Damselfly (21 page)

“Oh, yes please!”

Chapter 26

I thought they would take us to the Badlands next, but I was wrong. I stare out the airplane window, filled with both relief and disappointment. I could have been so close to Jack—only miles away from his home. Maybe that’s why Dr. Christiansen decided the next date would take place back in Denmark.

Dr. Christiansen is definitely relaxing her icy grip, although I’m not sure why. I still have the tracking device implanted somewhere in my skin and the drones are tuned and readied each time we go outside, but she herself is more distant. We’ve barely spoken since we left Copenhagen for Hawaii. I’m sure she’s somewhat preoccupied with the hearing, but normally she gets even stricter when she’s stressed out. Maybe she’s “rewarding” my good behavior like she would a dog.

An arm brushes mine. Row sets his elbows on the window sill and leans against me. “Ready to go home?”

“Only if I get to sleep in my own bed.” I remember sitting on the living room floor, crumpled and broken with my computer in my arms. “But I don’t think it will be the same as before.”

“I hear you’ll be coming to New Zealand after you, you know, make your choice.”

“Who told you that?”

He shrugs. “People. It’s a rumor that’s been floating around. I heard some of the assistants saying Lilliput I will be closed after the show wraps.”

I frown and gaze out the window. That means I’ll never get to fly through my forest again. My treehouse will be no more. And what about George and Mr. Coxworth? I can’t imagine them moving to New Zealand.

“Hey,” Row says, nudging me. “Don’t look so depressed. New Zealand is gorgeous, and we’re right on the beach.”

“I bet it is, but it’s not my home.”

“I think you, of all people, could make a home anywhere. You’ve got this way of bending everything and everyone toward you.”

“Pssh. I do not.”

“Lina, look around. You’ve got six guys after you and an entire show about your love life.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you have any other choices.”

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t change the fact you’re in the center of our world.”

I squirm under the weight of those words. The only reason there’s any truth to what he says is because of Dr. Christiansen, not me.

But, now that I think about it, hasn’t it always been that way? The entire Lilliput Project I Compound exists to protect and care for me. Sure, Dr. Christiansen has always continued her own research, but she didn’t need a forest with a dome fence to do it. I am the reason for all of the fuss.

My cheeks flush as I realize I’ve always been at the center of attention. I took it for granted, expected it. Even Mr. Coxworth’s work revolves around finding natural medicines for me. I’ve never even thanked him.

“Hey, are you okay?”

I shake my head. “Yeah. I’m fine.” But the world has shifted slightly in my mind, and I’m seeing everything through a different facet now. When my eyes meet Row’s again, he looks older. He still wears his sunny smile, but there’s something more beneath the familiar exterior: a depth of soul I never guessed at before.

“You’re looking at me funny.”

“Sorry. You seem different somehow.”

He laughs. “I was going to say the same thing about you.”

I shake my head. “There must be something in the Hawaiian water.”

“Something good, I hope.”

We watch as the islands disappear into the horizon. In fifteen hours, we’ll be in Copenhagen.

***

The crowd outside the Copenhagen airport is almost identical to the one that waited for us in Honolulu, with one important difference—this one looks angry. Instead of holding signs having to do with my love life, they’re waving slogans like, “1% Human is Still Human,” and “Free the Fairies.” I’m surprised I’m not more encouraged by their presence. I mean, I’m happy the public here is rallying behind my cause, but I doubt it will have any real impact on my life.

We’re escorted off the airport grounds by the politiet. My carrier sits next to Dr. Christiansen in the back of the limo, and I can’t see anything but the seat in front of me. She says nothing other than to give terse directions to the driver.

I curl up in the bunk bed and snap the guardrails into place. I try to nap, but sleep evades me. We’ve been gone less than a week, but it seems like much longer. I feel as though I’m years older.

And I’m tired.

The limo stops outside the gate to the compound, and the driver lets us out. A golf cruiser waits for us inside. Jane hops out and helps to unload our bags into the trunk of the cruiser. She grabs my carrier a little more roughly than I think is really necessary and sets it down on the backseat.

“Let her out,” says Dr. Christiansen.

