Cadence and Dog

by Lashbrook, Lillan

  She tapped him on the shoulder as he dried off his head. “Adrien, you are a boy. So, you like girls?”

  “Yes, but I don’t really think about girls. I like sports mostly.”

  “Do you like me?” Her face got warm all of a sudden, and her chest felt tight.

  He smiled at her “Yes I like you cadence” Spelling out her name slowly so she could see. Then he made an extra sign at the end. But she didn’t understand.

  “What was” copied the sign.

  Here he picked up the chalk so she could learn the new word. “I gave you your own sign. So, I don’t have to spell your name out. It was beautiful with a C for Cadence.” He made it again. “Because you are beautiful”

  No boy had ever talked to her like that before. Never called her anything close to beautiful before. Plenty of adults had called her cute. She didn’t know why, but she kept getting hotter and she felt uncomfortable in her cloths. She saw a blush on Adrian’s face and felt maybe he was uncomfortable too. A question occurred to her that hadn’t all day. “Adrien how old are you?”

  “12. You?”

  “7” she held the number up for a moment.

  “Cadence” He used her new sign “I like you; do you like me?”

  She could feel her face turning red and squeezed her eyes shut, but nodded. She didn’t understand why she was feeling this way. Then with a smile Adrien did the weirdest thing yet. He lifted her face and kissed her on the mouth.

  Ch

  A tree, growing inside a library! Several. At least one in each room. The water supply for the whole building ran through the roots of these trees and various other plants. Everything was recycled. The air was clean and alive with birds. Birds hadn’t been in the library long; they were a new addition. Holes in the ceiling had let them in and they found the big empty space full of trees and no predators very welcoming. However, the holes had also let in the weather. Rain, and wind had pulled books off the nearest book shelves. Spilling them in piles of wet mold across the floor. Cadence saw this and began to cry, her wonder turned to heart ache in an instant. She tried to clean them up but there were so many and they were so deteriorated that she was just picking up pieces of slime that use to be paper and chunks of cardboard. This only made her cry harder. Only a few weeks ago she had ripped a book of sonnets apart to make her fire. Now she had become so alive and happy having Adrien with her she was almost back to herself. All the love her father had fostered in her for books and stories had returned. A library, especially one as big as this one, had become as revered to her as any church. She could read before she could talk. Now she was surrounded by what she could only see as desecration.

  Adrien couldn’t understand. Having never really gotten into books. Comics were ok but videogames had been his idea of fun. He left her to wallow in her obvious misery. Not knowing how to comfort her. He wandered around the remains of the library. Room after room that seem to just keep going. Sometimes doubling back on itself, other rooms just ending in a hallway as if waiting for the next expansion. Adrien found a poster above the check-out counter.

  “Children are our feature. Books are fertilizer, helping the seeds of idea grow.”

  The image of children reading with small trees or flowers coming out of their heads disturbed him. Who thought THAT was brilliant? He thought as he continued on. He found a small staff area with a fridge and a bathroom. When he turned the faucet, he heard a generator and pump kick over and water poured out brown for a moment then cleared. On the small table was a little booklet about the “improved water and energy systems” he read it. Adrien learned all about the solar panel roof on top of the building and the trees and plants being used for filtration. All funded by a local ‘go green ‘cus this is home’ campaign. The library being the emergency shelter for the town ‘that explains the empty room and closets full of kendo mats’ and the largest building in town limits was first for the upgrade. The plan was to do so with all the official buildings, firehouse, town hall, schools, and ext. It didn’t have any info on how many if any other buildings had gotten it. He filled the canteen on his hip and went to look for Cadence. “Maybe she is done crying and trying to clean that mess. I hope so this place is boring. We can use the bedding if it isn’t rank and have a comfy place to sleep. Maybe wash our clothes. I should look in more closets, maybe there is a washing machine and soap! Probably not but that book said it was a shelter. Who knows?” He picked up the pace, trotting back to the last place he had seen her.

  Cadence was walking around the corner not looking and ran full body into him. She fell back and landed on her bottom hard. As her face twisted to start crying again, he quickly pushed the canteen at her and wiped at her face. When she took it and freed his hands he quickly signed “I found out why this place has trees and that they have running water. You want a bath?” she just nodded and he lifter her back up to her feet to show her back to the break room. She too read the book after undressing, washing herself, and her clothes. Cadence wandered back out of the break room. She had left her clothes to dry. Wandering naked was thrilling, even if there was no one to see her except Adrien. She felt like she was being bad, as though anyone could come around the corner and see her. She knew no one would. Dog just tilted his head as she walked past. “I know I’m not normally naked like this, but Adrien was right we needed to wash our clothes.” She motioned him to follow though he would have anyway. The continued their search of the library. Found molded bedding and rotten food. A few sections of books that were intact. Cadence added to her collection of useful books. They never did find a laundry area, though they did find some clothes in the shelter supplies. Simple clothes for emergency situations. They added what they needed and moved on. With the library so big, and everything so ruined, Cadence didn’t want to sleep here. So, they traveled on. The day was still long from over, and the next campsite could only be another mile or two.  So, our little trio wandered out. With one last tear-filled glance into the dim interior of what should have been a sanctuary, Cadence shut the door.

