American Quest (27 page)

The girl sat with her legs folded eating a sandwich from a white paper bag. Bruce stole a glimpse at the trash can and did not see the sandwich Jamie had thrown away just a few minutes ago.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked over at the slide.

He turned to her. “Hey, how’s it going?”

She swallowed a bite of ham and cheese and looked up at him. “Fine.”

“You okay?”

She shrugged. “Fine.”

Bruce rubbed his chin. “I saw you helping out that little boy a few minutes ago. That was very nice. Is he your brother?”

The girl shook her head. “I’m just the guard. Kids get lost all the time; you’d be surprised. Sometimes a family’s having a picnic and one
of the kids wanders off.” She cranked her voice to a bubbly falsetto and cocked her brow. “Gots to keep the old eyes open!”

“Well, it sounds like they’re very lucky to have you helping out. Who appointed you guard?”

“It’s just my job, you know? The safest thing? You make a chain. All the kids hold hands and then you know for sure you have every one.”

The girl took another bite of sandwich and looked off. Her demeanor was considerably older than her years.

“Do you live around here somewhere?” he asked.

She nodded.

“I’m Bruce.”

“Emily. Pleased to meet you.”

“Likewise. Do you mind if I sit?”

Emily shook her head. Bruce sat next to her under the shade of the towering blue ash.

“Emily, is your mom nearby?”

The girl shrugged, a momentary pinch to her nose.

“How ’bout your dad?”

She took another bite and offered him a conflicted expression.

A warm breeze swelled the leaves above, bringing with it a scent of arbor foliage followed by a hint of smoky sausage and burgers on a grill.

Bruce pointed at the picnic table, where Jamie and the others were stealing glances his way. “I’m here with some friends and we noticed you helping that boy. But I gotta say, you seem a little young to be on guard. That’s why I’m asking about your mom and dad. You live here in the park, don’t you?”

Emily blinked twice as she chewed the sandwich, half-moons the size of Bruce’s thumbnail trimming the grilled bread. “My dad dropped me off here and told me to wait for him.”

“When was that?”

She looked down, twitched her feet, and then shrugged again.

A shriek of delight filtered toward them from the north field, where children were playing tag. Overhead, an airplane yawned, and the great blue ash tree seemed to breathe in the languid air through the rustle of its leaves. Away from where they sat, everything seemed carefree. No awareness of Gloria’s abduction or the possibility of these freedoms
vanishing at the whim of a brutal being. No awareness of a little girl in a ponytail who monitored lost children in the park but had no guardian of her own.

“I knew my dad wasn’t gonna come back,” Emily said distantly. “It’s been a long time. It’s okay though because I met Stay.”

“Stay?”

She nodded at him, ponytail bobbing. “He’s a collie-beagle mix. He came up after those first few days and snuggled next to me while I was trying to sleep in the little fort house. And then in the morning, I looked at his collar and it said Stay. He’s been following me everywhere ever since.”

“How long have you been in this park?”

“I’m not sure, really. The first day I came here, everyone was having a party with piñatas and chips and salsa and fun music with lots of horns. I don’t know how long ago that was. They have bathrooms and showers or whatever here but they lock’m up at night. I’m glad it’s summer again. If it weren’t for Stay it would have been awful tough when it got cold. Plus in the summer there’s more people here and sometimes they’re real nice, ’specially when I find the lost kids. Lots of times they give me cookies and stuff. In fact they just did another piñata day.”

Bruce tugged at his ear. “You know, there are lots of places for kids like you. Sometimes they can find you a nice family to live with.”

Emily shook her head. “Before I came here? When I was with my dad? There were lots of kids around who’d been in foster. Bad things happened to them all the time. That’s why I stay away from the police and stuff. It’s much better in the park.”

“Don’t you get scared here all by yourself?”

“Stay always looked out for me.”

Bruce panned the park. Some teenagers in baseball hats were playing Frisbee with a black lab, but there were no other dogs in sight.

“Where’s Stay now?”

Emily wrinkled her brow. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a collar. A single tag bearing the word Stay dangled from the metal clip. Emily’s eyes glistened and she swallowed hard. “This morning when I woke up he was gone. I don’t know where he went.”

Bruce sighed, inclining his head and lifting his eyes to her. “I’m sorry, Emily.”

Her words came as if she were chewing through them. “He’s never left me since that first night and he always waits for me when I have to go to the bathroom and stuff. I don’t know how he got his collar off.”

Bruce put a hand on her tiny shoulder. “You know, there’ve been some strange things going on lately. The past week or two I learned a lot about why things happen the way they do. In fact, maybe I’d better explain.”

Bruce told Emily everything that had happened since the time he and Gloria went to dinner with Carlotta. The little girl tilted her head as she listened and Bruce saw disbelief alternating with flickers of wonder on her face. Knowing that she had probably been in the habit of concealing the details of her situation when talking to adults, Bruce guessed that Emily had taken a significant risk in speaking so candidly of her situation. He returned the favor by leaving nothing out, right up until they arrived at Sal’s Place by a sprawling park in Blue Ash.

When he finished, Emily regarded him with suspicion. “Aren’t you a little old for fairy tales?”

Bruce laughed. “It’s true. Every word of it. Here, look.”

He stretched out the underside of his arm to display the slashes and blisters that had resulted from the showdown with the insects.

Emily grimaced. “Eew!”

He rested his arm on his knee. “I know, it looks crazy and it
is
crazy. I hardly know what to think of it myself. I just, I’m so worried about Gloria. If this is happening to us, I can’t imagine what might be happening to her.”

