WILDly (9 page)

He replied with
a smile. “No problem. Anything for Alex.”

My resistance
crumbled completely. I didn’t even react to his mistake. He had
said ‘Alex’ instead of ‘your Dad’.

It was only
when I was almost asleep in the fancy black Mercedes that the
wonder of what happened in the veldt earlier hit me.

***

Chapter 8 –
Linked

To my great
relief, Alex was in a different hospital to the one I’d been in.
Who knows what I would have done if I had to see Bridget again. Not
that I was scared, I was prepared this time: the Reds were with me,
all of them. In preparation I’d told Benjamin about the episode
with Bridget, not in detail, just the outlines. Then I’d explained
roughly where the hospital was the way I remembered it from
walking. Benjamin assured me that it wasn’t the same one, but I’d
been worried ever since he had woken me.

We were lucky,
visiting hours had just started when we arrived. Peter talked to
the lady behind the counter at the reception, and she pointed us in
the right direction.

The image of
Alex lying there motionless was shocking. I couldn’t believe how
weak he looked, as pale as the sheets, with the heart monitor
beeping insistently in the background. It had me really upset, so I
could understand why Lisa was going bonkers.

She clearly
knew the Reds, because when she saw all of us, she tried to smile.
Alex looked bad, but so did Lisa. She was pale with bright red
cheeks, red puffy eyes; she was sloppily dressed and her hair was
standing up all over the place. She tried to speak, but instead she
started to cry.

I blamed myself
for leaving her over the weekend. I should have stayed with her for
support. After all, she was a very good friend. And to think that
Alex had been with me for a good part of the weekend, when she’d
been the one worrying about him! Guilt pushed up bitter into my
mouth. For the second time I vowed to stay away from Alex on Lisa’s
behalf.

Only after
Peter hugged her and told her over and over that Alex was going to
be fine, did she calm down a little.

I felt even
guiltier when I found out that Lisa had brought him in some time
during the early morning hours, after he had phoned her and told
her that he was getting worse. She drove all the way out, helped
him into the car and brought him here. Apparently he fell into a
coma shortly after they arrived at hospital.

What bothered
me the most was the fact that she must have seen me there, in the
cabin alone with Alex. And that in the midst of all her trouble and
his illness, the two of them thought about me, because they left me
Alex’s car, clothes and the GPS to get home. These two people had
been having real problems of their own, but they’d put me first.
They had supported me despite my childish tantrum-attack.

Oh, I felt like
such a selfish idiot. And to be honest, I was very nervous to see
her reaction towards me.

We all stayed a
while and then persuaded Lisa to take a little break from the
hospital. She needed something to eat and a bit of rest, seeing
that she had been guarding his bed since who-knows-when this
morning. I wanted to ask her how she was holding up, but I couldn’t
get myself so far; I was too afraid of her response.

We left the
hospital, and on our way to the dorm we stopped at a roadhouse to
get Lisa something to eat. We arrived thereafter at the dorm with a
fleet of cars: mine, Alex’s Lexus, Lisa’s little white Mazda and
the Reds’ two Mercs. It was conspicuous but luckily it was after
ten on a Sunday evening and quiet.

The guys
insisted on checking our rooms first, but juniors weren’t allowed
to have any boys in their rooms. So we had to sneak them in,
especially as we had parked in front, overlooked by all the senior
rooms. In spite of the fact that I had vowed not to use the
emergency stairs again, there wasn’t any other option. I definitely
didn’t want to risk public humiliation or the prospect of the Reds
potentially witnessing an embarrassing scene with a statue. With a
crack in my voice, I mentioned the alternative.

No one looked
intimidated when they saw the stairs, not even Lisa. Maybe she was
too tired to care. But for me, this time was even worse than
before: these four guys weren’t exactly lightweights. Lisa went up
first, slowly, and then the guys went up one at a time while I
waited below. There was one little step that really squeaked, close
to the top. It bent under Benjamin’s weight, and made a loud
knocking sound. Luckily it didn’t give and everybody made it
safely.

