Falling in the Garden

Chapter Eight - Secrets

Chapter Eight

Secrets

It was late July when I walked through a field of stars. There were no planets, comets or other celestial bodies floating around me. All I saw were distant masses of plasma, rapidly burning themselves out in mini novas, then bursting to life anew. Each footstep I took was soft and yielding and the scent in this limitless darkness was of life. Fresh and untainted life. I moved slowly down the final length of trail that emptied into The Meadow. A battalion of fireflies surged around me, lighting my way in silence. There was no breeze. The trees did not move at all. All of this aided my fantasy of floating through the void of space.

When I sat down in the center of the old foundation, I leaned back and stared up into the night. These real stars, so incredibly far away me, mocked the firefly light below. I felt dizzy for a moment, as if I were falling upward. I closed my eyes, then reopened them to stare at the trees around me. Took a breath. Felt better.

In a moment, I would be speaking with Ashley. Each day, I counted the hours between our conversations, looking intently forward to hearing her voice. I had been searching the internet for days, but could find nothing about her or her parents. I went to both the Monroe and Chester public libraries as well, searching through old newspaper microfilm that had not yet been indexed. Nothing. I soon regretted mentioning the foundation or her failure to appear in 1999. I would have to tell her again that I was unable to unearth any information. Even if this area had been government land back then, there should have been a record of something. I looked at map after map of the Monroe area from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, but found only markings for undeveloped or protected land. I did end up learning a lot about Monroe and its history, something I had no interest in until meeting Ashley.

Another deep breath.

I turned the walkie-talkie on and waited. We decided it would be better if I didn’t speak first in case either of her parents were within range. A minute later, I heard her voice and felt my body relax.

“Hello future-boy,” she said quietly.

I couldn’t bear telling her about my lack of new info, but it seemed wrong to hold it back.

“Ashley, there’s nothing. I’m not an expert at this stuff, but I’ve checked so many different places. There’s nothing there about you or your parents.”

“It’s like I never existed.”

“I’m going to keep on looking,” I said with sudden vehemence. “It must be hidden. Maybe the government has classified your family’s information. Maybe because of your house.”

“I don’t know,” she said, “It’s not something that’s a matter of high security. At least, I don’t think it is. Dad just says that if everything is going to work out, we can’t talk about it. I guess I can tell you part of it…”

I grew suddenly cold. Paranoia about this situation had been steadily taking seed in my mind. What if telling me about it somehow affected things negatively? Could the passing of such knowledge cause something terrible to happen to her?

“Ashley, I don’t know—“

“I’ve probably driven you crazy by keeping this from you. You’ve been very sweet not to push me. I’ll just tell you a little. First of all, no one is really supposed to know that we’re here at all. We do go out and do things, but we’re supposed to spend most of the time inside. We can’t leave, unless Dad says we can, for more than two hours a day.”

“Why?”

“I don’t really know. My parents have had fights about it, though. All I know is that it’s very important we all do this.”