Earth Legend (6 page)

When I stopped shaking, I examined the
orchard. The apples were growing their little hearts out but I'd
brought a cart full to town earlier that day along with cherries
that were so abundant that I'd suggested they slow down a bit,
after thanking them for doing so well, of course. It happens that
way sometimes in my family. Things grow better than they ever did
before. We are good at what we do. But I shouldn't take another
load of fruit to town for a few days. Maybe a week.

So, with nothing to do in the orchard and not
daring to show up in town in case Cullen Vail was still there, I
decided to take a nap but it took long minutes to slip into slumber
because I was already rested and was still somewhat nervous from
the fright I'd had in the cafe. I lay with my eyes shut
tightly.

Then my skin prickled because someone was
looking at me. CullenVail? Had he followed me from the village? But
I couldn't keep my eyes closed forever. I had to face the music
some time. So I opened them. And saw Alicia holding a kitten and
staring down at me.

I sat up fast.

She held the kitten out. It was nothing
special, black and gray mottled. Just a kitten, but she loved it.
"I thought that since you're hiding, maybe you'd hide my kitten
too."

"Hiding?" I gulped. "I'm not hiding."

"Yes you are. I know you are. I've been
watching you. You come here all the time, you tell stuff to grow
and it does, then you tell it to jump into the cart and it does,
and you don't have an apartment after all." Blue eyes drilled holes
into me. "I figure you ran away from home. Was it bad there? Mom
says people do that sometimes and it's okay if it was bad."

"Uh…" I thought hard. "Yes. I did. I ran
away." She was a kid, she didn't realize that making things grow by
telling it to do so was unusual. "But not because it was bad.
Because …" I thought hard. "Because I wanted to be in the
orchard."

She nodded. "Sometimes I want to run away but
I'm not old enough." She dropped the kitten into my lap. It was
small and soft and mewed in fright. Instinctively I picked it up
and cuddled it. Alicia's face glowed brightly. "You like him and he
likes you. You can keep him."

"I can't … "

"I'll bring food. I promise. I won't forget,
not ever." She hopped from one foot to the other. "I've got to go
before my mom comes looking for me. She doesn't know I'm here, she
thinks I'm in the field."

I couldn't have her mother come to my
hideout. "Yes, you should go." The small thing in my arms licked my
face. "I'll keep the kitten." I was desperate for Alicia to leave
before she led someone to my hideout. "I'll hide it for you." I
stared at it eyeball to eyeball as it mewed softly. "What's its
name?"

"It's a boy kitten and it doesn't have a name
yet." She was gone and I was left with one small kitten and the
knowledge that my hiding place wasn't so secret after all. Alicia
knew about it. Did anyone else? Fear curled around my stomach and I
hugged the tiny kitten for comfort and was glad for his warm body
against mine.

We were both outcasts and both in danger of
being executed if we were caught. "Well, kitten." I stared at him.
"I guess it's you and me now whether it's what we want or not." He
mewed his agreement and I put him on the mattress where he curled
against me. "Don't worry little guy. I'll protect us. We'll be just
fine." I hoped we'd be fine.

Saying the words made my plight real and more
dangerous than I'd been willing to admit. I laid a hand on his tiny
back. "Don't be afraid." He wasn't afraid. In fact, he yawned and
went to sleep. "Sure. Sleep away. Don't worry about a thing." He
snuggled closer to me and began to snore gently. "You're braver
than I am." So I decided to call him Braveheart.

That night the piper came again to
unknowingly serenade me. I held my breath, afraid Braveheart would
start meowing and, thus give away my hideout. But I held him close
and he snuggled in and closed his eyes and listened along with me.
My musician … for that was how I'd come to think of him … was none
the wiser.

The next day I didn't know what to do with
Braveheart when I brought my weekly load of apples to town so I
brought him with me, tucked in a pocket. The man at the depot took
time to pet him. "You're the sucker who got him, eh? I told Alicia
she'd find someone to take him." He held the kitten high and
scratched it under its chin. "Nice kid, Alicia, even if she is a
bit of a busybody." I giggled because he'd described her perfectly.
"Her grandfather is the village mayor so I guess she comes by it
naturally." He doubled over laughing along with me.