The guys walked
though the emergency door with us and checked our rooms thoroughly
before doing the hallway, the stairs and the bathrooms. Peter and
Leo would take turns to guard the dorm during the night and
Benjamin and Wilfred would do the next day. It had been a long day
for them as well and they left immediately.

Lisa fell onto
her bed, face down.

Then there it
was, the awkward moment that I feared, alone with Lisa. She
definitely had hard feelings towards me, because she pretended that
I wasn’t there. After a moment of standing with a mouth full of
teeth, I couldn’t take the pressure any longer and I just blurted
it all out.

“Everything
will work out fine, Lisa.” I tried Peter’s approach, which had
worked on her before.

She started
crying again, and then lifted up to face me, with an angry
expression.

“Don’t you know
what’s going on? Are you dumb or blind? How can a person be so
thick?”

I expected a
harsh reaction, although it was strange coming from Lisa. But she
was jealous, even though it hurt my feelings a little that she
didn’t trust me. I started babbling nervously.

“I’m sorry
Lisa, I truly am. I didn’t plan to see Alex over the weekend. He
came out of nowhere. I really didn’t mean to interfere with your
relationship and definitely not to upset you. Please, you have to
believe me, nothing happened. We only talked...”

She interrupted
me in surprise. “Whatever are you talking about?”

The words
struggled to find a way out of my mouth. “About him saving me
and... and... spending the weekend...?” I stuttered.

Her screams
interrupted me. “NO VALERIE! That’s not it!”

Her violent
reaction froze me wordlessly in place, but she flew up and grabbed
my arm to pull me down onto the bed, facing her.

“My patience is
up with you! Everybody keeps on telling me to wait and let you
figure it out by yourself. But it’s taking too long and I can’t
handle this any longer.”

I was
astonished at her anger.

“What, Lisa?” I
asked in a hurt whisper. I felt like crying.

“Everything is
about
you
. You, Valerie. All of this is about you. And to
think you take astronomy! Couldn’t you figure it out?” she
scowled.

I slowly shook
my head.

She got up from
the bed and switched on the kettle in the corner of her room. We
waited for the water to boil in absolute silence. Then she made us
tea and handed me a cup before she continued more calmly.

“Okay, sorry, I
shouldn’t have screamed at you. I shouldn’t take out my
frustrations on you. Sorry, Val.”

“It’s okay, I
probably deserved it,” I replied feeling sorry for myself even
though I didn’t know why.

“Don’t be such
a martyr,” she sighed. “I’ll help you in the right direction, but
only a little and only because I care for you. You’re more than a
friend to me, you’re like a sister, and not without reason.” She
examined me before continuing. “What I’m about to tell you might
sound impossible but you will know it to be true, if not now, soon
enough. So bear with me, okay?”

My hands were
shaking. This is what I had been afraid of all along. “I’ll
try.”

“Here goes.
Valerie, you have experienced a ‘connection’ with the earth, right?
Connection might not be the right word. It’s more like a... a bond.
It might have presented itself in the form of an answer to a need,
such as healing?”

I nodded. I
recalled the night that I had jumped from the hospital window. The
mud in the park had certainly had a healing effect on me.

“Well, it is
unique in the sense that your connection is with earth. But there
are similar types of connections or links with other people and
their... planets. ”

I frowned at
Lisa. It sounded absolutely impossible, but right in a sense. If I
really believed that my ‘connection’ existed, it was only logical
for others to exist as well.

“It’s all about
distance. You have the strongest connection, since you are directly
in contact with your planet. It also makes you the most powerful
human on earth. You, and only you, can harness the earth’s power to
its full potential, unlike the others who have lesser power. Not
without consequences of course, but theoretically, it is
possible.”

Her words were
incredible. Why on earth would silly me be so powerful, out of all
people? It was a mistake, of that I was sure.

Then a part of
me hesitated and considered the recent weird events. Was there a
possibility it could be true?

“Wow,” was all
I managed.

“So you can
understand now, why you need protection.” Assuming there was truth
to any of this, the danger about the situation became clear as
sunlight. That was why there were people after me. It gave me goose
bumps as I thought about it.

