The Leafing: the 2nd book in The Green Man series

by Sharon Brubaker

  “I just called to apologize,” he said. “I hope last night didn’t cause too much trouble between you and Owen.”

  Sylvia bit her tongue. Part of her wanted to scream at Tony and yell at him and tell him he ruined everything. But was that true? She was too weary to analyze it. She sighed heavily.

  “Tony,” she paused. “I guess it is what it is,” she told him. “Things are not good with Owen. He moved out.”

  Tony was quiet for a moment. “Oh,” he said. “Do you want me to come over?” he asked.

  “Not tonight,” she told him. “I’m bone weary. I think I’m going to take Percy for a walk in a few minutes and then go to bed.”

  “Okay,” Tony said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  His phone call ended. Sylvia pulled into her driveway and gave a sigh of relief. She was home.

  Percy gave his happy bark and she gave him a long walk in the early evening dusk. The neighborhood was quiet mid-week. The boaters had started to return to the marinas on the weekends and a couple of families were cleaning out their summer homes in anticipation of the warmer weather. Some of the elderly residents were still in Florida. Sylvia thought she could count on one hand the number of residents who were actually home that evening.

  She checked her email and started a message to Owen several times before cancelling it, not knowing what to say. Percy whined and she shut down her computer to take him for his evening walk.

  The weather had warmed up and she opened her winter coat as they walked swiftly down Bayside. A car was approaching and it had a pizza sign on top. She didn’t recognize the pizza parlor, but didn’t order out that often. It slowed down as it approached Sylvia and Percy and she wasn’t surprised when it came to a stop rolled down the window. Lots of delivery people had difficulty finding the addresses in Bayside. Often times they mixed them up with the community a mile or two down the road.

  “Evening, ma’am,” the driver said, “Do you know where fifty three Bayside Road is?”

  Sylvia thought. “Give me a second,” Sylvia said. Percy whined and pulled on the leash.

  “Percy!” she admonished, “hang on!”

  Fifty three was much further down the road. When she started to tell him, and point that way a hand clapped over her mouth with a cloth that smelled horribly like a chemistry lab. Sylvia struggled and wretched to no avail as her body felt limp. Before she lost consciousness she heard Percy whine and bark in the background and then cry after she heard a ‘whoompf.’ Then all was black.

  Sylvia was cold and stiff and nauseous. Her head felt as though it weighed a million pounds and she had no idea where she was except that it was cold and dark. It was very, very dark. It smelled. Horribly. She wretched and threw up.

  Where was she? Where was Percy? She sniffed the air tentatively again and the odor caused her to have dry heaves. It smelled like the landfill. She had no idea what was going on. Behind her was a wall. She leaned against it and shivered, pulling her legs to her chest.

  There was a very small window where a star shone through the dirt on the window pane. As her eyes adjusted she could barely make out the outline of a door. Not feeling steady enough to walk she crawled on all fours to the door and reached up to grab the handle. The ring on her necklace waved wildly back and forth in the dark. Wearily she tucked it into her sweater. The door handle loomed above her. She reached. It was locked. Even though the building was one small room, her effort of crawling exhausted her. She was so nauseous and had a headache. She felt her face and hands reeked of some kind of car fluid. It wasn’t quite the odor of gasoline. It was a bit different.

  It struck her. She had been kidnapped, but had no idea why. Why was she at the landfill? Was Tony involved with this? She couldn’t think. Fear and exhaustion formed a blank in her mind and she fell into a restless sleep.

  She shivered again when she woke in the pale morning light. She was absolutely freezing and needed to pee. Badly. Her teeth were chattering. Her head hurt terribly. She was still nauseous and she didn’t know whether or not to hug herself or to hold her stomach. Again, she wondered why this had happened. She pulled herself up to stare out the very dirty windowpane. All she saw were low rolling hills of dirt. Some had grass and numerous seagulls were wheeling about in the sky. She wondered what time it was, but her cell phone was gone. She was not wearing a watch.

  She inadvertently reached up to clutch the ring. It gave her little comfort. She paced the little hut. As the light grew, her head cleared a little bit. She still had no idea what was going on. The knot of fear in her stomach grew until her chest hurt. She couldn’t even cry.

  She sat down again still clutching the ring. It was then she remembered the ring taking on a life of its own as she crawled across the floor last night. It was odd. It was like the same thing that happened when she was at the recycling center. Sylvia reached up and took the necklace off and held it between her thumb and forefinger. She held it still for a moment. When she let go, it started to take on a wild swinging in the ‘no’ position. Odd. ‘No’ usually meant no or something bad. Was there something bad going on? She stilled the wild ring.

