The Earth Painter (20 page)

“Well, I think we’ve found our leads. And what chemistry you two have.” She clapped her hands and looked almost giddy. Was she kidding?

When class was over, I couldn’t bare going to lunch with Wayne and Anthony. I lingered in the auditorium until everyone was gone. Then I made my way up the ladder, but when I got up to
Theo’s home, he wasn’t there. The place had been painted to look like a solitary island in the middle of the sea. I sat and watched the ocean waves until the bell rang for lunch to be over. I pulled a sheet of paper from my bag and wrote a note to Theo, asking him to come see me after work. I was closing and wouldn’t be home until late.

Dad and I had worked out a plan for me to walk to work after school, and he would pick me up around midnight. That was kind of late for him, but I knew Shelby wouldn’t be over my betrayal. I was nervous about what it would be like working with her that night. I wasn’t expecting Shelby to be waiting for me just outside my last class of the day.

“Hey, Shelby.
What are you doing here?”

Shelby looked off, refusing to look at me. “I wanted to apologize to you. I know you were just trying to help. You were right about Brad. He took off the moment Mom told him that she was calling the cops.” Then she finally looked at me. “I wanted to see if you needed a ride to work and back home?”

I wasn’t expecting anything like this. It looked like Fritz was wrong about Shelby. “That would be great. I’ll text my dad and tell him. He’ll be glad he doesn’t have to wait up on a work night.”

We changed in the locker room and got to work. It was nice to have my friend back. All seemed fine all night, except…every now and then I caught Shelby staring at me with a look that made the hair on my neck stand. Maybe it was in my head, but in those moments, I had to wonder if things were really okay between us. But then she’d shake it off and say something funny or tell me about a new hair cut she learned.

When it was time to lock up and close everything, Shelby handed me a box of meat and asked me to take it back to the deep freeze while she collected our things from the locker room. I thought it was strange that she wanted me to clean up the grill area instead of one of the cooks, but I didn’t question it. The more hands working, the sooner we got out of there. I carried it to the walk-in freezer, put it on the shelf and tried to
exit,
only the door had locked behind me.

I didn’t panic at first, because I knew Shelby was aware I’d gone in there. The others were clocking out, but she’d come looking for me when I didn’t meet her at the car. I waited, but no one came. I pounded hard against the cold metal door, but no one answered back. I beat harder and screamed. Panic set in when Shelby didn’t come quickly. I beat the door until my knuckles turned red and sore. I’m not sure how long I did that, but then I remembered my phone in my pocket. I normally kept it in my locker, but I’d kept it with me after texting my dad. I dialed his number, but the call wouldn’t go
through—no
signal. I looked at the time on my phone. It was after midnight. No one was there to hear me yell. Up until then, I’d been so busy screaming I hadn’t noticed the chill bumps or that I was shivering.

I pulled my arms inside my t-shirt and slunk to the floor and pulled my legs in. My breath was visible each time I exhaled. I’m not sure how long I sat there before I closed my eyes. I pictured my room—warm and cozy and Charleston, where even in the winter the temperatures were mild. In my dream, I was in my room—painted with care, no detail forgotten, just for me.
Painted by my painter.

But no, he wasn’t my painter. He couldn’t feel for me what I felt for him. The scene kept changing from my happy room to the night with the sciences and Theo telling me that he could never love me. But he wasn’t saying that anymore.

“Holly, wake up. You’ve got to wake up.” Theo’s voice was so far away.

I tried, but I couldn’t answer him.

“You’re going to be ok. I’m getting help,” he said, trying to reassure me.

And then I felt warmth. The cold slowly faded away. I awoke, for a second, to see I was no longer in the freezer, and a police officer was wrapping a blanket around me.

I awoke again when someone slipped an oxygen mask on my face. Two medics lifted me onto a stretcher. Without thinking, I started swatting and kicking at them. I didn’t understand why they were strapping me down.

