Almost Eden (8 page)

I practically flew I jumped so far. The landing took my breath away. The cops had turned onto the street and were speeding toward the parking entrance.

“I’m caught!” Sadie cried. Her suit was snagged on the fence. She yanked at it, tottering back and forth. Eleanor had pretty much given up, falling back to the ground. Her hands clasped the chain links from the other side. She stared, wild-eyed at me. Aaron brushed past on his way back to help.

I’d lost sight of the cop car behind the building. For a second I thought about going back to help, too. Then I heard tires squealing. I stopped thinking and started running. I ducked through the trees, dove under the hedge
bordering the park, and elbowed my way out the other side into the fair grounds. Scrambling to my feet I ran, flat out, right into a barbed wire fence, flipped head over heels yet, rolled, and was up again, still running.

At some point I realized I was running beside someone. I didn’t know it was Heather until we both cut through a garden and into Jillian’s backyard. We almost knocked over Jillian, Naomi, and Joy.

“Never again,” croaked Heather, gasping for breath. She fell onto the lawn. “My heart can’t take anymore.”

“Where’s Sadie? And Eleanor?” asked Jillian.

I shook my head. Leaning forward, hands on my knees, I tried to catch my breath. “What do we do now?”

We did the only thing we could do. We waited. And waited. And waited some more yet.

We were about ready to wake up Jillian’s parents; never mind the consequences, when Sadie and Eleanor stumbled in the back gate and fell onto the lawn. Eleanor burst into tears as we crowded around.

“What happened?” asked Jillian. “We thought you were right behind us.”

Sadie waited to catch her breath. “Elsie knew I was caught on the fence.”

The night was too dark to see very well, but I could feel her eyes blazing right through me. “I thought Aaron went to help you.”

“He did. He was really great. He got me loose while Mark helped Eleanor. She was petrified.” She scowled,
disgusted, at Eleanor. “Mark jumped down and shoved her under those spruce trees, you know, the ones in the corner.”

We nodded, holding our breath practically through Sadie’s whole story. How it was too late by then for Mark to get out again or find another place to hide. How Aaron and Sadie, watching from the bushes, saw the police take him away. Then Aaron and Sadie went back for Eleanor, but it took them forever to convince her to leave her hiding place.

“Aaron had to climb back over the fence and practically drag her out,” said Sadie.

“I couldn’t help it,” Eleanor sniffed. “I was too scared to move.”

“We looked for you,” Sadie said to me. “But you’d disappeared.”

There wasn’t much I could say. “I-I panicked,” I stammered. “All I could think about was getting out of there. It didn’t matter anyways. I couldn’t have done anything more to help.”

Only it did matter. Sadie knew it. I knew it. And for sure everyone else knew it.

“Anyways,” Sadie turned to the others. “Aaron walked us back here. He’s going to call Mark in the morning and then let us know what happened.”

Yeah
, I thought.
I bet that was a real hardship. Walking all the way back in the dark with Aaron.
I hated myself for thinking what I was thinking. But I couldn’t help it.

No one could sleep. We lay awake for hours, whispering and retelling the story. Running away from the police yet. How stupid could we get? Eventually we couldn’t help but laugh at ourselves over it.

I laughed with the others on the outside, but on the inside I wasn’t laughing. None of the heroes in any book I’d ever read would have abandoned their friends like I did. I was despicable; a coward who only thought of saving her own skin. It was a miserable thing to find out about yourself.

In my heart of hearts, I wondered if I might have gone back, even if I hadn’t seen Aaron and Sadie together in the pool. I suspected I was not only a coward, but a jealous, spiteful coward to boot.

Jillian and Sadie were whispering, heads close, too quietly for me to hear. I turned away.

Who’d have thought that Mark Giesbrecht, of all people, would turn out to be a hero?

M
ark didn’t tell the police who all was with him. But we got together first thing in the morning and decided it wasn’t right for him to take all the blame. So we rode over to the police station on our bikes and turned ourselves in.

The officer at the desk took down our names.

When I told him mine he said, “You’re Isaak Redekop’s daughter, aren’t you?”

