Let's Play in the Garden (9 page)

###

The next morning Merydith awoke to an irritatingly loud sound. It was a constant banging…no, hammering…a loud, constant hammering.

She quickly cleaned herself up and put on her outfit for today before venturing down to see what all the hammering was about.

Downstairs, she noticed her mother and grandmother preparing breakfast and setting the table. Simon was nowhere in sight and the hammering continued.

She walked outside to the porch and watched as Tobey shot a bull’s eye into his target with an arrow. Her memories jolted back to when the snake had nearly claimed her life. She walked off the rickety porch and into the yard. She caught glimpse of a toy truck from the corner of her eye.

Where’s Aaron playing today? Oh God, Merydith, wha
t
the hell are you thinking? Damn it, damn it all!
She caught herself trying to block out reality again.

It would not be the first time. Finally, she found her grandfather at the garden’s gate, hammering away, inserting sturdy planks of wood on the gate to reinforce it and adding a padlock to the latch to lock it up for good.

No!
Anger pulsed through her, colliding with dread and panic. She watched in horror as the garden was locked away with all its secrets.

Why now, after all these years? After all this time
?
I made a promise. That garden
knows something. It holds the key to everything! How will I fulfill my promise if I can’t
enter the damn garden?

She walked determinedly up to her grandfather and watched as he padlocked the handle of the gate.

“Grandfather, why are you locking up the garden?”

He turned to her and gave her a polite but forced smile.

“Merydith, I don’t want anyone to enter this garden except for me. That’s why.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits and she raised her voice with accusation. “No! That’s not it, that can’t be all. What else aren’t you telling us? What are you hiding? You know something, don’t you? Tell me, I want you to tell me.”

He glared at her with red in his eyes, her words much too insulting and highly aggressive for such a young girl. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And you better watch that tone of voice with me, missy! I’m securing this garden so that this kind of thing never happens again, certainly not to one of my beloved grandchildren. I love you. Now everyone but me is forbidden to enter this garden ever again. Is that understood?”

There was silence.

“Is that understood?”

Merydith said nothing. She just nodded her head in understanding and walked away.

As she walked off, Simon inserted one last board before collecting his tools and returning to his workshop
.

He knows something. I know he does. How could he just seal up the garden where poor Aaron vanished from the face of the Earth? He should leave it open for another search, and a possible return. That garden is the key to everything here.

My family knows more than they let on, and I’ll hold them all responsible until I find out exactly what goes on here. I need to know who I am and who my father was.
Something didn’t make sense.
Even if it kills me, I will enter that garden again and find out what went on in there.

The day droned on like a dream. Tobey played all day in the yard and Merydith tried constantly to keep herself busy. Although she found herself many times thinking of ways she could get into the garden, she also thought of how she could get the adults in the house to break down and tell her what Simon had really done all these years. How was the garden created? What was in his workshop? What did he water the garden with? Where did her brothers really come from? There were so many unanswered questions. Ultimately, Merydith came to one conclusion—it was time she knew and now she would take things into her own hands.

###

Night spun its mysterious web as Merydith sat in bed in her room. She thought in the dark, leaving the lights off because she was supposed to be asleep.

But no sleep would come.

She knew her mother and grandparents were still up and still talking about what had taken place a few days ago. They conversed a lot in secrecy, or at least so they thought. Merydith wanted to be cleverer than them, outsmart them, so she could learn.

She stared at her dolls again and they stared back. They seemed more frightening looking on certain nights then others.

She flung the covers aside and crept over to her closed bedroom door and put her ear to it but heard nothing. Not a sound.

She took hold of the doorknob with damp palms and twisted it. The effort behind the act seemed monumental but she managed to crack it enough to peek out.

The hallway was dark and she could see the door to Tobey’s room was closed. She could see a faint yellow glow at the bottom of the stairs. They were still downstairs, still talking. Merydith opened her door wider and it creaked menacingly, threatening to give her away, sounding the alarm to the prison guards.

Quiet, you stupid door. Please don’t give me away now.

She cringed as she pulled the door as far as she could and slipped through it, making her way to the end of the hall.

They had retired to the kitchen as she could see the light from there glowing brightly, but their voices were still indistinguishable.

Merydith wanted to hear it all. She had to know what they were talking about.

She lowered her foot onto the first step of the staircase and it groaned a bit, but not enough to attract attention.

The house was her enemy tonight
. Shush, why is everything creaking all of
a sudden?
Down the stairs she eased herself until she finally came to the first landing. There was one more flight to go. She took the last set of stairs with haste and finally made it into the parlor just around the corner. It was here she could view the kitchen doorway and catch a good glimpse of the back of Grandma Gladys.

Now she could hear everything.

“I still haven’t figured out what’s happened to our dear Aaron,” said Simon. “The garden isn’t dangerous. It never has been. I just don’t understand. I wish I knew what really happened. I wish I had been there.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Simon,” began Marion. “You being there would have changed nothing. This was meant to be. He would have been taken whether you had been there or not.”

“I know you’re right, Marion, but I can’t help but feel that I could have done something.”

“Let’s stop beating around the bush,” Gladys broke in, sounding annoyed. “You all know what really happened to Aaron, and you know who’s responsible.”

Simon glared at her with anger and distaste. “Gladys, I don’t want to hear it. You know that’s impossible. It died long ago. Very long ago. It could not be responsible for this. We all took a promise, and you keep breaking it. No one was to ever speak of it!”

“I don’t care. I’m breaking my promise now. How do you explain the nighttime visitor? The damage to the house, the noises, the intruder? It all makes sense. There’s only one explanation—it’s not dead!”

“Yes, it is.” Simon lashed furiously across Gladys’s face.

