Discovery (15 page)

“P
OVRE
?”

She roused, blinking at the sound of her name. With wonder she looked out through the glass barrier of the vehicle. No snow flew past the window. No more furious flakes to make her feel dizzy and blinded by unrelieved whiteness. It had seemed like hours, like days, like forever. Was that ordeal finally ended? Drops of moisture beaded the glass and she gasped in awe as her vision focused.

Green. Green everywhere, in any shade or value imaginable. Towering trees, bushes, plants. Her fingers went to the cool material blocking her from this wonderland, her face pressed against it. Her breath clouded her view. She fumbled to find the awkward latch holding the door closed.

“Povre!” Kent’s voice laughed.

She rallied and searched for the word she needed. “Out,” demanded Povre, frustrated, fighting the handle. She had to get out. To see if this was real.

“Hang on, I’ll come around.”

She nearly scrambled after him on his side, but the forgotten straps of the safety harness held her in place, only adding to her agitation. Kent appeared outside her window, opened the door, and reached to free the buckle.

Moist, living air washed into her lungs. Her throat closed with emotion so intense she thought she would faint.

“What is it, Povre? I thought you had to go…what do you see?”

Life, she wanted to say. Oh, such life! This is blessed land, touched by the Goddess. This is how my planet looked before the Passage. This is the environment burning in the blood of my people.

Her fingers clutched his arms for support as she continued to fill her senses. It took several moments before she was able to stand on her own, absorbed in wonder. She felt the pulse of the forest with every empathic sense she had. She wondered if somehow they were transported to an entirely different planet. This forest positively hummed with living energy. The singing of living things called to her from every direction.

~~

Kent, head cocked, watched Povre turn a slow circle. She had her arms outspread and her face tipped toward the overhead canopy of foliage and cloudy sky. The look on her face was pure rapture. Bliss. Intense sensual pleasure.

Once out of the snow zone and needing a break in driving, Kent had turned up Route 242 to find a little-used National Forest campground where they could stretch their legs for a while before continuing. He had no idea Povre would be so affected. So instantly renewed. “We’re on the other side of the pass, well out of the snow zone. This is the Willamette National Forest—”

She shook her head and interrupted his lame tour-guide speech with another one word statement. “Heaven.”

And Kent watched her touch each living thing with reverent hands and shining eyes. Watched her lips move with silent words as she greeted soaring Douglas firs and western hemlocks covered with soft green lichens. Stroked gentle fingers over the feathery fronds of bracken fern, which stayed green all year here. She dropped to her knees to examine an early trillium and a thick coat of moss on a rock and another on a long-cut tree stump of gigantic proportions. When she touched it her face tightened and a soft crooning sound reached his ears.

“A lot of the old growth was logged,” Kent said, needing to speak. His words came out hushed. Povre’s rapture made him feel like he was in church.

She gave no sign of having heard him, but stood and followed the circular road leading to the campsites. Kent followed. She made a beeline into one picnic-tabled site where a tremendous old hemlock leaned over a stream bank.

“If I ever told anybody watching an alien hug a tree was erotic, I’d be sent off with the guys in the white suits so fast nobody’d even remember I was born!” muttered Kent. He stopped and rested his hand on his hips. “Not to mention I’m damned jealous of that tree right now.”

~~

The tree whispered to her, of rain, of floods, of wind, rockslides, and fire. Of the birds and animals that visited and lived among its soaring branches. Of other trees around it felled by forces of nature or humans. Of the incredible vistas seen by its uppermost growth. Come see! whispered the tree. Come up! Come talk to me more.

“Yes,” breathed Povre. Taking the invitation, her body reacted of its own accord. She kicked off her boots, the liners, and like generations of her agile ancestors, used her strong fingers and long toes to scamper up the welcoming trunk.

~~

“Povre!” Kent let out a breath of exasperation. “Damn it, don’t go getting stuck up there! Not like I can call the fire department to come and get you down,” he added to himself. Shaking his head, he moved a little farther into greening brambles to relieve himself. The sound of a car swishing past on the damp road brought anxiety until it faded away. He felt safe here. He’d always enjoyed spending some time here on his trips between Eugene and points east. This early in the season, with the Mackenzie Pass closed off, only locals passed the campground and even on holiday weekends it never drew the traffic of other areas in the vicinity.

“And you were worth the stop again,” Kent told the woodland. He tried to look at the familiar forest with new eyes. Sure, it was magnificent, but what did she see? What did she feel? She’d appeared almost to have spoken or otherwise communicated with whatever she touched, plant, rock, or soil.

“What are they telling you?” he wondered, and then shook his head at such whimsy.

But all whimsy aside, to see the beautiful reaction of Povre to this lush, fertile forest brought a sensation of deep satisfaction. Lord, how would she react to some real Pacific Northwest rainforest? To California redwoods and sequoias? He imagined taking her farther north along the coast, into Washington State, to the Olympic peninsula. How would she react to seeing the Pacific Ocean? he wondered. Smiling, he crouched to examine a cluster of mushrooms.

He jumped to his feet at the touch on his arm. “I didn’t hear you come down,” he said, turning, catching his breath at the shine in her purple eyes, the staggering smile on her face.

