Escape from Eden (11 page)

Over the past week, I’d thought a lot about Prayer Circle. Wondered why Thaddeus had emphasized the importance of it, why it was significant as a sacrament in the Reverend’s church. I needed to know why Prayer Circle mattered. The more I knew about Edenton, the easier it would be to plan an escape. I’d tried to talk to Aliyah about Circle but she avoided the topic with glazed smiles and inane questions about cooking. It infuriated me. Not because she wouldn’t tell me anything, but because she wasn’t altogether there anymore. In mid-conversation her focus would drift, or I would find her in the corner of the kitchen staring off into space.

“Why are you suddenly so eager to go?” Mama asked, suspicion sharpening her voice. “Is it because of that boy?”

My head shot up. “Gabriel?”

She stood before the small mirror above a chest of drawers scraping her hair back away from her face with a small gray comb. She narrowed her eyes at my reflection. “Did anything happen with him, Mia? Other than a kiss?”

“I told you, nothing happened. And if you don’t believe me, ask Doc Gladstone for the examination results.”

“Things can happen that don’t show up on an exam.” With seething accuracy, she flipped her brown hair through an elastic and pulled it into a bun. “I can’t believe you even put yourself in a position to have to be given an examination like that!”

“Me?” Rage clawed at my gut. I’d spent most of the week successfully avoiding her, and now she stood before me, my judge and jury, as if my morality was on trial. “What about you, Mama?”

She spun around, anger flaring. “What about me?”

I stepped back but my temper blazed, too, and I lifted my head. “Go for any midnight swims lately?”

She blinked, wariness clouding her gaze. “What are you talking about?” She slowly sunk onto the edge of the bed.

I didn’t answer. As much as I wanted to confront her, if I did, she’d figure out that I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be that night—other than in the jungle kissing Gabriel.

She rubbed her temples, and closed her eyes.

“What’s wrong with your head?” I asked.

“All the stress you’ve caused this week,” she said. “I’ve had headaches.”

“Oh, so it’s my fault?”

“Yes. It is.” She sighed and looked up at me. “Mia, please. If this is about leaving Edenton—”

I glanced at the clock on the wall. “I have to go. I’m late for dinner service,” I said.

I left Mama alone in her cottage, staring after me. She was a hypocrite. Warning me to stay away from Gabriel when she was with that man in that place.

Stepping outside was a relief. The air was cool. It was early evening–later than I’d thought—and long, indigo shadows stretched across the paths lined with cottages and flowers. I hurried toward the kitchen to report for dinner prep.

The kitchen was already buzzing with activity. Aliyah sliced bread and placed it into baskets. Juanita alternated stirring two large pots on the stove. Dina added chopped cucumbers to large salad bins on the buffet. Bridgette stood by the rice cookers, spoon in hand, glaring at me as I walked in.

“Mia,” I heard and turned to see Agatha standing behind me with a clipboard. “You’re late.”

“I’m sorry, Agatha. I was with my mother. She needed me for something.” I decided then not to tell anyone I’d gotten the call to Prayer Circle.

“Well, we’re almost ready for dinner service, anyway. Why don’t you take the compost and recycling to the heap?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bridgette grin.

Back to the heap, where I’d burned the rats and pretended to burn my sketchbook. The heap was a miserable place. Even the most devout of God’s creatures didn’t like the stench at the heap.

I gathered up the waste bins beneath the work areas. None of my cottage mates spoke to me, which meant Agatha was probably complaining about my lateness before I’d arrived. Once again I resigned myself to being the pariah for the evening. I said nothing and carried the bins, one after the other, through the back door of the kitchen and dumped each type of waste into the proper containers. The waste containers sat on a dolly, which made them easier to transport to the heap.

I dragged the dolly down the path, passing the dining hall, where members of the Flock sat at tables, waiting for dinner service. I threw a smile to Max when I saw him sitting next to Mama, but it faded as soon as Mama met my gaze.

Darkness encroached along the edges of the road leading to the heap, the fading day slowly illuminating the lights on either side. My eyes had trouble adjusting. Everything looked flat. The heap was located in a wide circle of trees, bordered by a fence topped with razor wire.

They’re keeping us in.

