by Teresa Grabs
It was early evening, and the sun rested just above the horizon. The once empty plains that engulfed her now seemed teeming with unseen life. Echo’s heart pounded in her chest as every inch of her reacted to the slightest shift in the environment.
“What was that, Charlie?”
Upon hearing his name, Charlie dutifully pounced on Echo and licked her cheek. Just when she started thinking that the scream must have been in her dream, another blood-curling scream sliced through the coming night. She grabbed Charlie and hugged him tightly. Her throat seemed to forget how to swallow just as her heart forgot it was supposed to be in her chest, not jumping out of her body and running away. She had never been so terrified in her life.
“Oh, Charlie.”
Another scream then silence. It was the silence that seemed so final. As if whatever had been screaming had lost the fight.
“Andrew? Was that Andrew? What if they find me?”
Echo looked around in a panic and found a small gap between the large boulder and a few medium sized rocks on the other side of the oasis. She dug down as fast as possible to form a little pocket. It was not deep, but she wedged herself between the rocks and hoped that whatever was out there would not find her. Thoughts raced through her mind as she sat there and clutched Charlie. Thoughts about her lesson on the anghenbeast that roamed the plains. Thoughts went to Edward and how terrified he was. They should have helped him. They should have saved him. Andrew may have been mean and murderous, but that didn’t mean he deserved the fate he just received. What about the skeleton buried across from her? What did he do to deserve dying out here alone? Did the anghenbeast get him too? His skeleton looked like he just sat down and died. She didn’t want that to happen to her. Fear consumed her, and she buried her face in Charlie’s fur to drown out the night until sleep overtook her again.
◆◆◆
The sun shone brightly over Echo’s head, and sounds of songbirds filled the air. Sweet blossoms teased her nose and made her hungry. She stood on top of the hill and looked and looked at the new forest that first appeared in her last dream. She wondered if the old man was still down by the water.
“Well, there you are dear,” a sweet sounding, female voice called out. “Come on and give me a hand.”
Echo looked around for the source of this new voice.
“Well, come on, haven’t got all day.”
She turned toward her house down below and where there had been open grassy land near the stone well, was now a small, fenced-in plot of land where a short, older woman leaned on a pole and waved at Echo. Echo smiled and waved back. Whenever she came to her home here, she was happy. Nothing else existed. She dusted herself off, made sure she was presentable and hurried down to the woman.
“Hello,” Echo called.
As Echo got closer to the newest addition to her dream world, she could see that the woman was dressed in a similar fashion to the old man in the camp. She wondered if they were married. The woman’s hair was long, grey and tied in a loose braid that draped down her back under a large tan hat. The closer Echo got to the woman the more she noticed her weathered skin, wrinkled face from years of smiling, and a lovely light blue apron with little animals stitched on it. There was something about the old woman that calmed and comforted. She forgot everything except for the woman’s request for help.
“Afternoon,” the lady said. “Give me a hand with the garden, won’t ya?”
Garden? What’s a garden? Echo assumed the little, fenced area was the garden, but what did she need help with? She remembered the old man with his fish and Betsy, and how anything is possible in her dream world. “Sure, what can I do?”
“Pick the strawberries and pull the carrots, sweetie,” the old woman said, pointing over her shoulder. “Then take them into the house while I finish the beans and cucumbers.”
“Um…” Echo looked around at green leaves and plants sticking out of the dirt but had no idea what those items were. She had seen tomatoes and potatoes on her field trip to the Bakerton Hydroponic Laboratory, but food didn’t grow in the ground, did it?
The old woman laughed. “See this here?” she asked, leaning down, lifting the green tops. “This one’s carrot and those red berries over there are the strawberries. Pick the red berries, not the green ones, and only pick the carrots that have orange sticking out of the dirt.”
Echo climbed over the fence and started pulling carrots up from the ground. Curious as to what it tasted like, she rubbed the dirt off and bit into it.