Say what? I press my ear closer to one of the slits in the carrier. She flips open her suitcase and pulls out a drone, powers it up. If I run, I’ll be chased down. Yeah, yeah, I know the drill.

Jane opens the door and I step outside.

“Lina, you are free to travel about the grounds once again. Your treehouse has been prepared for you. I am sure you understand what the consequences will be if you decide not to cooperate.”

I do.

She raises her eyebrows as if to ask me why I’m still there.

“I guess I’ll go then.”

Jane gives me her creepily sincere smile, and I head toward home. It’s a clear day, but the light seems dimmer in the compound. It must be the dome. Strange I’ve never noticed it before.

I slide under the door to Mr. Coxworth’s house, but he’s not there. In fact, the entire compound seems unusually quiet. Where is everyone?

When I check for George at the aviary, it’s empty. There are no birds in the roosts. The entire thing has been cleaned out.

“George!” I check every single inch for any sign of him, hoping against hope he left something for me that will tell me where he is and how to contact him.

Nothing.

I race off to his dormitory on the far side of the living area. When I get there, a housekeeper I’ve never seen before is sweeping the wood floors. All of his things are gone.

“Where is he?” I ask her. “Where’s George?”

“I do not know,” she says in a thick German accent. “I was hired and told clean the empty rooms.”

The urge to cry tugs down the corners of my mouth. I have to find someone who will explain this. I need to know where and why he has gone. How can there be a Lilliput Project without George?

A hand waves at me from behind a tree. It’s Mr. Coxworth. He’s scraping bits of bark off of the tree into a plastic bag, but he stops and lifts his sunglasses when I fly up to him.

“Where’s George? What happened?”

“Ah. I knew it wouldn’t take you long to notice. The white witch thought you’d be slower on the uptake. George received his notice two days after you left for Hawaii.”

“But why?”

Mr. Coxworth sighs and raises his eyebrows at me. And then I know. It was George who turned in Dr. Christiansen and she found out. She got rid of him before he would have a chance to tell me anything more.

“Did you find anything out from him?” I ask.

Mr. Coxworth nods slowly. “Why don’t we have a chat at my house? You can meet me there in a few minutes. Go ahead and stop by your place and make sure everything is in order and then come on over.”

I nod numbly.

My treehouse looks the same as it did when it left, except my garden is one giant weed patch. I try not to look at it as I fly to the front door and step inside my home.

The ceiling and window have been repaired, which is good. The wallpaper has been painted over with a boring beige color to hide the water stains, and the desk is organized. There are no signs of my old computer. A felt-bound journal now sits where the keyboard used to be. I open it and run my finger along the binding. There are only six stitches holding the entire thing together. George would never buy me something so poorly made.

I suddenly don’t want to be in here anymore. Every single piece of furniture, every decoration, was a gift from George. I run back onto the porch and see Jane lugging a huge bag toward me.

“No, don’t!” But it’s too late. She’s already dropped the bag right on top of whatever’s left of my garden.

“Here are your fan letters! Dr. Christiansen decided you should be able to have these. It’s good have you back! Did you have fun in Hawaii?”

“Yeah, it was super fun, Jane,” I say with as much sarcasm as I can manage.

“I’m so jealous. I wish I could have gone. Oh well! Let me know when you’re done, and I can put them somewhere else so they don’t get rained on.” She nods with a satisfied smile and then tromps through the woods.

Incredulous, I shake my head and wait for her to disappear. I’ll check out the letters later. I really want to hear what Mr. Coxworth has to say.

He’s sitting on his rotten dining room chair and sipping tea when I slip under his door. He waves me over, sets his mug between his knees. I settle onto my pincushion as he formulates his thoughts.

“I thought it would be easier to tell you here,” he says with uncharacteristic carefulness. “George turned himself in.”

“What? No.”

He continues. “Apparently he was so guilt-ridden after you were forced to do the show that he went to the politiet and confessed he accidentally caused the deaths of the Thumbelinas. But, of course, Dr. Christiansen is still responsible. After all, she covered it up all this time, and this was her project.”

I stand up. “I don’t believe you. He wouldn’t do that.”

With a sigh, he gestures for me to sit back down. “Lina, I know you were very close, but you need to face the facts.”