I rolled the dolly to the large compost receptacle and began dumping the kitchen scraps when I heard a dull thumping sound. I turned. In the dim light Gabriel stood, hunched over, shovel in hand, sorting the trash pile.

My stomach lurched. I hadn’t seen him all week, but I still felt a stab of rejection, fresh as it had been after that kiss. Where had he been this whole time? Working here? And was this his punishment for kissing me in the jungle? A flush warmed my cheeks at the memory. I could still feel how he tugged me to him, the softness of his lips.

“Hey,” I said, tossing aside the compost container and marching toward him.

He didn’t turn around. “Hey to you,” he said, still shoveling.

The uniform shirt he wore stretched over his back, damp down the center with sweat. I could see his muscles roll and tense beneath the fabric.

“Where have you been?” I asked, my tone surprisingly demanding.

He stopped then, shovel frozen in the air, and glanced over his shoulder at me. “Where have I been? Oh, you know. Here and there.” He drove the shovel into the pile of trash at his feet where it remained speared in the ground. He faced me. “But mostly here.”

“Mostly here,” I repeated.

He stepped closer. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

“Really.”

“First, I need to apologize for what happened. I didn’t know you’d have to go through … ” He paused as if searching for the words.

“An examination?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I’m assuming you didn’t have one?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“How very nice for you.” I turned to walk away.

“Hey,” he called. “Aw, Ricci, come on.” He grabbed my shoulder and flipped me around to face him. “I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for—the kiss or me having to get an exam. I hoped it wasn’t the kiss. He looked sincere, though, and I felt a tug in my chest.

“I got the call to Circle,” I blurted.

He stared at me blankly for a moment, then recognition hit his eyes. “Prayer Circle?”

I nodded. “Yeah. My mom got the invitation this morning.”

“I see.” He folded his arms and studied me. “Are you hitting on me, Ricci?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, what Thaddeus said.” One eyebrow lifted in a perfect arc. “That you can’t be with any boys until after Prayer Circle—”

“No!” I stepped back. “Of course not!”

He smiled a little. “Oh, well.”

I rubbed my forehead. Grizz was right. Gabriel was exhausting.

“What else did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

“I’ve been pretty isolated the last week, since we saw what we saw.” He shifted his feet in the dirt. “I mean, that resort or whatever it was. I’ve asked a couple people about it but they don’t have a clue. Did you, um … ” he glanced away for a second “ … ask your mom what she was doing there?”

“No,” I said. “I didn’t want her to know I was out near that place. She might say something to Thaddeus. But maybe having some insight into Circle could help me figure out how to escape.”

“Wait a minute,” Gabriel said, holding up his hands. “You? I thought
we
were escaping. As I recall, you demanded I take you with me. Now you’re going to leave on your own?”

“Well, I, uh, changed my mind.” I tried for confidence in my voice, but I sounded more confused.

“Obviously.” He turned away from me abruptly, and snagged the shovel speared in the ground. “Maybe I’ll see you in the outside world sometime.”

My head spun with confusion. He’d kissed me so we wouldn’t get caught sneaking back into Edenton. It wasn’t his fault I wanted that kiss to be more than simply a ruse to fool the security guards. I’d overreacted, and escaping on my own wasn’t only dangerous, but stupid.

“Look, Gabriel—”

“What the—?” I heard and spun around. Grizz stalked toward us, hands curled into fists. His gun was slung over his shoulder and it bounced as he walked. “I can’t even take a piss! What’s going on?”

Gabriel whispered a curse.

“Nothing’s going on,” I said, my voice pitching higher than I intended.

Grizz stopped, boots clomping in the trash-ridden dirt, and loomed over us. The light behind him limned his shaved head in a yellow glow. “You two aren’t supposed to be around each other. And here you are.” He swirled his finger in the air between us. “Around each other.”

I glanced at Gabriel. He stood, one hand on the handle of the shovel, the other on his hip. Lazily, he gave me an expectant look. I guessed I had to come up with the excuse because it didn’t look like he was going to even bother trying.

Fine.

“I was breaking it off with Gabriel,” I said. “He needs to know it’s over.” I gave him a pitying expression. “He just won’t give up hope.”

Gabriel inclined his head, the corners of his mouth curled up in a tiny smile, as if to say touché.

