Escape from Eden (10 page)

Gabriel waved his hand over my deadened gaze. “Ricci, you with me?” he whispered.

“Yeah,” I replied. I realized we were now walking through the jungle, his arm circling my waist, guiding me along.

“Good, because we need to move a little faster.” His arm tightened and he corralled me forward, moving quickly. “Don’t think about what you saw,” he said in a surprisingly soothing tone. “Just don’t think about it right now.”

“How can I not think about it?” My voice shook. “I’m never going to be able to stop thinking about it.”

“Years of therapy should help with that.”

“Years of what?”

“Nothing. Keep walking.”

After twenty minutes of picking our way over the jungle floor in silence, Gabriel came to a sudden stop. I heard a snapping crack. Then saw a light sweep across the tree trunks and leaves in front of us.

I stiffened. Gabriel pulled me into the shadows of wide leaves. Neither of us moved.

The beam of light arced closer.

Through the trees, I could see the dim glimmering lights of Edenton. We were so close, and I would have preferred the oppressive safety of Edenton to where we were now.

Gabriel peeked around a tree and I felt his heart pound harder.

“Shit,” he mumbled.

My pulse throbbed in my throat. I looked up at him. Before I could see his expression, he pressed his lips to mine with a blinding pressure. One hand tangled in my hair, the other cinched my waist. My body felt feverish. Through the sweaty material of my shirt, I could feel the muscles of his chest, hard and smooth. The effect made me dizzy and I would have fallen back against a tree if he weren’t holding me. All I heard were our hearts, the noises of the jungle around us, the footsteps of the person approaching with the flashlight. Everything else faded away. There was only sensation. The softness of Gabriel’s lips pressed hotly on mine, the hard planes of his body pressed against my curves. I didn’t even want to wonder why he was kissing me, he just was. My stomach fluttered. It was as if my body began to blossom, awaken, after seasons of cold. I snaked my arms over his shoulders and pulled him closer. I opened my mouth tentatively. He went rigid.

“Hey!” I heard and Gabriel tore himself away from me. Light shone in our eyes, and we shielded our faces with our hands. But as Gabriel looked at the man with the flashlight, I looked at him. What just happened?

“Goddammit,” Grizz said, swinging the flashlight beam to Gabriel’s face. “I told them you’d be trouble.” His eyes focused on me and he actually growled. “Mia! Is that—it’s you?”

I nodded, my body hot all over, slightly terrified and very, very confused.

Grizz took a step toward Gabriel. “If you did anything to hurt her—”

“We were only kissing!” Gabriel held up his hands. “That’s all that happened.”

Realization dawned. Gabriel had kissed me so Grizz would think that’s why we were out here on the edge of Edenton alone. To kiss. Or do other things. Disappointment lodged in my chest, my heart seeming to miss a few beats.

“Come on.” Grizz grabbed Gabriel by the arm. “We’re going to see Thaddeus. Mia, let’s go.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” I lied, trying to hide my disappointment.

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Grizz said. “Both of you, move.”

We trudged the short distance to Edenton. I stole glances at Gabriel the entire way. His cheeks were flushed and he licked his lips. Those lips just gave me my first kiss. The thought sent excitement then dismay through me. It had been my first kiss, yes. But it wasn’t sincere, or real. It was only a ploy. So maybe it didn’t count. I watched Gabriel stalk quietly beside Grizz, that air of confidence still surrounding him like an impenetrable cloud. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I wanted that kiss to count.

Grizz grumbled into his walkie-talkie, telling Thaddeus to expect us. We approached a wide, wooden gate located at a mouth of trees. The gate was ajar, with a slumping guard leaning against one of the posts, arms folded over his chest. His face, lolling forward, was hidden.

“Freddie, wake up,” Grizz snapped and Freddie popped to attention.

“Yes, here!” Freddie said.

“We’re going in.” Grizz kicked the gate open and shoved Gabriel forward through it.

I lagged behind, wary. This section of the commune housed not only the Reverend’s cottage, but the offices and cottages of Edenton’s administrators. People like Thaddeus. I’d only been to this part of Edenton once, when I’d delivered soup to a sick Thaddeus in his office. Or outside his office. He’d cracked the door and asked that I leave it on the front step.

“You too, Mia?” Freddie asked when he saw me.

“Her, too,” Grizz grumbled. “But not a word of this to anyone, understand, Freddie? Not. A. Word.”