Charlie yelped, tugged out of Echo’s grasp, and hid behind a rock while he licked his tail and whined. Echo’s eyes jolted open, and she bolted upright, panicking until she got her bearings. Her heart was in her throat, and she grabbed her chest until her breathing slowed to normal. The sun had set, and night had fallen across the plains.
“Come here, Charlie,” she called. “I’m sorry, boy. It was a dream. Just a dream.”
Charlie was hesitant, but always forgave Echo and bounded over with his tongue hanging out. He gave her a slobbery kiss. She quickly wiped the liquid into her dry mouth and across her parched lips. She stroked Charlie for a few minutes and watched the night sky. She had never seen the stars before since the lights never really went out in Bakerton. They put things in a strange, new perspective. One where, like her dreams, anything was possible. She made a silent promise to herself that she would survive. She and Charlie would live just to spite Agent Dobson and Bakerton. She was more than they gave her credit for. She relaxed, and Charlie happily returned to his position on her belly until she fell back asleep.
Nine
The morning sun rose and spread its warmth and rejuvenating spirit across the plains. It reflected off the boulders and rocks at her new home and gently shone on Echo’s face. She rolled over, yawned, and stretched just as she had every morning for most of her life. Her hand slammed into a rock and startled her back to her new reality as an exile. Echo’s last twenty-four hours played over in her mind as she sat on the rocks and watched the sun light up the sky. The beauty of the moment was overshadowed by memories of Edward’s murder, Andrew’s horrific fate, and the skeleton just yards from her feet. She closed her eyes, tilted her face up slightly, and let the sun burn away the pain of those memories. Images of the old man at his camp and the woman in her garden pushed the images from her mind completely. After a few minutes of silent meditation, Echo took a deep breath, opened her backpack, and pulled out her journal and pencil. She slid her finger down her bookmark, opened it to the last page she had written on, and gasped. The bookmark was not where she last placed it. She turned back one page and found a message from her mother.
My Dearest Echo,
I know you think I don’t know about this journal, but I do. I also know you think I don’t know about your dreams, but I do. I fear for you, sweetie. I worry because you are like me in so many ways, yet so different. You never seemed to learn how to be what they want you to be. You know the words, and you know the actions, but you never seem to have the heart to be what they want you to be. What you need to be. What you must be. As citizens, we are forbidden to speak of the exam. We are forbidden from helping our children prepare. Forbidden from telling them the truth about what happens if you fail. I pray you do not fail, but I fear you will. You have a heart larger than anyone I have ever met, and nothing I did seemed to make it smaller. If you fail, I know they will exile you. My heart breaks thinking of you dying alone in the plains. I have tried to prepare you. To force you to be what they want. I know you have tried too. Listen to your dreams. Follow your dreams. Survive. For me. For you. For Johnny. You must. Remember, even in your darkest hour that I am with you. You are never alone.
Love, Mom
Echo shook her head in disbelief. How did her mother know? Why didn’t she say anything? All those years and she never said? Why didn’t she warn her? Echo did not and could not understand. Tears flowed once again, but this time she was grateful for them. She let them drip into her hand so that she could lick th
e moisture. She had to survive. Somehow. Someway. She had to learn what Bakerton was hiding. She had to learn what they were protecting.
“Poor guy.” Echo looked at the newly recovered grave. “You must have felt so alone.”
Now that it was light, and she was partially rested, she opened the small notepad and read it.
“Matthew Jenkins,” she said, reading the name on the inside of the cover.
Simple arithmetic. Spelling words. Bakerton pledge and motto. They must have been younger than her. Based on the notes and handwriting, she guessed they were around Johnny’s age. As she flipped through the pages, they shifted from school work to simple words.
“Why? Help? Mommy!” Echo read aloud.
The lump grew in her throat again as she imagined what they had gone through. She imagined Johnny going through the same experience, and it broke her heart. Not knowing what they had done that was so wrong that they had to be thrown away like garbage. No, Bakerton treated waste better than it did them. She was furious when she read Matthew’s last written message. A final apology. An apology that fell on deaf ears.