Holy Moses. I nodded miserably. I could already hear Dad saying how I’d stirred my own
mouse
and now I was going to have to eat it yet, too. And that wouldn’t be the half of it. Maybe I’d get out of my room by Christmas. I knew I was going to have to come clean before he heard about our midnight dip from someone else, or it would be way worse yet. It was pretty much the same for everyone. Sadie’s dad played slow pitch in the same league with
one of the constables who’d caught Mark. Pete Wiens’ mother was a part-time secretary at the high school with the wife of the other constable.

Good thing we didn’t let Naomi, Joy, or Eleanor come with to the police station. They shouldn’t have to confess, we’d decided, because Naomi and Joy didn’t really do anything, and Eleanor would probably wet her pants.

Chief Neufeld took us into a room and gave us a scathing lecture, about how stunts like ours wasted their time and tied up valuable resources, and how we were lucky no one got hurt or drowned, and how this sort of foolishness and irresponsibility for sure wasn’t what the community expected of its young people, never mind the danger we had put ourselves in. He said he was letting us off with a warning, but he’d better not see us in there again.

“Since you came in on your own, I’m not going to call your parents this time.”

We breathed a huge sigh of relief. Apologies flew around the room. But we breathed too soon.

“You’ll tell them yourselves,” he added. “And believe me, I’ll know whether you have or not.”

We believed him.

I made up my mind to confess and get it over with. Only my good intentions came to
nusht
because when I got home Dad had gone to work. That made two Saturdays in a row.

There was no way I was telling Beth anything. She’d want to pray over me or something. I felt guilty enough
already without that yet. What if Mom found out? She’d be so mortified she’d never show her face out of Eden again. I remembered to feed Tommy, then I went at the siding with my wire brush, scrubbing loose paint like a maniac until I’d scoured every board as high up as I was allowed to go.

Only I was still feeling like I needed to repent. So I let Lena watch
Tarzan
on TV for once, instead of making her watch
American Bandstand
, While she was watching, I picked lettuce for Beth, washed it, and helped her make lunch.

“What’s up with you this morning?” Beth asked.

That’s what a person gets for trying to be nice.

“If you’re hoping to suck up to Dad, don’t bother,” said Beth. “He had to go into Winnipeg. He won’t be home until late.”

“I wasn’t sucking up. Geez.”

Since I was off the hook till tomorrow anyways, one last swim before I got grounded again seemed like a pretty good idea. I made up my mind to stop by Sadie’s. I’d tell her I was sorry and that I didn’t blame her for being mad at me. I’d be mad at me, too.

I felt better already, after deciding to apologize to Sadie. So I knew it was the right thing to do. First, though, I had to visit Mom. I hadn’t gone to see her at all yesterday. I even told Lena she could come with.

At Eden we went for a walk around the grounds again, then played
knippsbrat
a little. I could tell Mom was trying,
but she wasn’t really into it. When she wasn’t looking I checked her eyes to see if it was the real Mom or the robot Mom in charge today, only I couldn’t tell.

While we were playing, one of the other patients came and stood over the table, rocking back and forth and watching us. He just stood there, rocking and watching. A thin line of drool ran from the corner of his mouth down his chin, but he didn’t wipe it off or anything. I tried not to look, but it was sort of hard not to, with him standing right there. Lena begged me with her eyes to do something.

“Uh, Mom?” I nodded at the guy.

Mom looked up. “Oh, hi Corny,” she said, like she didn’t mind one bit for him to be standing there drooling.

Corny kept on rocking and watching. Talk about creeping a person out. Lena looked like she might bolt any second. As soon as the first game was finished I told Mom we had to go. She walked us to the door. I don’t think she really wanted visitors very much right then anyways, not even Lena and me.

But it wasn’t our day. On the way out we were ambushed. A girl was crawling on the floor in the foyer, between us and the door. Her head was hanging down and her arms, her legs, her body, everything was shaking. The girl looked about Beth’s age.

“What’s wrong with her?” Lena asked, edging as far away as she could.

A nurse appeared. “Don’t worry. Sally does this. It’ll pass.”

Easy for her to say. I took Lena’s hand. We followed Mom, moving slowly around the shaking girl. But then the girl reached out and grabbed my ankle. My heart nearly shot right out of my mouth.

“Don’t go. Don’t leave me,” the girl begged.

“There now, Sally.” The nurse reached over, took hold of the girl’s arm and pulled it back.