Freddie agreed with a mumbled, “Not a word,” and we continued past him.

I kept my eyes on my feet as we passed a number of cottages. I didn’t want to make eye contact with Gabriel, or Grizz. By the time we reached Thaddeus’s office, the lights were burning bright in the windows.

The door opened and I was hit with a blast of cold air, almost like opening the large refrigerator in the kitchen. I immediately shivered and tried to cover my arms with my hands. Thaddeus’s office was air-conditioned. I didn’t know any place in Edenton was air-conditioned. I felt betrayed. First, because how could Thaddeus be so selfish? He extolled the importance of sacrifice for the good of the community. I was positive an AC unit was siphoning more than its fair share of electricity. And second, why didn’t anyone in Edenton talk about it? People must have known. What other things didn’t people in Edenton talk about?

Like Mama.

Naked.

Kissing a strange man.

There were bigger secrets than air-conditioned cottages.

Grizz threw Gabriel in a chair in front of the desk, then nodded his head at the other chair. “Sit, Mia. Thaddeus will be here in a minute.”

I sat, and felt the coldness of the leather seep through the fabric of my damp jeans.

In the silence that hung around us, the hum of the air conditioner sounded unnatural and strange. His office seemed that way, too. It was very clean, and very luxurious–at least, in comparison to the interiors of the other cottages. The walls were painted the color of raw liver. On the floor, a richly detailed rug stretched below a large mahogany desk. The surface of the desk itself was empty except for a phone with a lot of buttons and a manila envelope. Behind the desk, shelves lined the wall. On each shelf were skeletons. Animal skeletons. Cats, birds, what looked like a small monkey. Some I couldn’t identify at all.

A door opened in the back of the cottage and Thaddeus walked in. He was tall and imposing in his monk-like intensity. His eyes never left Gabriel’s as he sat down behind the desk. He said nothing as he picked up the envelope and slipped on a pair of dark-framed glasses. On the front I could see my name typed on a label. What was it? My health records? Information about me? A list of everything I’d ever done wrong since I arrived in Edenton? I couldn’t see through the packet of papers he removed. Intentionally or not, he flipped through the papers without bending the sheets far enough for me to see what was written on them.

“Grizz, you may leave,” Thaddeus said in his chestnut voice.

“He says all they did was kiss.” Grizz gave Gabriel a hard look. “Let’s hope that’s all he did to her.”

“Yes,” Thaddeus said. “Thank you. You may go.”

Grizz seemed put off by Thaddeus’s dismissal, but tromped to the door mumbling under his breath. It shut behind him with a bang. That noise rang in my ears until the hum of the air conditioner took over.

Thaddeus slid the papers back in the envelope and folded his hands neatly on the desk.

Yesterday, before I’d attacked Bridgette, I’d wanted to face Thaddeus, ask him why Agatha chose me to bake those damn cookies, ask about Prayer Circle, and so much more. But the way his placid face betrayed none of his emotion, the solemn line of his mouth, set my nerves on edge. I could never confront Thaddeus, and was foolish to think so.

“Gabriel,” he said quietly. “I cannot say I’m surprised to see you back here again.”

“You’re a sparkling conversationalist,” Gabriel said, folding his arms over his chest. “I missed our discourse.”

A muscle in Thaddeus’s jaw jumped. “Gabriel, you’ll see soon enough that God has given me the gift of endless patience.” He turned to me. “Mia, did this boy take advantage of you?”

“Advantage?” I was sure my face lit bright red. “Um, no. No he didn’t.”

“So you went with him willingly?”

I glanced at Gabriel. He stared straight ahead with the side of his mouth kicked up in a smirk.

“Yes. I went willingly,” I said.

“Mia,” said Thaddeus slowly. “You know you are not supposed to …” he cleared his throat “… be with a boy until after you’ve attended your first Prayer Circle.”

“Be with a boy?” Oh, God. He thought I had sex with Gabriel! “Oh, no. We didn’t …” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, especially after seeing Mama.

Gabriel spoke up. “We only kissed. And it’s my fault. I asked her to come with me and I got a little carried away.”

“A little carried away?” There was a hint of outrage in Thaddeus’s voice. “Are you saying if Grizz hadn’t found you—”

“Hell, no!” Gabriel looked genuinely offended. “I don’t make a habit of taking advantage of young girls.”

“Young?” I said. “I’m barely a year younger than you!”

“Mia.”