“Good!” Grizz said, too exasperated to notice our exchange. “Hold up. I mean, not good. There shouldn’t have been anything to break off to begin with! Stay away from each other, you hear me? No more antics.” He swung a bandaged hand at Gabriel. “I have to keep beating him up because of his antics.”

“Honestly, Grizz, you hit like a girl,” Gabriel said, rubbing his jaw. He glanced at me. “No offense.”

“Maybe,” I said, “you need to be hit by a real girl.”

“Is that a promise, Ricci?”

“Stop the flirting!” Grizz yelled.

“We are not flirting,” I said and wondered with a flush of embarrassment if that was, indeed, flirting.

Grizz took in a labored breath and exhaled with a growl. “You,” he said to me, “leave. Back to the kitchen.”

“But I have trash duty,” I said motioning to the abandoned dolly.

“I’ll take care of it,” said Grizz. “I’ll tell Agatha you did it all. Get the hell out of here before someone sees and Thaddeus is on my ass again.”

“Okay, okay,” I said backing away. “But the bins need to be scrubbed out.” That was a tiny lie.

“I got it!” Grizz said, waving impatiently. “Just go.”

Because I was supposed to be at the heap for another twenty minutes or so, I snuck back to my cottage and hid out with my sketchbook until it was time to return to the kitchen for cleanup and breakfast prep.

When I returned, the kitchen was practically empty. Only Juanita and Dina were on duty, cleaning up pots and dishes and placing them in the dishwasher. I found the dolly Grizz had returned parked outside the back of the kitchen, the bins scrubbed out and still damp. Silently, I returned the bins to the workstations and began taking fruit from the cartons to prep.

“How was the heap?” Juanita asked me.

“Stinky,” I replied.

“Maybe next time,” Dina said airily, “you won’t be late for dinner duty.”

“Maybe,” I said through a tense smile.

I continued concentrating on cutting mangoes to keep from saying something to Dina. She was only Bridgette’s minion, but she was a pupil to the master of pious scolding.

“Here.” Juanita placed a bowl of beans and rice next to my cutting board. She held another bowl in her other hand. “I saved you some dinner.”

“Thank you,” I replied, genuinely touched by her thoughtfulness. If she hadn’t made me a plate, I would have had to sneak bites of fruit as I prepped and wait until breakfast to eat. “Who’s that one for?” I asked, eyeing the other bowl.

She tilted her head toward the open service line window with a clear view of the dining room. “Him.”

Alone at the center of a long table, was Gabriel. He sat, elbows on the edge of the table, hands clutched together in front of him. Between his hunched shoulders he hung his head, dark hair hiding his face.

“Grizz brings him here for every meal after everyone leaves,” Juanita said. “But usually it’s later than this. Grizz said he needed a shower. He smelled pretty rank.”

“Ah,” was all I said.

I hadn’t been scheduled for any late shifts in the kitchen, probably because they didn’t want me running into Gabriel as he was served meals. I returned to prepping the fruit, but peeked at Juanita as she placed the plate down in front of Gabriel and sat across from him. He thanked her politely, smiling. They began talking, about what I couldn’t hear, but they spoke to each other like they’d been friends for a while. Jealousy bubbled inside me. I had no right to be jealous, though. I wasn’t courting him, and had no plans to do so.

I furiously cut up mangoes and scraped them into a bowl.

“You’re making a mess,” Dina said, now standing beside me.

“I’ll clean it up,” I snapped.

“Okay,” she said, but remained next to me.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked her, not in the mood to listen to her breathy, childlike voice.

“No,” she sighed, staring off at Gabriel and Juanita seated at the table. “They make a cute couple.”

I tensed, fingers strangling the handle of my knife. “Yes.”

“I think he’s going to ask the Reverend to court her.”

The knife slipped, almost slicing my finger. Dina threw me a questioning look.

“Working too fast,” I said, trying to cover up my shock. “So, why would Gabriel ask to court Juanita?”

“They talk every meal. He comes here after the kitchen is closed to eat. Guess he got into some trouble or something. Anyway, she’s been serving him his meals and she stays to chat with him.” Dina’s voice dipped to breathy awe. “I like watching him smile.”

I looked over to see Gabriel laughing at something Juanita said. My stomach pitched, either out of jealousy, or from the effect of his smile. Either way, I would have rather shoved the knife through my hand than feel that way.