She flung her arms around him, stood on her toes, and glued her lips to his. Surprised at the blaze of passion flaring from her body, he automatically folded her into the protection of his arms. For a moment Kent knew what it was to be an empath. Her feelings were so strong, so clear, she could’ve shouted them aloud. He found time to think this way was much more pleasant before the full impact of her gratitude, her emotion, and her awe became his. That no matter what happened, she would carry the memory of this place—and him—forever.

* * * * *

FULL NIGHT HAD SETTLED OVER
the Willamette Valley when Kent swung the van into his tiny driveway on Agate Street. He frowned at the lights burning inside his house. No cars he recognized, other than those of his neighbors, were parked nearby, and no bicycles leaned in the usual spots except for his mountain bike, which a chain tethered to the side porch. Then again, his house was never locked. Students and faculty he worked with had a standing invitation to come and go. In all the years he lived here, he never had anything stolen or disturbed. He and Lynn never felt the slightest hesitation leaving things wide open. But as he’d found out so harshly from Lynn, things changed.

“Damn it, she’d better have cleared out,” snarled Kent under his breath.

The motion-activated driveway light flared on as the van rolled forward.

Povre, in a tight little ball on the passenger side, stirred and groaned softly. Her earlier spurt of energy had faded quickly once they got underway again, and Kent’s concern over her physical state remained strong. She’d yet to speak more than single words at a time since they started traveling this morning. The total until now averaged out to one word an hour. Yes, No, Kent, okay, out, and Heaven.

On the one hand, her weakness didn’t surprise him. After that episode this morning, and running like panicked deer through the forest, the lightning trip to Bend, the harrowing hazards of the whiteout conditions and slippery roads of the Santiam Pass, even Kent felt rubbery. Despite their hour-long stopover, they hadn’t even taken the time to eat. Maybe some food would help—food and sleep. The thought of his bed brought an answering jolt of exhaustion that made his head reel.

Kent took deep, measured breaths until the feeling passed. Then he unfastened his seat belt and leaned over. “Povre, we’re home, but stay here. I’ll make sure no one’s inside.”

No one was. And the door was locked. Ken fumbled for the key he carried but never had to use since the day he moved in. There was a note on the side table just inside the door. A note in Lynn’s big, carefully scripted handwriting. It was propped up against the lamp and secured with a piece of tape.

He almost hated to touch the paper. Jeez, that’s a mature outlook for you. He shook his head. Get over it, Kent. She’s history, she can’t bother you any more. And you need to know what’s going on around here for sure.

Honey,

Kent cringed.

A few nights ago the neighborhood watch reported strangers in the area, checking houses.

“Yeah, like I’ll believe that. Since when was there a neighborhood watch?”

Since you were gone and I moved in with Jim, I thought it best to lock up and leave the lights hooked into that timer system you had in the loft. Jim helped me set it so lights go on and off at random throughout the house. I’ve been stopping by at different times, too, night and day, to water the plants and make people think the place is inhabited.

“If I find out you were doing more than that…”

Call me when you get in.

Love, Lynn

Kent crumpled the note in his fist. Fine, good, it was nice of her to do what she did to secure the house if she had to—but to call him “honey”, and sign off with “love” really churned the bile in his empty belly. What did she think? That he’d come back with flowers and a six pack of microbrew and be ready to beg her to move back in as if nothing at all happened? They’d stay buddy-buddy-good-friends after what she did to him?

“Probably. Jim doesn’t make as much as I do. He’ll make her pay her full half of rent and utilities. He’s not as big a sucker as I am.” Quickly he went to the phone. He didn’t need her stopping by with Povre here. “Jim? Kent.” He spoke tersely. “Just got in man, and I’m beat.”

“Want to talk to Lynn?”

“No!” He barely kept it from being a shout. “Tell Lynn thanks for playing security guard, that was…nice, and she doesn’t need to stop in any more.”

“Where were you, man?” asked Jim. “People were looking for you this evening. Stopped in at the lab.”

“I left notes on campus,” Kent returned. “Look, I’m—”

“Suits.” Jim sounded more interested in telling Kent about what had happened rather than listening. “Something about you getting lost in the Deschutes and they couldn’t find you where you said you’d be. You okay?”

“Suits?” Kent felt goose bumps on his body, and knew it wasn’t from the balmy fifty degrees Eugene enjoyed as opposed to the near-blizzard they’d left behind in the High Cascades.

“Suits. You know. Guys in black suits, and they weren’t Mormon missionaries. Professional security looking types. Feds. Cops. Dunno, but the types who wear suits, sunglasses, keep one hand close to their chests, and wear little plugs in their ears? You in trouble, Kent?”

Kent cleared his throat. “Look, I have to go. Thanks. Just tell Lynn not to come.”

After grabbing all the clean clothes he could carry and re-locking his house, Kent climbed into the van.

* * * * *

POVRE SAT UP. THE LOOK
on his face alarmed her. She thought carefully for the words. “Kent, what is happening?”

“I don’t know what to do, Povre. Where we can go. There’s people already looking for me, us, I guess, even here.”

She gulped, searched for words, put them in correct order. “I didn’t mean to make problems.”

The bright light of the driveway floodlamp added to the sudden flash of his beautiful brown eyes. His voice, low and fierce, stirred a deep warmth in her. Oh, it was wrong, but she felt more for this human than she should. She knew to give in to her feelings was dangerous. They would lead to nothing but grief and pain. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t think she wanted to help it.