Thaddeus dropped my name like an anvil. I felt the force of it in the pit of my stomach. He picked up the phone and pressed a button. I heard a voice answer on the other end.

“Gladstone,” Thaddeus said. “I need you to perform an examination immediately.” I heard mumbling. “It’s not an emergency.” He paused. “Yes, I realize it’s one in the morning, but this is important.” More mumbling on the other end, and by the pitch of Doc Gladstone’s voice, it sounded like a question. Thaddeus’s eyes locked on mine. “Pelvic.”

At the edge of my sight, I saw Gabriel sink in his chair. I kept my gaze on Thaddeus, confused. Pelvic? Why would … ? A cold wave of disgust slithered down my spine. He wanted to know if I was still a virgin. I should have been mortified, but I was too furious.

The phone hit the receiver with a clank. “Report to the infirmary immediately, Mia.”

“We’re telling the truth,” I said with steel in my voice. “We only kissed. And that’s if you really want to call what happened out there a kiss. It was more like being licked in the face by a dog. Except a dog would have had better breath.”

Gabriel had the audacity to glare at me, insulted.

“Mia.” Thaddeus stood, towering over us. “You are to go to the infirmary immediately. I’m sparing you Contrition, because this clearly wasn’t your fault. However, you are not to speak to each other. Don’t even look at each other. If you’re caught together before Mia attends her first Prayer Circle, you’ll both be seriously punished.”

“I haven’t attended my first Prayer Circle,” Gabriel said, still slouched in the chair. “I’m getting the feeling I’ll never be popular. Throw me a bone, Thad.”

“Why until after I attend Prayer Circle? What about him?” I asked, then saw that was a mistake.

Thaddeus’s famous patience was beginning to disintegrate. He clenched his fists on the surface of the desk. “The canon of the Flock of the Promised Land is not to be questioned. Now, Mia, go. And you,” he turned to Gabriel, who lazily raised his eyebrows as if to say, yes? “You are going to learn that physical labor can cleanse the soul.”

“I thought I was already learning that lesson.”

“We are doubling your studies,” said Thaddeus.

“See, Thaddeus?” Gabriel said. “We have such engrossing repartee.”

Thaddeus banged the desk, once, and said, “Mia, go.”

I backed out of the cottage under Thaddeus’s fierce gaze. Pulling the door closed behind me, the darkness of the Edenton night drew the shadows close. I felt the full weight of what had happened on my shoulders: the poisoned cookies, the secret town, Mama’s other life, Thaddeus’s cooled cottage, the mystery of Prayer Circle, Gabriel. And his searing—his faked—kiss.

Determination rose in me like a tide. I was going to find a way to escape, with Max, and we’d leave Edenton behind to drown in its secrets.

The envelope was cradled in Mama’s hands. It was crushed in on one side, as if it had been snatched away in haste. On the front, my name was written with flowing cursive in deep indigo ink.

“You got the call,” Mama said.

She sat in the chair in the corner of her room, across from me. Inside her cottage it was stuffy and hot. A slow drip of sweat slid down my back. In her starched dress, she looked stern, like the schoolteacher she was–so unlike the naked, carefree woman from six nights ago.

She leaned forward and handed me the envelope.

I didn’t meet her eyes, and avoided touching her hand. On the back of the envelope was a waxy seal, that familiar symbolic tree of Edenton, pressed into the shiny gold, metallic wax. I cracked open the seal. Handwritten in small letters, I saw my name—Mia Eden—along with a date and time. Below that, The Cottage of the Reverend Elias Eden was scrawled larger than the rest. The paper itself was beautiful, thick and pulpy. But I wouldn’t save that paper, even as my own supply disappeared under layers of pencil lead or disintegrated by an eraser.

“When?” she asked.

“Tomorrow night.” I folded the envelope, threw it on the dresser, and focused my eyes on my feet.

Tears of anger and frustration welled in my eyes and I blinked them back. She was a liar, more deceitful and manipulating that I ever imagined. I studied my boots with more focus. My brown utilitarian boots, dusted with flour from this morning’s baking. I’d been given the early shifts for food service this past week. Punishment, I guessed, for my transgression with Gabriel.

“So soon.” I heard her get up from her chair. “You’re still so young.”

“I’m sixteen,” I said, willing my tears away. I needed strength to face her. “Almost all the girls in my cottage have been to Prayer Circle. Only Juanita and I haven’t gone.” And Lily, I couldn’t help but think.