  No more than 3 hours later they stopped to forage the woods for a small lunch. She rifled through her wagon and pulled out one of her new books. Plant life in mid-west America. She compared the picture to the ‘carrot’ Adrien was holding. She was sure that something was wrong with it. It did not look like any carrots in her book. It did however look like something call hemlock. Which turns out to be poisonous. When she told him so he promptly put in back in the ground where he got it. They did find some wild lettuce and spinach and good mushrooms. Granma had her eat everything, so she could learn about all food, and she didn’t realize how much she had miss salads. The fresh food after she couldn’t remember how long of soup and granola. She couldn’t seem to eat enough. Her stomach began to hurt but her mind and tongue told her to keep eating. She finally stopped eating when her stomach threatened to throw up all of her greens.

  The sun was out and she couldn’t remember the last time she laughed. Or laid in the sun and grass. Everything was warm and soft and smelled like happy. While an adult may not have applied a feeling with a smell, she did. The feeling of just being lazy and relaxed. Dog laid a few feet away and Adrien was on the other side of him. They had traveled for weeks since they found his camp deserted. Everyone had left. But the camp had been put away like he had shown her when they broke camp. Suggesting that it was not a sudden decision. He said they were probably traveling as they had intended. Her belly was full, she wasn’t alone and that was worth more than anything. She laid back in the grass and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again the sun was at a serious slant. She had slept the afternoon away, into early evening. It was time for fire and making camp. Adrien had already started by making a fire pit and gathering wood. She sat up and waited for him to see her. He looked over and smiled.

  “Sorry, I didn’t want to sleep all day. It’s so nice here.” Cadence looked up at the
trees, the field around her, and then back to Adrien. “I see why your group camped here.”"

  When he couldn’t decide which way, his camp would have gone, he looked around at the trees. His eyes finally set on an old oak that reached up higher than the others he could see nearby. The tree was massive. As big a tree as the madman was big. And sure-enough up went Adrien, climbing yet another impossibly high thing. ‘At least this one couldn’t run away on him’ Cadence thought. She walked around the base of it, took a whole half a minute to come back around to her wagon and Dog. She noticed that it was not one tree, but several. She could see at least two different leaf types growing next to each other. Adrien called out and she looked up. He stuck his hand way out where she could see.

                   “I found a hallow in the tree. But I don’t see smoke or any sign of a camp. Come up. Help me look.” Then disappeared behind a branch before she could reply.

         “you know, I think that’s a bit rude” Cadence shouted at the tree branches knowing he couldn’t hear her anyway. “Just ‘cus you’re lost doesn’t mean I should have to get up there and probably fall” But she got the rope out of her wagon tied one end around her chest and shoulders. Wrapping the rest loosely around one arm she started up using the hand and foot holds she saw Adrien use. Once up in the branches she saw all of the woods stretching out before her. A green sea, rippling and rolling in the breeze. Adrien had climbed even higher while she was just getting to one of the lowest branches. She tied the free end of the rope around a solid looking branch.

  She retied the rope to the limb above every time she reached a higher branch. Slowing her climb but at least she knew she wasn’t going to fall. With every new branch she felt smarter for the rope. When she got up to where Adrien was standing, she made the last tie and turned around to a spectacular view. The oak had been established first, by a decade or more. The maple on one side and pine on the other were dwarfed, stopping only half way up. She walked out a few steps on the thick branch, captivated. The woods stretched out like an ocean of greens and browns. There were even waves as the wind blew through the branches making them sway. Birds rose up here and there from below like schools of fish breaching. The quiet sound of the rustling leaves. No cars or plains to disturb it, and if the madmen weren’t stopped, there would be no humans to destroy it.

  If she turned her head to the east, she would see the town they had just passed through. The library and its amazing water system. All those books that would never be loved or cared for. Empty cars rusting. Building that use to be beloved homes now destroyed or empty hovels. Streets upon roads upon miles of asphalt painted the landscape. Everything that was once civilization, empty and lonely in the new world. But she didn’t look at the desolation. Cadence kept her eyes glued to what had been one of the few natural places left in the country. Trying so hard to think of nothing. She didn’t want to think about how her life had changed, didn’t want to know about the journey she was on. But something kept pushing it back to the forefront of her mind. Placing a black square in the middle of all those trees. Reminding her of her destination. One she still hadn’t told her new companion about. She didn’t know how to tell him she had to go somewhere to do she didn’t know what.  Cadence turned around to face him and signed “Do you see anything?”  The woods were not too large. She could see the ends off in the distance. More buildings and more roads. Humans do love their asphalt after all. She could even see a couple running in between the trees, and a small little building that was most likely the maintenance hut or ranger station. ‘How big do woods need to be to need a ranger to police them?’