The shock of it nearly sent her from her chair. She covered her face and began to cry.

A ghastly wail came from outside that house in that instant, as if something else had felt Simon’s slap.

They stared at the window as another loud, loathsome moan shook the very foundations of the house. Merydith could feel the pain and rage in it, and it made her shiver. Her eyes searched about the dark rooms of the house, and then one last drawn-out moan of misery dwindled in the night and all went silent.

Gladys stared her husband in the eye, her face red, eyes damp with tears. “I don’t think so,” she muttered.

###

Morning came swiftly as Merydith woke again with aches and pains, the results of not getting enough sleep. She remembered her eavesdropping from last night, and it had been the second time she overheard a subject that was not to be spoken of.

It concerned her. It was strange. What had they been talking about? What is or isn’t dead? What is it that they’d vowed never to speak of again? It had angered Simon so much that he actually struck his wife. It had to be something that was extremely wrong or evil.

After preparing herself to go downstairs, Merydith plugged two more pieces into her great puzzle. They added a slight shade of red to the picture, not actually forming anything in particular, just adding to the color. Merydith then sucked in all of her courage and marched downstairs. She wondered what awaited her this time.

There was total silence as she walked downstairs. She could hear nothing except the sizzling and frying of breakfast. She peered around the edge of the hallway and watched the movements of both Marion and Gladys. She decided to venture forth. “Good morning, everyone,” she said in the most cheerful tone.

“Good morning, Merydith,” replied Marion.

“Good morning,” Gladys said in a most sullen tone.

Merydith caught a glimpse of Gladys’s face. A mark still remained, though it was slightly covered with make-up. A meek attempt to hide the evidence that did not succeed.

“Where’s Tobey and Grandpa?” she asked.

“Simon’s in his workshop, as usual, and Tobey’s out in the yard somewhere, playing,” Marion answered her daughter.

“Okay, will you call me when breakfast is ready? I’ll be around the house.”

Before departing, she walked around and rang another bell, this one with pretty flowers on it. She walked back down the hallway, stood a moment, and stared at the closed door leading to the backyard.
I don’t feel like going out today. Tobey can play out there. I’m staying in.

She walked over to the door’s long window and stared out into the yard. There stood Tobey, bouncing a rubber ball off the garden wall.

She stared at the ball and watched as it went back and forth, back and forth. “Merydith…”

She turned sharply and looked behind her, but no one was there. Returning her gaze to Tobey, she stared beyond him and into the garden. She knew quite well whose voice that was.

A tear slid down her cheek.

9. The Garden Sleeps

“No, stay away! Help me!” Merydith screamed before realizing she was still lying in the safety of her bedroom.

“Not another dream.”
I don’t even remember what this one was about. I can only remember something wanted to kill me. Something or someone wouldn’t stop chasing me. Why won’t these dreams leave me alone? Haven’t I suffered enough?

She realized that it was not only morning but also the first official day of school! Summer was over and it was now September. This marked the beginning of a lot of things. School, friends—the few she had—the change in weather, the sickness, the change in her family, the change in the garden!

Tobey was entering the sixth grade, and Merydith, well, she was finally joining the big leagues…high school.

G
od, I’m nervous,
she thought to herself as she prepared to run her morning shower.
What will I wear? What will the high school be like? What will the other kids think of me?
Oh, please, let this day be a good one, please.

After showering, she brushed her hair for the tenth time and adjusted her blouse and matching skirt for the sixth. Finally, she was ready to go downstairs and join the world of education again.

“It’s about time,” Tobey squealed as he waited at the bottom of the stairs for his sister. His hair was parted to the side and looked slick. He wore a sweater over a turtleneck shirt.

Merydith held back a giggle. He looked like a little nerd. “You shut up, Tobey! This is high school, not your school. I have to be perfect. I have to make a good impression.”

“You’ll make a fine impression, dear, you look lovely.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

Marion stood in the hallway with a set of pencils for each of them and their bagged lunches; they never bought the school lunch.

“Well, children, good luck in school and have a good day. Now hurry along. Simon’s waiting in the truck for you.”

“Goodbye, Mom!” they said together as they grabbed their pencils and lunches and scurried to catch the old Santaneen school bus.

With a slam of the door, the green truck was off again. It pulled out into the gravel-filled road and traveled the main streets. Now it was the old forty-five minute drive. It was a good thing they were used to waking up extremely early. They had to in order to make it to school on time every day.

A half hour passed and Merydith just stared out the window at the passing scenery. How it was changing. Soon the trees would be totally bare, everything would turn a dismal gray, and then the vicious cold would set in.
Yuck.
The very thought of it was chilling.

The trip passed quickly and in no time the truck pulled into the parking lot of the high school. Merydith looked out the truck’s windshield, noticing groups of kids her own age and older students standing all over, waiting for the bell to ring. She also watched as the yellow school buses pulled up and began to deliver even more kids. Merydith found it funny how no school bus ever made a stop by her house. She wondered why.

“Okay, Merydith, here we are. Now you go and study hard and learn all you can. Make us proud of you.”

“Oh, I will, Grandpa, I will. You can count on me. Goodbye.” With that, she kissed Simon on the cheek and then stepped out into the parking lot.

Some heads turned, some eyes stared. Merydith paid it no mind.

The truck screeched into reverse and began to take Tobey to his school. Merydith waved as the truck disappeared out of sight, leaving her alone in a crowd of people.

Merydith walked slowly around the lot. People whispered, some turned away, while others even giggled. Merydith ignored them as she searched for some familiar faces, some trusting and friendly faces. Where were her friends? They wouldn’t desert her, would they?

“Merydith! Over here!” a slender blonde girl called from behind.