“How do you
know all this?” I asked, sipping my tea.

“Well, I have a
unique connection as well, with Venus, the earth’s sister planet.
You might know that from astronomy,” she said slightly
sarcastically.

“Yes, I know.
Is that why we are such good friends?”

“I believe so,
yes.” She inspected me before she continued. “I think that’s enough
for now. You need to digest this first, decide if you believe it or
not.”

I wasn’t
finished with her yet. “But what has all of this got to do with
Alex?”

“Let’s just say
that he and I are both on your side. And someone is trying to
attack him for protecting you.”

It was my
fault, all of this, as she had said. I didn’t like the thought of
it.

“Isn’t there
anything that I can do... with my connection... to help?”

“It’s too
dangerous, Val. Your link is still very new, and because it is so
powerful, you cannot afford to test it. Your body needs to grow
stronger, to adjust to it over time. It has to happen at your
pace.”

“Oh.”

“Now, please,
I’m dog-tired and stressed to my limit. Go and think about it, get
used to the idea, make peace with it. You have been affecting the
weather and we’ve noticed your bad moods and struggles.”

So that was
what Alex had meant, that he needed me to accept myself. He knew
about my inner conflicts, could read them, based on the condition
of the weather. I felt embarrassed that my insides were so
exposed.

“You’ll be
safe, don’t worry, the Reds are outside. They’ve been around for a
while and they know exactly what they are doing.”

I felt guilty
again. Lisa was the one in a state and here she was again trying to
talk me into a better mood.

“Thank you,
Lisa. I really appreciate you. You need to know that.”

“Sure,” and she
finished her tea. Then she placed the empty cup on her bed
pedestal, fell to her back and closed her eyes.

“Can I get you
anything? Water? A sleeping pill? Anything?”

“No!” she
urged, her eyes flying wide open. “Don’t ever drink sleeping pills,
it only weakens your connection and therefore you as well. I’d
rather suffer through weeks of insomnia than drink even a single
sleeping pill!”

That cleared up
another matter for me: Bridget. Bridget had given me sleeping pills
because she wanted to weaken me.

“Okay, no one
told me that. I won’t take sleeping pills. But can’t I get you
something? I can run you a nice hot bath?”

“No thanks, I’m
going to try to sleep now.”

“Me too, it’s
been a very long day. G’nite.” And with that, I walked out of her
room.

I took a long
hot bath that worked wonders for my troubled mind and my feet,
still hurting from all the walking and running away over the
weekend.

I had barely
dealt with my parents knowing, and the veldt showing me the way,
and now there was all the stuff that Lisa had just told me. I was
starting to worry if I would be able to finish this year without
being booked into the funny-farm a time or two.

At least I was
safe, really safe for once. It made the other worries look a little
smaller.

Lisa had said
it: I have a unique connection with earth. In that moment I knew it
was true. It had been staring me right in the face. That was why I
had all the memories of being in the wild.

I felt special.
And humble. And so, so proud.

The earth chose
me.

It was awesome.
I have always loved nature, and this was an honour. The way that
the earth had responded to my need earlier this afternoon by
showing me where to run and where to hide was absolutely
incredible, special. I wished I had the words to describe my
feelings: I wanted to phone my mom. And Duncan, to thank him for my
gift, or for his contribution. Not that I knew exactly how he
fitted into all of this. But I knew that I owed him one massive
thank you.

But it was very
late already, and I decided to phone them both the following day.
Duncan wouldn’t mind me phoning, even though I’d stolen his number.
Not if he had given me such a big gift. After all, he had started
all this, he was the trigger. I trusted Duncan more than anyone
else - not that it made sense, but I just did. Deep down, I knew he
was more than a mere acquaintance, much more.

As I got out of
the bath onto my throbbing feet, I decided to test the healing part
soon. My mind wandered again to Lisa’s revelation. It was an
intriguing thought, having the earth’s power in my custody. The way
She answered my need the other day had been extraordinary. Who knew
what else was possible?