“You guys were gonna get married, huh?”

Bruce nodded, a lump forming in his throat. “
Are
going to get married. I just wish I knew if she were okay. I don’t know if she’s hurt or scared or what.”

Emily listened carefully, then shook her head. “She’s not scared.” “You don’t think so?”

“She probably was at first, but now she’s just wondering. Wondering about you and whether you feel different about her. Probably trying to think of what to do next, but she knows she’s stuck.”

Bruce pondered this.

“Is that how you felt after your dad dropped you off?”

Emily tilted her head and looked off again.

A mosquito buzzed his ear and Bruce was quick to slap it. Quicker than he’d ever been before in his life. He gave a rueful laugh. “The thing is, Emily, every step of the way we’ve gotten a signal to go somewhere. We got here to Sal’s place because of the napkin and the berry stains on the map, and then here we find you. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Now that Stay is gone, I think it makes sense for you to hang out with us for a while.”

Emily still looked doubtful. “If I leave here, there’ll be no one to guard the lost kids.”

Bruce rose to his feet. “You’re right about that, but you may find you have a bigger job to do. I’ll tell you what. At least come meet my friends over there and we’ll have a chat. Meanwhile you think it over.”

The girl gathered her backpack and followed Bruce to the picnic table, where he introduced her to the others. Shannon had made a run back into Sal’s Place and bought a round of milkshakes to go, including an extra one for Emily, and she handed it over while Bruce explained the situation.

“We should be getting some vegetables in you,” Bedelia said.

Emily gave her a sheepish smile. “No thank you. The milkshake’s good.”

Bruce put a hand in his pocket. “Emily’s thinking of relinquishing her post at the park and joining our guard.”

Forte strummed a chord on his guitar, then lifted the strap over his head and set it aside. “That’d be real cool. It’d be even cooler if she came along and we had some clue as to where our next guard post was supposed to be.”

“New Orleans,” Emily said.

Five sets of eyes turned to her.

She nodded solemnly, eyes wide. “New Orleans. Absolutely-resolutely!”

She amused him. Delighted him even. And though her beauty caused a restful ease to spread within his soul, her engaging intellect was what commanded his attention most. He found himself wanting to lay underdeveloped theories before her just to watch the way she might challenge them.

“Are we closer to breaking through the bond-recherché, master?” Hedon asked.

Enervata clouded. He stood in his human form, pulled a charcoal cashmere sweater over his undershirt, tucked it in at the belt line, and then combed his hair.

Hedon coughed back his inquiry. “That is, I know these things take time. I do believe I will be able to devote more resources to focus on the travelers soon. There’ll be an exposé on our Jonathon Raster in the
Daily News
tomorrow, as you advised.”

“Good. Anything factual in it?”

Hedon shrugged. “Hard to find anything on our man Raster, even if it’s a wee twist o’ the truth. Good sight why there’s so much power in it if Kolt can corrupt him, isn’t it? No, the report’s all fabricated. But even if the paper rescinds it it’ll have its effect.”

Enervata nodded. “That should be enough to close him off to Kolt. Isolde, what is the status of the travelers?”

Isolde raised her yellow eyes to him, and in them he saw failure; and in that, challenge. Where had her humility gone? Were he not in short supply of lieutenants, Enervata would have dispatched her alongside Rafe.

But Isolde surprised him with her answer. “The girl is in their company. But they do not return to our fair city—the Gulf Coast is where their journey leads.”

“You’ve diverted them to the south? Bravo, Isolde.”

Perhaps he’d misread her expression. True, allowing the child to join the travelers had been a failure, but he knew it was inevitable. To
divert them to the southern coast seemed a brilliant coup indeed.

“Hedon, keep an eye on Raster’s developments, but send some of your resources to assist Isolde. Let us see if we can slow their progress even further. Perhaps our chef should prepare a personal menu for them. The young musician is traveling with them as well?”

Isolde lifted her chin. “Yes; he joined them from the first. They found him through an altered verse.”

“Then arrange for a reception by our own talented Pravus.”

Hedon and Isolde both nodded and Enervata turned toward the mirror. “That will be all. Gloria and I will be dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant this evening.”

BRUCE WATCHED BEDELIA’S NIMBLE FINGERS work Emily’s hair into two neat braids. First one side, then the other. Though the adrenaline fire still burned inside him, his mind was sagging. Sleep had been evasive since Gloria disappeared.

Emily sang contentedly:

How did someone her age even know that song?

The green rolling hills of the Cumberland River Gap filled the van with the scent of pine. They eased through the underbelly of the mountain from the Kentucky end and then burst into bright daylight in Virginia.

“Is it about time for a diner?” Bedelia said as she snapped the band around the end of Emily’s braid.

Bruce shook his head. “No diners today. Let’s try to find a little stand or something instead so we can keep moving.” Stopping for bathroom breaks was a necessity, but for food, it was better to grab and go. Hours disappeared all too easily when they stopped at diners.

Bruce had no idea what waited for them in New Orleans, but the way Emily had called it out with such certainty had him wondering. Every other destination had popped up in the form of external cues. The last time he and Jamie decided to follow a whim, they almost headed off to California when they were meant to stay in Maine.

“Hey, Emily, tell me again why you think we should go to New Orleans.”

“I just know,” the girl said, tugging at the freshly plaited rope of hair.

Right.

Emily swayed in her seat and went back to singing.

Bedelia dug into her purse, pulling out a mirror. “I haven’t seen you sit abso-bloomin’-lutely still since I met you.”