Echo drew a deep breath and looked at the grave. “Matthew, you didn’t do anything wrong. They did.” She stood up and looked toward Bakerton. “I don’t know how, but I’m going to make things different.”
The longer she stood there looking at Matthew’s grave and thinking of her new promise, the stronger her new resolve became. She was also very thankful that her mother insisted she bring Charlie. Without him, she would be as alone as Matthew. Echo sat back down on the rock and slipped his bracelet and notepad into her backpack. She looked at her journal, closed it, and put that away as well. Her stomach ached. Rubbing it brought little comfort.
“What I wouldn’t give for some of Mom’s morning hash, huh Charlie?”
It was then that she realized that she had not seen Charlie yet that morning. Fear surged through her as she remembered stories of the anghenbeast and Andrew’s screams in the dark. Could she have slept so hard she didn’t hear Charlie’s calls for help?
“Charlie?”
Nothing. Not a sound except for her own breathing. She looked around and screamed his name again. Nothing. She climbed on top of a medium rock and looked around. Nothing. Panic rose from the depths of her soul as she climbed the tallest boulder and screamed as loud as she could.
“CHARLIE!”
Faint barking on the horizon announced his coming. Echo slid off the boulder as his barking became louder. A grin pushed back the panic, and she laughed as his frame created a long shadow in the morning sun. She ran to him and caught him mid-jump as he was excited to see her as well.
“Aagh,” she hollered, dropping him as soon as she caught him. “You’re soaking wet.”
Wait! Wet! She licked the moisture off her hands as she bent down to touch him again. The water droplets sprayed in her face as he shook. She didn’t imagine things. He had found water!
“You’re my hero, Charlie!” She leaned down and gave him a big kiss on his head.
Quickly, Echo slung her backpack on and looked down at the grave one last time. “Matthew, I promise. They’ll pay.”
She never felt so alive, and so obligated to another person. Yes, there was Johnny and her mother, and her promise to them, but this was a promise between victims. Victims of Bakerton. Victims of a system that she didn’t understand. This was a bond that no one else knew about unless you were a member of the club. She owed it to Matthew to survive. To tell his story as well as her own. She breathed heavily and looked around the oasis with a renewed sense of purpose. She would not come by this way again. She knew that in her heart. She drew an arrow pointing South in the dirt with her shoe. That way was the future. Together, she and Charlie would face whatever came. For her, and for Matthew.
“Come on, Charlie. Show me the water you found.”
◆◆◆
Time had no meaning in the Austero Plains. There were no classes to attend, jobs to perform, or places she needed to be. All she had was her and Charlie. They walked over the soft ground and sinking sand until the sun was nearly overhead and Charlie was bone dry. Echo wished he was still wet as her lips parched and her throat ached. She passed the time by telling Charlie about everything that had happened in her dreams and of the promises she made to Matthew. Occasionally she would stop and look around trying to figure out where they were even though she didn’t have a map or know herself. Charlie knew exactly where he wanted to go and how to get there. Every time Echo stopped, Charlie would run ahead a little way, bark, wag his tail, and run back as if to say, ‘hurry up.’
“Okay, okay,” Echo said. “I’m coming.”
As they walked the terrain became less soft, dusty dirt, and more solidified Earth. Tufts of green popped up from time to time, and Charlie became more excited with every dune until the tops of trees appeared on the horizon.
“Oh, Charlie!” Echo exclaimed. “Trees!”
Echo and Charlie ran down the hill and raced each other to the green oasis, laughing and feeling freer than they ever had in their lives. Where there were trees, there was water. This oasis was very different than the rocky one she just left. Nearly a dozen trees and small bushes surrounded a spring rising from the ground. She dropped her backpack near a large tree as she took in her new home. This was the closest she had ever been to a tree in real life. She watched Charlie run through the bushes and around the trees without fear or yelps of pain. She didn’t want to die instantly, so she looked for the nearest bush and knelt next to it.
“What am I doing?” she asked, as she closed her eyes and, with a trembling finger, touched the leaves of the bush.