Sally yanked her arm away and went for me again. Only you bet I backed out of reach real quick.

“Don’t leave me!” she wailed.

There wasn’t much room to maneuver or for sure I would’ve been out of there.

Another person came to help, an orderly I guess. A doctor waited while the nurse and the orderly just sort of walked beside the girl, keeping her from bumping into things.

“Poor Sally,” Mom sighed.

The doctor smiled at Lena and me. “Sally didn’t mean to scare you, young ladies.”

“I wasn’t scared,” I denied. Creeped out, I told myself, which wasn’t the same thing as scared. Mostly I just felt sorry for Sally.

“Girls, this is Dr. Shroeder,” Mom said. “These are my daughters, Elsie and Lena.”

“Pleased to meet you.” He held out his hand. It felt cold and limp, like a dead fish.

Someone started wailing in the lounge behind us.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Mom didn’t belong in this place. I wanted to shout it in that doctor’s face. Only of course I didn’t. I was way too gutless. “We gotta go,” I said. “See you later, Mom.” I practically dragged Lena outside.

The fresh air tasted so good I didn’t think I’d ever be able to gulp down enough of it. Lena looked back and waved. Probably Mom was standing at the front, waving good-bye. I didn’t look.

“I don’t like that place,” Lena said. “I don’t think Mom should be there. She should come home.”

“Ya think?” I murmured. A seven year old could see it. It was the idiot doctors who couldn’t. Probably they’d been hanging around crazy people so long they didn’t know the difference anymore.

The Lord works in mysterious ways, says Reverend Funk. That’s an understatement.

I shoved Eden out of my mind and practiced my apology all the way to Sadie’s place. When we were almost there already a car turned the corner in front of us and drove away. Sadie’s parents were in the front. Sadie, her baby brother, and Jillian sat in the back.

My two best friends were going somewhere together and I wasn’t invited.

A few of the gang showed up at the pool–Naomi, Joy, Caleb, and of all people, Mark. Everyone else was probably grounded. I could hardly believe Mark wasn’t.

“Dad decided grounding wasn’t good enough,” Mark explained. “I start work Monday, hoeing beets.”

“Youch,” Caleb winced.

Ask anyone who has done it. Hoeing beets is like hell on earth. Up at dawn and out in the fields by six. Long hours bent over, sweating in the hot sun until dirt sticks to every bit of you. Dirt in your eyes, dirt in your ears, dirt in your hair, dirt up your nose, and dirt lipstick yet, too. The summer Beth hoed beets she sneezed dirt for weeks. And all the while swarms of mosquitos consider you their personal buffet. All for a whopping buck a row. And I’m not talking your backyard garden rows either.

I couldn’t have picked a better way to get even with Mark. I almost felt a bit sorry for him.

“Why did you do it?” I had to ask.

He knew what I meant all right. “I just happened to be there,” he shrugged. “Not a big deal.”

“For you maybe. I bet Eleanor thinks it was a big deal.”

He flushed red. Huh. I wondered if maybe he liked Eleanor. That made a whole lot more sense than to think Mark could just be a nice guy when he wanted.

When I got home after swimming I asked Beth if anyone had called while I was gone, but she said no. So then I called Jillian’s house. Maybe I was somehow wrong about my best friends going off together. Jillian’s mother
said she’d gone with Sadie’s family to their cabin at Lake Winnipeg for a couple of days.

If this was God’s idea of a joke, I wasn’t laughing. He’d answered my prayer all right. Mark wouldn’t be around to bug me anymore.

Neither would my best friends.

At bedtime Lena asked if I would read her a story. “Mom always reads me a story.”

“I’m too bushed,” I told her, rolling around trying to get comfortable. I wasn’t in any mood to read to her, even if I knew I should because Mom would want me to, and besides, it would be a nice thing to do for my little sister.

Something hard poked my back. Lena was prodding me with the corner of a book.

“Read me a story or else,” she demanded.

“Or else what?”

“Or else I’ll tell Dad what you did last night. I heard you talking with your friends.”

My own sister. “Give me that.” I grabbed the book. It was
Tales from the Arabian Nights.

Lena jumped into bed and curled up into her pillow. “I want to hear the one about open sesame tonight. Tomorrow you can read the one about the genie in the lamp.”

Uy uy uy.