“You’re telling me George killed six girls by accident and then lied about it, and you expect me to believe it? No one has protected me the way he has. Not even you.”

His face turns to stone. “That is what happened.”

“I have to go.”

“Suit yourself. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you.”

It doesn’t make any sense. That isn’t the George I know. Nope, not buying it for one second.

With my heart enclosed in steely resolve, I leave Mr. Coxworth’s cottage and shake its dust off my feet.

Chapter 27

I sit cross-legged on my porch, glaring at nothing in particular and shaking head to toe. I don’t believe him. There would have been something about George in the article I read in Hawaii if Mr. Coxworth is telling the truth. He has to be mistaken somehow. Maybe he needs to get his hearing checked again.

I fold my hands together and press them between my calves to keep them from trembling. I imagine George handling tiny baby girls, dropping them. Or would he have squeezed them too hard? I shake the horrifying images from my head. There is no way he could ever kill another person. Not even by accident.

No. I don’t believe it. I won’t.

“Hey, Lina!” It’s Al, leading the rest of the Toms to my house.

I fight down a surge of annoyance. Can’t I get a few minutes to myself? I have no desire to play the part of the gracious hostess right now.

A camera drone snaps off a brittle branch as it flies into the clearing. So that’s why they’re here—this is being filmed.

With a sigh, I unwrap my feet and wave.

“I hear we have fan letters!” Row exclaims as all six of them descend on the bag. I should have known they weren’t all for me. Shrike and Al work on untying the knot while Blue hovers, arms folded, off to the side. The other three come to the porch, and I stand to greet them.

“Hi. Welcome to my house.”

“Thanks!” Row stuffs his hands in his pockets, and my heart beats faster at the sight of him. He has dark circles under his eyes and I’m pretty sure he wore those clothes all last night, but he looks adorable in his sleepiness.

Crane and Perry give each other a look. “I guess we’ll wait down there,” Perry says with a grimace. Before I can stop them, they’re gone.

“Do you want to come in?”

“Yeah, but I can’t. We’re under strict orders to stay where the camera can see us.”

“You look like you didn’t sleep a wink.”

He grins. “That’s because I didn’t. I had a certain blonde-haired beauty on my mind.” He blushes when he says “beauty.”

“Are they letting you guys stay somewhere less prison-like now?”

“I’m not sure yet. I think they’re preparing something for us in the old aviary? I don’t know where that is. All of our stuff is in the dining hall for now.” He rubs his hand up and down his arm and blinks as if he just woke up.

“I wonder how long we’ll be here before we get shipped off to the next place.”

“I’m not sure if we’re going anywhere. You didn’t see Dr. Christiansen almost get denied entry in customs?”

“What? No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah, I didn’t hear everything, but I got the impression that the only reason they allowed her in is because she’s a permanent resident. Something about a court case. I wonder if she’ll have the same trouble if she tries to go to another country.”

He still doesn’t know about the Thumbelinas, and I wonder if I should tell him. A dark shadow passes over us—a drone drawing in for a closer shot.

Yeah, now’s not the time.

“I can’t wait to show you my house!” I exclaim as dramatically as I can. “But let’s go look at our fan mail first!”

Row follows my lead down to the mail pile that the other Toms are already swimming in. Blue sits on the edge, taking it all in, but everyone else is buried to their waists in letters and cards.

“Most of it is for Row and Blue,” Shrike whines. “And Lina.”

“You have one here,” says Perry, handing it to him. “And here’s one for ‘Pixie.’ Geez, our fans can’t even read.”

I hold out my hand. “I’m pretty sure that’s for me. Unless you think anyone would address you guys as ‘pixies.’ No? I didn’t think so.”

I stand on the edge and examine the envelope, my hands shaking. There’s no return address and no name, but only one person in the whole world is allowed to call me “Pixie.” I glance up at the camera drones. One is circling around my house and the others are in front of me and won’t be able to see what I’m reading. I breathe a sigh of relief and slide my hand into the flap to tear it open. Inside, I find a single postcard with a picture of a falcon that is the spitting image of Petunia. Only three words are written on the other side in a scrawl I would recognize anywhere.