Guardian of the Fountain (7 page)

      
“Well, all
you need in your step is passion.” His smoldering stare caused Chrissie to stop
breathing for a second. She was mesmerized by his gaze, causing her to linger
in the depth of his eyes.
 

      
Snap out of it! You can’t go ga-ga for some
strange dude you just met on the street. Trey was suave too.

      
“Ha, ha.
What is passion?” Chrissie meant her response to be funny, but it came out
snarky instead.

      
“You just
haven’t found the right man to show it to you,” stranger-dude smiled.

      
Chrissie
gulped down a huge ball of air stuck in her throat. “So, do you live around
here?”

      
“Yes.”

      
Chrissie
expected him to expound, but he didn’t. The music ended.

      
 
The handsome stranger walked away and
waved. “Thank you for the dance, Chrissie.”

      
I didn’t give him my name …

“Wait!
How do you know my name?”

      
He only
paused to yell back over the music, “Arturo told me.”

      
Was she
still dreaming, or was this an actual memory? It felt so real, and in the
present. The time turned to day. Chrissie stopped by Arturo’s produce stand on
her way to the clinic the next morning. He was busy arranging mangoes in a
basket.

      
“Arturo?”

      
“Yes, mija?”
Arturo smiled his best winning smile.

      
“So, Arturo,
I danced with this gorgeous man last night who said you had given him my name.
Who was he?” Chrissie picked up a banana and put it into her bag.

      
“Gorgeous?
You thought he was very good-looking, no?”

      
“Yes . . .
No. I mean, don’t change the subject. Who is he?” She wasn’t about to let Arturo
weasel his way out of this one. The dear friend had won a spot in her heart the
first month she came to the quiet little Spanish town, but he wasn’t off the
hook.

      
“Brant
Winston.” Arturo went back to arranging his produce in orderly baskets, being
careful not to bruise the sun-ripened fruit. “Now get to work and stop
bothering this old man.” Under the shade of Arturo’s straw hat, Chrissie could
see a faint smile.

      
Halfway
down the block, Marla waited for Chrissie. “Hey, you man-eater.”

      
“Stop it. I
am not.”

      
“Okay,
maybe you’re not. But you did dance with that hunky stalker. He could stalk my
as . . .”

      
“Don’t say
it. You know how I feel about curse words.” Chrissie placed her hands on her
hips and began tapping her foot. “My mom always told me curse words were
unattractive. How do you expect to catch your classy man with a mouth of a
sailor?”
   

“All right,
Miss Goodie Goodie. But I did dig up some dirt on Brant Winston.”

      
“So you know
his name too? Why am I the only one who doesn’t know about Mr. GQ?”

      
“Just found
it out this morning. Our next-door neighbor is a gossip, and she gave me all
the goods on the guy.” Marla dug into her purse for a stick of gum and came up
empty handed. “It helps to have connections.” She shrugged.

      
“Spill it,”
Chrissie demanded.

      
“On one
condition. Find out if he has a single brother for me.” Marla wiggled her brows
in insinuation.

      
“That good,
huh? He must be fabulous if you want to date his brother.”

      
“Yep, that
good. First of all, he’s very wealthy. He sells exotic flowers and other plants
all over the world. Second, he’s in his early thirties and single, as far as we
know. Third, he lives up on the mountain somewhere. No one in the village knows
where.”

      
“So, he’s handsome,
rich, single, and mysterious. What’s the downside?”

      
“None yet.
I couldn’t dig anything up. Everyone here respects him. He sort of takes care
of the villagers, but my source wouldn’t expound. My Chatty Kathy suddenly got not-so-chatty
at that point. ” Marla pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

      
Chrissie
yanked it out of her mouth and ground it into the dirt with her tennis shoe.

      
“Hey!”
Marla yelled. “Stop destroying all my cigarettes. Last week, you cut a whole
pack in half.”

      
“You should’ve
learned by now not to smoke around me. As nurses, we know better than to smoke.
Besides, Daddy says it’ll make your butt wrinkly and fall off.”

      
“And you
believed him?”

      
“Are you
going to find out if it’s true or not? It’s a nasty habit, being a smoke stack.
Did you listen at all in all those nursing classes?”

      
“All right,
all right, I won’t smoke,” Marla handed the rest of her pack over to Chrissie.
“Just make sure you find the rest of those ciggies a nice home.” She looked
longingly at the pack. “I think I might be grouchy today.”

      
“Nonsense.
You’ll be as happy as you want to be. Besides, I thought you didn’t feel the
urge to smoke anymore.”

      
“I don’t.
But they’re so expensive, and I brought a month’s worth.”

      
“So you’re
going to smoke them all in a week? You told me last night you’d smoked your
last cigarette.”

      
“Actually,
it’s more of a habit to smoke than an addiction. But I got to thinking today
that if I didn’t smoke, I wouldn’t get as many breaks.” Marla folded her arms
unhappily. “Okay, Miss Sunshine.
 
You’re
always bubbly and happy. What do
you
smoke?”

      
“Rainbows I
buy off the street from a leprechaun.”

      
“Ah, stop
it.” The corner of Marla’s mouth twitched into a smile.

      
As Marla
and Chrissie neared the front entrance of the clinic, they saw Brant exiting
the clinic with a curvy exotic beauty. Marla stepped around the side of the
building to spy, pulling Chrissie in tight behind her.

