear. “You suck.”

  The girl was quiet as we drove slowly through the town’s 25 mph zone, but then she leaned over me and placed both palms on the window. “Those lights.”

  Distracted by the nearness of her, it took me a moment to follow her gaze.

  Up on the hill above town, the lights from TroDyn illuminated the night sky with a bright glow. I said, “That’s just a company that—”

  She cut me off. “There’s something familiar about them.” She shook her head. “I’m just so … It feels like I have cobwebs in my head. I’m so fuzzy.” The girl slapped both hands to her forehead. “Oh.”

  “What?” Jack glanced over at her, then back to the road. “What? What’s wrong with her?”

  At once, her head jerked back so that she stared straight up. Her eyes were wide as she spoke. One of her hands clutched at my shirt. “We’ve got to get away!”

  Jack asked, “From where?”

  Slowly, she turned to face the lights of TroDyn. “From there. We have to get away from there.” And she started to rock back and forth, repeating, “We need to go, we need to go.…”

  I held out a hand to touch her, do something, but I didn’t know what, so I just put my hand back in my lap. “Jack, I think we should take her with us to the cabin.”

  His shook his head. “What? Are you nuts?”

  I banged my head against the window a couple of times. “I know this is insane and you’re pissed.” My voice lowered. “But you weren’t there, you didn’t see them. I just couldn’t leave her there.” I had to convince him. Or at least say the right thing to get him on board, and I knew what that was. “It was like … destiny that I wake her up. I mean, what are the chances of me happening to play that DVD in the same room as her?”

  He met my gaze and looked away.

  As I waited for him to respond, the clock tower downtown struck the first few chords of nine o’clock.

  Bong.

  Bong.

  Bong.

  “Mace, are you screwing with me?” Jack’s voice was drenched in doubt. As it should be, because I couldn’t give a crap about destiny.

  But, at that moment, I really needed him to think, to believe, that I did indeed give a crap. Because love, according to Jack, involved destiny. He got it from his mom, who met his dad only because she slid into a ditch on an icy night, and Jack’s dad was the first person to come along and offer assistance. Plus, he was lost and not even supposed to be on that road. I’d heard the story about eighty times, so Jack must have really heard it a lot.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m not screwing with you.”

  He bit his lip for a second. “You know how seriously I take destiny.”

  Yes, I knew. So I nodded. Furiously. “I’m being serious. Destiny. For sure.”

  “Well.” Jack nodded a little bit, like he was thinking it over. “Okay. We’ll go to the cabin.” He looked at the girl and then at me. “But you still suck.”

  Jack headed south on I-5 toward Portland.

  The girl seemed to be concentrating on holding her head and staving off voices or whatever it was she heard, then she gradually calmed the farther we got from Melby
Falls. We connected with 84 East about an hour later, just as my cell phone rang. Mom was frantic, her voice a fast whisper. “Tell me you just left. Tell me you just left and you and Jack are on your way to the cabin. Tell me that.”

  It took me a minute to answer. “We are. We’re on our way to the cabin right now.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, Mom. We just got on I-84. Why?”

  She sighed. “No reason. Just … I … heard sirens, wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  She was lying; I could tell she was lying. “Something wrong, Mom?”

  “No!” The word came too fast to be true. “No, it’s fine. You and Jack have fun. Stay out of trouble.”

  The connection fizzed. “Mom?” I could hear only every other word. “Lost her!”

  Jack leaned forward. “We’re in the Gorge. Lousy coverage.”

  No point in wasting the battery, so I turned off my phone.

  A few miles farther, Jack pointed at an exit sign with a Chevron symbol. “I need some gas.” As we pulled in, I got out to fill the tank, but Jack motioned for me to stay put.

  “This is Oregon,” he said. “They have attendants for that.”

  So the girl stayed in the truck. Jack went inside and came back out carrying a plastic bag, which he handed to me.

  I climbed back in as Jack started the truck. I was finally starting to relax and I couldn’t do anything but think about the girl. Her smell, the way her leg felt pressed against mine, the sound of her voice. God, I finally find the perfect girl and she’s a nutcase.

  Jack reached over her and started rustling around in the bag.

  “Just drive, I’ll do that.” I was hungry. “Did you get anything good?” I held up a Yoo-hoo. “Chocolate milk?”

  The girl took it from me and cradled the bottle with both hands in her lap. Jack held out his hand and I found another Yoo-hoo for him.

  I pulled out a can of Mountain Dew and opened it with a loud click. “Yes.” The soda was icy. I took a big swig. “Ah. I needed that.”

  Jack tipped back his head and took a gulp of Yoo-hoo. “I haven’t had this since I was a kid.” He looked at her. “What about you?”

  “I’ve never had it.” She glanced down at the Yoo-hoo. “I like the colors.”