“Miss, calm down.
We’re taking you to the hospital. You’re going to be ok. We have to strap you down for safety reasons. Calm down or we’ll have to sedate you,” the large androgynous woman said just a few inches from my face.

I tried to reach for the mask so I could speak, but my arms were strapped. My mind was jumbled. I couldn’t think of why they were taking me to the hospital. “What happened?” I managed to yell through the mask.

“You were locked in the freezer. You’re lucky or blessed or haunted … something.” She held up a bag of clear fluids attached to my arm while she and another medic pushed me into the ambulance. The medic at my feet shut us in. She must have seen the confusion in my eyes.

“The officer who found you said that either an angel or a ghost told him, you were in there. He said he suddenly felt the need to patrol around the restaurant. He pulled up and saw nothing and was about to leave when the lights inside started flickering on and off. He saw napkins flying out of the holders through the window, but then he said the front doors started shaking when suddenly he saw a man shaking them. When he finally noticed the man, he told the officer you were trapped in the freezer and disappeared. The officer entered the restaurant before back up
arrived and found the freezer padlocked. He used cutters from his trunk to get into the freezer, and there you were.”

Theo had broken the rule about not making himself noticed. What would the Sculptor do to him for breaking the rule?

The ride to the hospital in Spartanburg was slow, and I was tired. I drifted in and out.

***

The florescent lights and tile ceilings made me think I was at school at first. Then I saw the metal rails on the bed and heard monitors beeping and remembered. I tried to sit up, but my dad’s hand pushed me back.

“Settle down Sweetheart. Just lay still until the doctor comes in to check you.”

I leaned back and glanced around the room to see if Theo was there, but he wasn’t. Just then, Mom came in.

“The nurse is paging the doctor now to let him know she’s stirring.” Mom looked at me. “You’re awake. Good.” She came closer and tucked the blanket around me. “How are you feeling?”

“You came. I thought you were ignoring me.”

Mom fluttered about the room straightening random items. “Of course I came. How would it look if I didn’t rush to the hospital when my daughter’s hurt?”

I let my head sink deeper into the pillow as I sighed. “What time is it?” There were no windows in my little ER room to give me an indication.

“Almost six,” Dad answered after glancing at his watch.

I tried to sit up but found it awkward with the way the bed was adjusted. “How long was I in the freezer?”

Mom pulled a stool closer to the bed and took my hand. “The officer said it was around four by the time he got the lock off and opened the door. We’d been in bed for hours and didn’t realize you weren’t home. Mr. Walker is here. I think he’s afraid we might file a suit against the place.”

“Or maybe he’s concerned about Holly,” Dad countered. “Sweetheart, how did you get locked in? Didn’t Shelby notice? Why didn’t she go back in and look for you?”

Shelby—she knew I was in the freezer. She sent me in there. My gut churned as I considered the only possible explanation. “Quick, hand me a bowl!”

Dad held out a kidney bowl for me. “The nurse said the medication they used to raise your pulse might make you sick.”

When I finished, I leaned back on the pillow and stared at the wall. I had expected Shelby to be mad at me for telling my dad, but to try and kill me for it? I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea enough to say it out loud.

Mom and Dad stepped out to talk to the nurse and doctor. I was still cold and tucked myself deeper under the heated blanket the nurse had brought me. I had the blanket over my face, trying to breathe the warmth in.

“How are you?” The voice was soft and familiar.

I pulled the blanket off my face and looked at Theo taking a seat on the side of my bed. “Alive, thanks to you. I think Shelby locked me in.” Suddenly my problems with Shelby seemed small. “Are you in trouble with the Sculptor for what you did?”

Theo shook his head. “I’m not sure. He hasn’t summoned me yet.” He reached out and started stroking my cheek. “I saw Fritz today at school. He was whispering to Shelby.”

Theo stopped and looked at me. I couldn’t read his expression. “I had no idea this is what he was planning with her.”

