Zera and the Green Man (24 page)

From the kitchen table, Zera saw Drew and Bear on the back porch, taking off their black rain parkas. It had stopped raining.

“Find anything?” Lily asked as Drew opened the door, her voice rising above the rock and roll music playing on the radio.

Drew’s eyes darted from Lily to Zera and back again. “I was sure it was some kind of elaborate trap,” he said, “that somehow Void had figured out our plan and sent the girl to trick us. We’ve looked for an hour. There’s nothing out there, no trace of anyone or anything. And we would have known; those cameras I set up would have shown
something
.” 

“Camera five showed something all right,” said Bear, standing behind Drew. He nodded at the large color monitor on the counter top. The screen was split into eighths, each section showing views of the road, the house, or property.
“A girl appearing out of nowhere in a hollowed-out dead tree, just after it was struck by lightning. But Drew’s right. There’s nothing out there, nothing showing
how
she could have gotten there.”

He reached in his jeans pocket, pulled out some acorns, and plunked them on the table. “There were a lot of these around the base of the tree.
An almost-dead tree. Doesn’t make sense.”

Lily picked one up and shrugged. “Maybe the winds blew
them in? You guys need to sit down and hear this. Zera’s been telling some pretty fantastic stories.”                                
.

Zera stared at the men. Drew with his serious, square jaw and piercing blue eyes looked intimidating, as did
Bear with his mighty heft. But from the moment they ran to her, to help lift her from the tree, she knew they were friends, not foes. Still, when they brought her in and she saw her uncle, his wrists bound, his panicked eyes searching hers, asking over and over if she was okay, she was furious. She started yelling at them all, but her uncle calmed her. He said it was okay; that he had done something terrible that these people were trying to fix. He said Zera could trust them, that they wouldn’t be harmed. Zera believed him and felt no fear.

Despite what Drew said, the two men sensed the same absence of threat from her
.
Drew’s fighting it. He won’t let himself trust me.
She couldn’t explain it, how she could
feel
their thoughts. Lily and Bear’s positive energy toward her, Drew’s skepticism. The realization that she was tapping into something she didn’t understand didn’t frighten her, it only brought more confusion.

Is this ability a gift . . . from accepting power from the Green Man and Woman?
There’s been so much that’s happened these last twenty-four hours, how can I even guess?
At the tree, the men had only asked if she was okay before they rushed inside with her, left her with Lily, and went out again. Lily had briefly searched her. Then she got her a towel to dry off.

“Fantastic stories, you say?” Drew ran his fingers through his blond hair. “Maybe I ought to rig up a lie detector.”

Zera smiled at Drew, who tried not to return the smile and failed.

A physical energy, an excitement, stirred around Zera. As with the snakes, she heard the words clearly in her mind:
Pick one of us up.

Zera glanced at the others. Their expressions said they hadn’t heard.

PICK ONE OF US UP.
The tone
demanded
. Zera’s heart pounded faster in realization. The words came from the acorns!

She plucked one up and held it in her palm. The cap of the acorn popped off and rolled off her palm onto the table.

Drew took her wrist, saying, “What’s this?” 

Zera closed her hand around the acorn. It cracked lengthwise and she felt a squirming. The acorn was sprouting. A thin white root slinked downward, out the bottom of Zera’s closed fist, as a stem pushed several inches from the top. Drew dropped his hand. Before their eyes, the stem produced five buds that grew and unfurled into leaves. She felt the life force slow. She opened her fist.

Drew said, “I felt it. I felt the energy.”

Bear picked up an acorn. “This can’t be.” He crushed it with his fingers. He examined the contents.

Drew leaned in. “Is it robotic? Something man-made?”

“Looks like an acorn,” said Bear.

Zera handed Bear the seedling and he examined it, tore a leaf, smelled it, tasted it. “It’s real, man.”

Without a word, Zera picked up from the table the tiny fragments of the other acorn, put them in her hand and closed it. She produced another seedling.

The Green Guerillas’ mouths dropped open.

“That’s one hell of a trick,” said Drew.

“I think we need to hear those stories,” said Bear.

The two men pulled up chairs and sat down.

Zera took a deep breath and started at the beginning, from the time when she first thought she heard the voice in her bedroom. She told them about the snakes and the spirit quest with Grandma Wren, Nonny, and Hattie. She told about the dream, and of that day’s journey across the Western United States. Drew’s mouth opened at times, as if to say something, but then it would close, as if he’d decided against it. Bear listened raptly, a huge smile spreading across his strong features. Several times he laughed out loud, a velvety belly-laugh. Once was while Zera told about the Green family history and what Nonny had said about fairies.

“George Washington Carver said it was so,” Bear said, his eyebrows raised. “He mentioned the Greens. And he knew about the fairies, too.” Wh
ile Zera was recounting the dream, Lily’s brown eyes shone teary-eyed at the part about Theodore, until Drew noticed. Then her expression hardened. She muttered, “Serves him right.” 

Zera couldn’t get over the fact that this was
the
Lily, Theodore’s high school sweetheart; the one Hattie had talked about. She acted tough, like the guys, but Zera knew it was just an act. Zera could
feel
she was a friend. Zera found it amazing that her uncle ever dated someone so cool.

“It’s inexplicable,” Drew said after Zera finished. “If I hadn’t seen you with my own eyes, standing in the middle of that tree . . . if I hadn’t seen what the camera caught . . . I’m a man of science, but there’s a physical realm out there that science has not even touched. Still . . .” He rubbed his crew cut.

I can sense exactly what he’s feeling,
Zera thought with a start.
He doesn’t believe it but he’s not going to let me know how he feels. And he’s keeping an eye on me.

“It’s fantastic,” Lily agreed, “but I believe her. I’ve felt the presence she speaks of many times.”