Nothing happened. She laughed lightly as she opened her eyes and dared to touch it again with her hand just to make sure. Again, nothing happened.
“Hey, Charlie, I don’t think this will hurt us.”
Charlie bounded over, startled her, and sent her tumbling backward into a tree. She screamed and covered her head not sure how to expect her instant death to occur. Funny how long an instant death took. She laid on the ground and screamed while Charlie cocked his head with curiosity. She continued yelling until she realized that nothing was happening. Nothing was going to happen. She stood up and put her hand on the tree as she did in her dream. Nothing. Anger replaced her fear as she realized it was all a lie. Everything they had been told about grass and trees had been a lie. She kicked the tree out of frustration and screamed.
“Don’t kick trees,” she told herself as pain pulsated through her foot.
Sounds of splashing drew her attention away from her foot and the tree. Charlie had jumped into the small spring that covered the center of the oasis. Echo’s heart pounded in her chest as she leaped into the water and splashed around with Charlie. The spring wasn’t very deep as she was able to stand up in it, but to her it was perfect. She watched Charlie get out and lap the water. Nothing happened to him, and Echo had decided to trust Charlie over her teachers and Bakerton agents and officials from now on. She scooped water in her hands and drank until she felt she was going to burst.
Echo crawled out of the spring and sat in the sun to drip dry. She watched Charlie as he jumped back in and continued playing in the water. Her stomach growled with hunger and reminded her that only half of her immediate problem was solved. She could not survive without food. After standing in the spring, she doubted there were any fish in it. Nothing in the trees look edible, but green tufts sprouting by the spring reminded her of the old woman in her dream and her garden. Could those be edible?
Charlie jumped out of the spring and shook as soon as Echo stood up and looked more closely at the plants in the oasis. She reached down and pulled up a green fuzzy tuft, but there was nothing under it that looked like anything in her dreams.
“Ouch!” she screamed as she grasped a taller plant unaware it was covered in tiny spines.
Charlie pounced on his front paws and barked at the plant for hurting his friend. Echo laughed as she rinsed her
hands in the spring.
“Third times the charm, right Charlie?”
A glint of red under green petals caught her eye. Strawberries. Just like the ones in her dream. A little off to the side of the strawberry patch were green plumes with orange bottoms sticking out of the ground. Carrots. They had to be. She picked a strawberry and pulled a carrot just as the old woman had shown her. She smelled the strawberry. It was sweet and made her mouth water. She wanted so much for it to be edible that she threw caution to the wind and trusted her dream that it was safe and took a large bite. It tasted as good as it smelled.
“Here Charlie, have some,” she said, placing it in her palm for him to try.
He gulped it down in one bite which made her laugh. It felt good to laugh again. Echo picked up the carrot and washed it off in the spring. She took one bite and chewed. It certainly tasted better than Charlie’s tail. She snapped off a piece and let Charlie smell it. Again, he took the whole piece and instantly devoured it. She searched around for identical looking plants, picked some, and divided them between her and Charlie.
“Wait, what am I doing? We can’t eat all of them.”
She ate the last one she had picked and told herself she had to save some. She had to survive. With food and water in her stomach, she began feeling more like herself and the world around her became less frightening. Breathing in the smells of fresh water, fragrant trees and plants, filled her with hope and curiosity as she walked around and fully took in her new home.
Ten
Different shades of green shielded out the late afternoon sun and made her feel like she was on the bus ride home where Johnny would be waiting for her. They would spend the rest of the day playing together until it was dinner. After dinner, they would do their homework and listen to the news with their mother. Would Johnny have had his promotion ceremony yet? It felt like forever since she last saw him but sitting down under a tree thinking about recent events, she found that it had only been one night since she was exiled. Two days and one night. That meant she missed her friends’ assignment ceremony and Johnny’s first-year promotion. She sighed thinking of home, but a bark from Charlie reminded her she was not alone. Nor was she alone in her heart because if she had her memories, her family was always with her.