      
“Hey! What
are you doing?” Chrissie yelled.

      
“Shush! We’re
spying on Brant.” Marla peeked around the corner as Chrissie looked over her
shoulder.

      
Brant
followed the lovely dark woman to a new red Ferrari. He opened her door for her
on the driver’s side. They looked like they were angry at each other and might
fight.

      
“I can’t
hear what they’re saying,” Chrissie said.

      
“Me
neither.” Marla frowned. “But it doesn’t look good for the two little love
birds. Maybe he wasn’t so single.”

      
The woman
got into her car and peeled out of the parking lot, spraying loose gravel all
around. Brant stomped off and got into a big truck, leaving much more calmly
than the woman.

      
“I wonder
what that was about.” Chrissie stepped out from behind the corner and resumed
her walk to the clinic.

      
“I wish I
had super-human hearing,” Marla picked up her step to keep up with Chrissie.

      
“That was
pretty good entertainment for a few moments. Now back to work.” Chrissie
shrugged.
 
“He probably did me a
favor, being seen with an attractive woman like that. It stopped me before I
got too curious about him. The last thing I want is another Trey experience and
to be humiliated all over again.”

      
“Aren’t you
the least bit interested in this handsome stranger?” Marla nudged Chrissie
gently.

      
“Nope, too
risky.” Chrissie walked into the clinic and clocked in for the day. Deep down
inside, Brant did captivate her, but she couldn’t risk another heartbreak any
time soon if she hoped to keep any positive attitudes about love and
relationships.

      
Chrissie’s
dream faded to black and into a deeper more restful sleep.

* * *

 
“She’s slept for two days. We need to
wake her.” Brant paced back and forth in front of the door.

“I’ve
tried. I can only get her to sit up long enough to drink a couple of ounces of
broth.” María sounded defeated. “The only way I knew she was alive was that she
was breathing, and she talked in her sleep.”

“The
way she ate me under the table the other night, I think she might be a bear in
hibernation.” Arturo stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“It
isn’t winter, estúpido!” María stared at him angrily.

“It’s
never winter here.” Arturo shook his head.

“All right!
That’s enough. Arturo, I think you’re right.” Brant tried to diffuse the
situation. “Maybe this is her body’s way of healing.”

“Ha!”
Arturo shouted with triumph.

“Now,
don’t get a big head about it,” María scolded. “I’m sure it was hard enough for
him to admit you were right. I’m going to have to search all the books to see
if I can find a cure to this.”

“In
all your years in the garden, has anyone lived through the Delphne Star
poisoning?” Brant leaned against the hall wall with his hands in his pockets.

“No,
but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. I only know of two people purposely taking
it.” Arturo scratched his head. “One of them took a full week to die, but he
had taken the water for at least a hundred years.”

“He’s
right. The second was poisoned and he didn’t have any water in him, and he died
instantly.” María looked in on Chrissie from the door with worry in her eyes.
“Both vials were missing, so who knows what she actually took.”

“I’ve
read over Father Delgado’s journals a milliard times. I can’t find anything
that matches what’s going on with her.” Brant took his hands out of his pockets
in frustration.

“Don’t
worry, Brant,” María soothed as she patted his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.
The fact that she isn’t dead now is a very good sign.”

* * *

Chrissie
awoke to tense voices in the hall. She hoped she could eavesdrop on more
information, but the conversation abruptly stopped just when it was getting
good.

Who
was the third voice? Was it the Guardian?

Three
sets of hurried footsteps left down the hall. Chrissie threw back the covers
and sat up in bed. As a nurse, she knew the easiest way to pass out was to get
out of bed too quickly, so she let her feet dangle off the edge of the bed
while she got used to the vertical position. It wasn’t more than a minute
before she got bored with the feet-dangling thing and padded her way down the
hall to the swimming-pool-sized bath.

All
the necessities were still there—shampoo, soap, and towels. No flower
petals—that must be a touch that was purely María. She undressed quickly,
eager to get into the restorative water. This time, a warm tingle started at
her toes and inched up the rest of her body.

This
magical water defied her medical knowledge, just as her mysterious ailment
defied even the most respected doctors back in the States. The body only had so
many ways to react to sickness, and her body had done nearly all of them. She
dove under the water to clear her head. Her skin felt like it was breathing the
water in and out as it rippled around her.

She
swam underwater and looked at the tile mosaic on the bottom of the pool. It was
a large tiled rose. It looked strangely similar to the glass one in her
reoccurring nightmare. She hadn’t had the nightmare since arriving here, and
felt relieved that it was in the past.

At
least, she hoped it was.

As
nice as the pool was, her stomach growled for nourishment. She hurried and
soaped up, hoping María was still cooking breakfast. After rinsing off, she got
out and went to her room to get dressed and check her email before heading down
to the kitchen. She opened up her laptop and saw that she had one unread
message from her mom.

Chrissie,

I’m relieved to hear that you are doing so
well! I’ve been going back and forth this whole time, wondering if I did the right
thing. Your dad is furious with me. He’s so mad that he still hasn’t spoken to
me since you left. But I think he’s beginning to realize we had run out of
options, and I did what I thought was best. Arturo has called me every other
day and has given me progress updates, thank goodness!

A young Hispanic man came to the door
yesterday and asked if you were home. He said you two were old friends from
Venezuela. I told him that you had gone back for a short visit. Why didn’t you tell
me about that one?