“Her story is true,” said Bear. “I know it to the core of my being. My great-grandfather knew George Washington Carver, worked with him in the 1920s. Carver wrote of the Greens in his diary. My great-grandfather inherited that diary, and I read about them, and about Carver’s close relationship with them.”

“Your great-grandfather knew George Washington Carver?” Zera said.

“Sure did.” Bear grinned proudly. “I was named after him.”

Zera drew in her breath. It was one of the names said by the Green Man and Woman. She knew a little about Carver from her plant books. He was genius in the field of botany, known as the Wizard of Tuskegee and the Black Leonardo. She recalled reading that people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford offered him a huge salary to work for them, but he turned them down. He said he wanted to keep his discoveries free for all people. He said that God provided the plants to help people, and God didn’t charge a fee, so why should he.

“Carver told my great-grandfather that flowers spoke to him, as did hundreds of other living things in the woods,” said Bear. “He was always talking with God and the plants. You can read it in his autobiography. My grandfather wrote that Carver said the Greens reminded him of the fairies. Said they had the connection. He called them ‘Helpers of Nature.’”

A pounding came from the door leading into the living room.

Lily sighed. “I’d almost forgotten.”

“Wow, she was quiet for a long time,” Drew said. “Did you tape her mouth again?”

“Yes.” Lily said, lowering her voice. “She wouldn’t stop screaming again after Zera was found. Tiffany was positive that Mr. Langston Void was right outside the door waiting to rescue her. ‘Langston, Langston, I’m in HERE,’ she kept yelling. I had to.”

To the closed door Lily trilled, “Be with you in a moment, Tiff.”

“So, Theodore doesn’t know anything about all this?” Bear asked Zera.

“No,” Lily answered for her. “He saw Zera for a minute but I didn’t want him in here
with us. Then, as soon as she finished the story, you guys came back.”

Zera added, “He seems different now, really sad.”

“He was so upset when he saw you outside,” Lily said, “until he saw you were all right. He’s still in there, pacing.”

Zera frowned and looked down at the kitchen table. Her uncle had bent to look at her face. He’d appeared terrified, but when he saw she was okay, he started apologizing. He went away mumbling, “It’s
all my fault.” Zera could feel his despair. She thought of Nonny, and was filled with worry.
What is happening in Ute Springs? I’ve been gone all day. Hattie and Ben, everyone’s probably frantic, worrying about me.

She said to Lily, “If what I saw in the dream is what’s happening to him, he’s going through a lot.”

“Too bad we don’t have time to tell him what
you’ve
been through,” Lily said, slightly sarcastically. “I’d be interested in his reaction.”

“I know everyone’s got some good inside them,” Drew said, “but it’s almost hard to believe with him. Those creations . . .” He winced.

“What creations?” Zera sat up straighter. Her eyes searched Bear’s.

Bear nodded toward Lily, as if saying, “She’s the boss.”

“Go ahead, Bear, she should know,” Lily said.

Bear cleared his throat. “This isn’t easy. I guess I’ll just say it. Zera, Void Chemical Corporation, with your uncle’s help, has developed human/plant combinations. Eyes that grow like clusters of grapes on vines, trees that produce human
hearts, and a lot more.” He hung his head. “It’s sick, man,
really
sick. That’s why your uncle and Tiffany are here. We . . .” He looked down, shame-faced. “We took them last night. We had to make them come with us. To help stop all this.”

The room seemed to spin as Zera’s mind tried to reconcile the thought of these people admitting they were
kidnappers
with the monstrous images Bear described.
Heart trees? Eyes?
“Oh, God,” she whispered, “So that’s what it’s all about, what the Green Woman spoke of.”

“I’m sorry, Zera,” Drew said. “Void Corporation is worldwide, and they’re into a lot of bad stuff, but they couldn’t have done this without Theodore. It’s seems your uncle’s gone to the dark side, the side of greed and arrogance.” He shook his head, looked down at his military-style watch. “It’s almost six. We’ve got to get going. What should we do with Zera?” he asked Lily. “Leave her here with Tiffany?”

“Man, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody,” Bear said.

“I have to go with you,” Zera said to Lily.

Lily, her forehead wrinkled, looked at Bear, then Drew. “I know it sounds crazy . . . but I think she should.”

“I agree,” said Bear, without hesitation.

“Are you two out of your minds?” Drew slammed his hand down on the table. “I’m against it. We could lose
everything
. This is going to up the risk considerably! We could lose our freedom. We could go to
prison
.”

Lily stood. “As you’ve said yourself many times, Drew, there are worse things to lose than your freedom. I feel strongly about this, that it’s the right thing to do. Still, I won’t let her go if you say no. We’re a team.”

They stood looking at each other. Zera sensed the turmoil in Drew, the fear of making a mistake, then the letting go of that fear. She felt something else —
This is a person who loves taking chances
. “What the hell,” he said, his mouth set. “We’re probably headed for jail anyway.”

* * *

Zera watched the Green Guerillas from the doorway. Lily removed the tape from Tiffany’s mouth and said, “We’re leaving.”

Theodore stood up from the sofa, but when Tiffany stood, Lily told her, “No.
You’re
staying.”

“What do you mean?”

“Theodore’s going. You’re staying. We’re going to feed you again, take you to the bathroom, but then we’re leaving you here for a while.”

“But,” Tiffany’s face contorted with anger, “you can’t leave me here!”

“I’m afraid so.”

“How long will you be gone?” Tiffany whined. “What’ll I do?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Lily gestured at a small stack of environmentally-themed magazines and books on a crate. “Maybe you can read something. If everything goes smoothly, we’ll come back for you tonight. So I advise you to hope for a good outcome on our part.”