I had lunch at the café, not staying long
enough for anyone to ask too many questions, then, after stopping
at the store for cat food and other cat necessities, I made my way
back to my homey cherry bushes. I looked around and wondered if I
dared bring a chair back the next time I was in town. The mattress
was nice but a chair would be pure luxury.

I poured cat litter into the pan from the
store, then I looked around for a private place to put Braveheart's
bathroom. I parted a pair of bushes. And found myself looking at a
pair of small, bare feet. I sighed. "Alicia, what are you doing
here? Don't you know that it's hard to keep a hiding place secret
if people come all the time?"

"I brought cat food." She held out a small
package. "I said I would."

I was about to say that I'd already gotten
food for Braveheart when a sound stopped me. Stopped us both. Froze
us like statues because someone was approaching along the same path
Alicia had used. I said a prayer and waited for Cullen Vail to
arrest me.

Instead, Wilkes Zander parted the bushes and
stared at the tableau before him. His granddaughter, a kitten, a
mattress that was neatly made up for sleeping, and me. "What have
we here?" was all he said in a deceptively mild voice as he took in
my horrified expression. "And why is someone living in the apple
orchard?"

I tried to speak and failed. I tried again,
but before I could get a word out … before I could figure out what
to say, even … Alicia spoke. "She's hiding. She ran away."

Wilkes Zander blinked but said nothing for a
long drawn-out moment. In that moment a thousand thoughts chased
each other across his face. He was everyone's grandfather, he was a
nice guy, but he was no fool and there was a reason he'd been
elected mayor of New Rochelle. The moment he saw me and my hideout,
he knew I was a stowaway.

Braveheart mewed and went to him. The kitten
knew him, Wilkes had probably played with him while visiting
Alicia. Now Alicia spoke, as usual. "Elle is taking the kitten. Now
they all have homes."

Wilkes' eyes narrowed and he looked at me and
then they swerved to Alicia. He loved his granddaughter dearly and
he knew what would happen to Braveheart if I went to jail. The
kitten would be executed and Alicia would be devastated and she'd
blame him.

He couldn't let that happen. He lifted his
eyes to the fake sky as if seeking Devine guidance. Then he spoke,
still in that mild tone of voice that hid the steel of his being
that I hadn't known existed until that moment. "I think it's time
to stop hiding, Elle." He stared at my newly muted red hair. "I
understand why you might not want to live with your family any
longer." He picked his way through a morass of possible things to
say and he did so carefully. He didn't want Alicia to know the
truth about me or about what he was about to do. Which was?

I held my breath. "Elle, I understand that
you want to live on your own. But you shouldn't have run away to
the forest. You could have asked me for an apartment. I'd have made
sure you got something decent and I'd have done so without anyone
else being involved." He paused and then, so there'd be no
mistaking his meaning, he added, "We can take care of it now if you
wish. If you want an apartment like everyone else on the Destiny.
Just you and me, we don't need any help."

It was almost a minute before I could speak
well enough to reply. "Thank you." He tipped his head and stared at
me hard. The friendly eyes were still friendly but they were also
granite. He was giving me a gift and I'd better not make him regret
it. "Thank you, Wilkes. You won't be sorry."

He looked again at my little domicile. "Bring
this stuff to town later. Tonight." When no one would notice and
ask questions. "We can get the paperwork done now, though, and find
you a nice place." He smiled at Alicia and the granite disappeared.
He loved his granddaughter dearly. "The kitten can come too, of
course."

Alicia hugged her grandfather and I stuffed
the kitten back into my pocket as we all headed to town. As we
emerged from the apple orchard, he made the laconic comment that
there were some perks to being the mayor of New Rochelle.

By evening, I had a furnished apartment.
Wilkes Zander's eyes had widened when he tried to give me a comunit
and I said I didn't need one. "I've got one already. Doesn't
everyone on the Destiny have one?"