  Adrien had seen the small hut too. They agreed it was the best place to camp for the night. He dropped a rock Cadence hadn’t seen him pick up straight down in the direction they were going to go, then toss a second one that way as well. He said it was to point them the right way. Cadence pulled out her compass and turned the arrow towards the hut and lined up north the like the hiking book had told her. Adrien just rolled his eyes and began climbing down.  It took Cadence longer since she kept tying and untying then retying all the way down, just as she had on the way up. Once on the ground she started cleaning up camp and repacking her wagon. There was no sign of Adrien, and yelling would do no good. So, she began in the direction of the hut, he would catch up or already be there. She was right, he was already there fighting with the door. It was just a maintenance hut. The generator had a tree lying on it and busted hoses. The power lines to the outdoor light were lying flat against the post. A storm must have come through and knocked the tree through the lines and onto the generator. The shack was little more than 4 plywood walls and a roof. No windows. The door was locked to protect whatever the city had put in it. The tree had missed the building by inches.

  The small access road that ended in front of the shed was littered with branches and leaves and trash. It was obviously from a storm, but nothing had been moved let alone damaged in the town or even in the woods they had walked through. It was as if the storm had let all of if fury out on this one area. She could see the roots of the fallen tree like snakes twisted in agony. ‘It doesn’t have any rot or black spots. It had to have been pulled up by a great wind but it didn’t damage the shack? The thing leans and wiggles every time Adrien yanks on the door. If he keeps kicking the door like that, he might push it over. There is something strange going on here’ Cadence suddenly dropped the handle of the wagon, didn’t notice it hitting her foot, and closed her eyes. Walking towards the sudden pull against her sternum she moved around to the side then behind the hut. Dog padded quietly behind her always watching. Reaching down just like when she found the Celtic cross, this time the rock was plastic. Her eye flew open and at once she knew what it was! Quickly Cadence ran around to the front of the building flipping the rock over and opening the small compartment as she went. But when she showed it to Adrien, he mistook the rock and smashed it against the door and shattered it. Cadence held the key in her hand and slowly reached past him, unlocked and opened the door while He examined the remains of the hide a key.

  Inside were a few tools, another key and a strange little alien shaped bobble head that read “They don’t come in peace” across the front of its base. It was dusty, and dark, but looked like room for two without the wagon if they slept close. Cadence looked back at Adrien where he squatted on the porch of this little shelter. ‘He would have gone right on banging. How long was he at it before I got here?’ she waved to get his attention “we sleep here?”

  He squatted a moment longer poking at the plastic pieces. He seemed dazed. Nodding slowly, he rose to a standing position. Cadence unpacked what was necessary from the wagon and covered the rest with her tarp. The sun was on its way to setting and the light was getting dim, Cadence decided she wanted a fire before bed. Maybe have some hot water to wash her mouth out before going in. When she wandered towards the tree line Adrien grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around. Startled and a little hurt by the action she signed “fire” as well as she could with one hand held hostage. Adrien didn’t say anything; he didn’t act as if he even saw her despite having his hand on her. He just walked back to the hut and pulled her along. She tripped on the short step up into the building and yelped a little. But that was enough for Dog to start growling and shoving his way between them. When Adrien didn’t let go, Dog put his teeth on Adrien’s arm. Not enough to hurt or break the skin, just enough to get his attention. What cause Adrien to bleed was ripping his hand away from Dogs mouth and off Cadences arm. He fell back against the wall with a yell! Holding his bleeding arm to his chest and trying to get his shirt around it while he was still wearing it. Cadence went to the wagon, pulled out the first aid kit and showed it to Adrien. “I help” she s
igned. But he would have none of that. Adrien yanked the box from her and it dropped on the floor. Band-Aids and alcohol wipes and ace bandages scattered in the dust. Cadence sighed and left for firewood. Dog caught a smell under all the normal smells of the Not quite a girl/Not quite a boy, a smell that worried, a smell that was dangerous, a smell like madness. He had known something was not right about them. He followed The Girl close but looked back over his shoulder determined to keep a better eye. When she and Dog returned the bedding had been set up, the first aid kit cleaned up and put away and a small circle of gravel from around the shack was out in front. Adrien was sitting on the short step and looked horrible. As soon as he saw her, he got up to help start the fire.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was doing or why I was so angry.”

  “You hurt my wrist, and that upset Dog. I don’t think he meant to hurt you.”

  Adrien looked down at his wrist. Just a couple Band-Aids and possibly a bruise. “I think I deserve it. He didn’t even bite me; it was my pulling that did it.”

  Cadence heated some water and found the soap. They both had a hot drink in the cooling air and climbed into the sleeping bag (Adrien had zipped the two together to make one big one) warm and relaxed.