I sat up, feeling a bit of hope spring up. “So it wasn’t her fault. She was being whispered to by Fritz.”

Theo shook his head. “It’s still her fault, no matter what Fritz whispered to her. Whispers only work if the person is listening and open to the idea. Shelby seems to think violence is normal. Why else would she make excuses for a boy who beats her? She was open to violence, and she ran with a violent suggestion given to her.”

I looked at him. How was it that he could look at me like that—like he could see me through and through and say he had no capacity to love? He had just risked himself by going against the Sculptor’s orders. Honestly, he seemed better at it than my very human mother. I reached up and took his hand from my face and held it.

“Thank you for getting help. I know you risked a lot doing that.”

Theo didn’t answer at first, but when he did, I wasn’t expecting what he had to say. “I don’t want you to speak to the school board. Fritz is fighting to win. It’s become too dangerous for you.”

I sat up, uncomfortable or not. I felt my forehead wrinkle as I processed what he was saying.
“But what about the blessing?
I thought you wanted to help people find their purpose.”

Theo moved away and paced by the bed. “The blessing is not the only way people can find their purpose in life. People around the world figure it out all the time.”

I sat there and thought about it. “Then why have you cared so much if it doesn’t really matter?”

Theo acted like he might punch the wall before he turned back to look at me. “I know what it’s like to know your exact purpose—to know what you were made for. It’s incredible.
Glorious, even!”
His face beamed as he spoke. “You get the biggest high when you are doing the thing you were put on this planet to do. When you are busy with work you’re just made for and excel at—there’s no feeling like it.”

Theo looked away for a second, and his countenance changed. “I also know what it feels like to drift along trying to entertain yourself, because you don’t know why you’re still here or what you’re supposed to be doing. You can only hang out with friends and play cards for so long. Eventually, you don’t even care about that really. That’s been my existence since the sciences took over. It’s hell. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. At least old people can look forward to death. Until then, their minds wander back in time until it’s over.”

He looked at me and came closer. “Look at you. You’ve had the water. When you got to Chesnee, you wanted nothing to do with drama or speaking in front of people. All that talent would’ve been hidden away and wasted. Maybe you would have stumbled onto it in college. Or maybe you would have majored in the wrong thing, taken the wrong job and been miserable for years without knowing why.”

“Daily, I see a world that’s not exactly what I had in mind. Life is
eat
or be eaten—the strong lords it over the weak. I’ve been sitting in that high school all these years, because there I could see life a little closer to how it should be. Doesn’t life seem hard enough? Why not make this one area a little easier? The way it was supposed to be before Fritz hid the Mia-
Dae
. That’s why I asked you to help me.”

I looked at him. Life wasn’t all perfect in Chesnee, even with the enhanced water. “Look at Shelby and her mom. The water hasn’t made life all sweet and easy. They drank the water. My mom did, too.”

Theo shook his head. “It’s still not perfect, even when people drink the water. I know that. Girls get pregnant and never get to go after their dreams. Guys go off to war instead, or maybe their parents don’t support them with their dream. Kids don’t have the money for college. But, at least if a person knows where they belong, they can try to do something about it. And when they see that talent in others, they can nourish it in a way that didn’t happen for them.”

“That doesn’t sound like a reason to give up.”

Theo sat in front of me on Mom’s stool. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Fritz hates me, but he can’t hurt me. He hates humans even more. And I think he hates you most of all because you notice me. Why give him more reason to come after you?”

I looked at Theo. Years of being beaten down had made me come out swinging. I don’t know if it was the water or just the need to have a say, “Because I don’t want him to win.
Especially after tonight.”

Chapter 20

I felt sorry for Mom’s old friend Maggie. Shelby was gone. The police were looking for her—calling her a person of interest. Everyone thought she’d skipped town with Brad. And if that wasn’t enough, it was all over the news that some train cars carrying highly explosive chemicals were taken from a train yard in Spartanburg, just a town away.