"Yes, of course." His expression said that
some day he'd ask how I'd gotten something no one on earth had
access to. I wondered if I'd ever feel comfortable enough to give
him an answer. "Of course you have a comunit. Of course you do.
You're a colonist." He checked the database and found that I'd been
using it regularly and that puzzled him even more. "I'd get that
mattress out of the apple orchard as soon as possible if I were you
without making it look like you've been living there." Then he took
Alicia and left. I collapsed on the couch of my new home,
Braveheart climbed onto my lap and I looked around, daring to
breathe at last.

There was a screen on the wall. It was now
possible to communicate with friends and relatives on earth until
the space ship got so far out in space that the time delay between
questions and answers would make even time-delayed conversations
impractible. Then electronic letters would be the only option. I'd
had no way to access the communication system with earth before
getting the apartment so I'd had no way to tell my family how I was
doing.

I decided against contacting them face to
face the first time we communicated. Their expressions might give
me away. Instead I sent a text message to my cousins and even then
I was careful about the wording in case messages were vetted by
someone on the Destiny. I told them that I was now a resident of
New Rochelle and everything was as going as planned. I knew they'd
get the general idea and would fill in the blanks. Then I sat back
and waited for them to contact me. They did so by Skype less than
half an hour later and they were just as careful about what they
said as I'd been though it was clear that there were a million
questions they'd ask if they could.

My next message was carefully thought out.
"The mayor got me an apartment. He's very understanding." When they
got that message, their reply was nods to indicate that they knew
what I was really saying.

After another delay and another response on
their part, I added, "I like New Rochelle. My comunit works
everywhere on the Destiny so he didn't have to get me a new one."
Betts' imperceptible nod much later said she understood that I'd
found the comunit she'd stuck in my pocket and that I'd made good
use of it. "So things are going along. The only negative is that I
miss you guys. I wish you were here."

When it was their turn again, they said
fervently that they wished the same thing and then it was time to
end the conversation though we could have talked forever if we
could have spoken freely. We promised to talk again and all said
goodbye and I was left staring at blank walls.

I went to a window and pulled the curtain
aside and was glad that it overlooked a field beside the apple
orchard instead of the town square. I could almost pick out the
patch of cherry bushes that I'd thought would be my home forever. I
was glad I wasn't there. The apartment was way more comfortable
then a mattress on fake dirt and the bathroom was much appreciated,
especially the shower. No more Laundromat showers for me. And
Braveheart loved his new home.

Chapter Five

Cullen Vail makes his rounds.

The apartment was wonderful in that it made
it relatively easy to avoid people who might ask embarrassing
questions though I did miss sleeping surrounded by beautiful,
friendly apple trees that made me feel safe and loved and cherry
bushes that hovered over me protectively. I would have been happy
there, but I was glad to be a part of the community. Now,
emboldened by this step towards a legitimate existence, I wandered
the New Rochelle town square daily, ate occasionally in the café,
and made sure to visit for a while with the other farmers when I
brought in my weekly harvest of cherries and apples. And I was very
careful not to come more than once a week. That seemed appropriate,
judging from how often the other farmers brought their own produce
in.

Some day, I told myself, I'd be able to do
more than live on the fringes of this small town society. Some day
I'd be able to have friends. When enough time had passed that earth
was merely a place we all had lived at one time, I'd be able to
join in the conversations in the town square without worrying about
whether the subject of how we came to be on the Destiny came
up.

Some day, perhaps, conversations would have
moved on to other things. Just in case that never happened,
however, I was thinking up a plausible story of my origins that
would be accepted. So, even as I worked out a logical story, I
merely skimmed the surface of daily life in New Rochelle and stayed
home a lot.

I missed the pan pipes. As I lay in my
comfortable bed in my lovely bedroom in my decent apartment, I
wondered about the man who played such beautiful music. Who was he?
Did he miss Earth? Most of all, why did he sneak out to play in the
middle of an apple orchard instead of playing where people could
enjoy his music?