  Sylvia remembered what Bill had said about changing negative energy to positive energy. Would it help? She held the ring and focused on the thought of clearing the negative energies, sending them in her mind to a neutral place. She remembered Bill had said something about removing the patterns that attracted the negative energy. She focused. The ring continued to wave back and forth and back and forth in the no position. Then the ring began to slow after a few minutes. The ring started to swing in an imperceptive, miniscule circle. She breathed a little bit. It started to turn in a tiny, tiny circle when she heard a vehicle. Its loud engine broke her concentration. She looked outside. It was a utility vehicle and it climbed over the hills. Who was in it? Someone in the vehicle had a dark jacket with a hoodie, pulled over their head, got slowly out of the truck. Fear began to fill her again.

  The man pulled keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. She looked at the floor at his feet when he walked in. The driver was wearing expensive loafers. They looked familiar. Her eyes rose to see Tony standing in front of her. Confusion and anger filled her.

  “Tony? What the hell is going on?” Sylvia cried.

  He laughed. Laughed!

  “Feisty as ever,” he said.

  “I don’t understand,” Sylvia said, confused. There was something about his eyes that made her feel uncomfortable.

  “Of course not,” he said patiently.

  “Why am I here?” she asked. “What’s going on?” she demanded again.

  “Why was I kidnapped?”

  “As if you didn’t know,” he sneered.

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly aghast.

  As if in a horror movie, Tony nearly rolled his eyes in his head. They blazed with hate. “You’re just like Joyce,” he said, “Diddling with me and making me the fool.”

  Sylvia didn’t know what to say. Was he talking about Owen? She tried to play up to his emotions.

  “For your information, you successfully chased Owen away the other night when you kissed me,” she said.

  He smiled triumphantly.

  “Good,” he stated, “but, you obviously don’t really care about me.”

  “Of course I do,” she argued.

  “No!” his anger blazed again. “You have thwarted my advances and offers. You never really cared.”

  “What’s going to happen to me?” she asked. She had flattened herself against the wall and was trying to think of a way to get by him or hurt him or something, but her head was making her want to throw up again.

  “No one knows you are here,” he said smugly. “When you have sufficiently weakened after a few days, I’ll think of what needs to be done and how to dispose your body. No one uses this part of the landfill. It might be a hundred years before they find you. You and your spirit can look at the stars. Just like Joyce. Good day.”

  He left and locked the door b
ehind him. What did he mean, just like Joyce? Joyce was found in the river. How did that equate with this?

  Sylvia sank to the floor. Did he kill Joyce? She didn’t understand any of this. She would need to keep her wits about her the next time he came. She looked wildly around the room. There was no weapon of any kind. It was four blank walls, one locked door and one miniscule dirty window that she wouldn’t fit through. She was stuck. She was freezing and tired. She started to cry. It didn’t help. She had so many questions. Exhaustion overtook her and she slept.

  Time lost meaning. She was exhausted. Her body hurt everywhere and her limbs were cramping. Her toes had lost their feeling and her lips were starting to crack. She couldn’t cry. She had tried to stand up and dizziness assuaged her. Then Tony returned.

  He entered gingerly by peeking around the corner of the door. She was too exhausted to move. She looked up at him wearily. He smiled at her beatifically.

  “What’s happened to Percy?” she asked. Her voice was beginning to crack. It was difficult to talk. She croaked out, “Is he okay? Did those goons hurt him?”

  “He’s fine,” Tony said. “In fact,” he said, “I called the police when I found Percy in the development thoroughly putting them off me as a suspect. An officer picked him up, but I’m sure he’s fine. They questioned me, but I could honestly say I did not see you two nights ago.” He smiled at her.

  He was really quite crazy.

  “Tony, what did you mean by saying Joyce and I could look at the stars together?” she asked warily.

  “She was looking at the stars from the bay,” he said. “New Year’s Eve and a midnight boat ride.”

  “That was you? On the bay? The moving lights?” she asked. “I remember,” she said thoughtfully.

  “You witnessed that?” he asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” she said, gaining what confidence she could, but the dizziness made her close her eyes.

  Tony scowled.

  “Don’t you think they’re following you?” She asked.

  Tony looked at her. “I am very smart,” he said. “I have taken precautions. As I mentioned, no one uses this part of the landfill any more.”

  “Why?” she asked wearily in a raspy whisper.

  “Because of a few things buried here,” Tony told her. “Nothing you need to worry about. Likely it will cause faster decomposition of your body.”

  “Tony, I’m so thirsty,” her voice cracked. “If you’re going to starve me to death can you at least give me some water? Please?”

  “I am not intending to starve you to death,” he told her. “You will die of natural causes of dehydration. You are already exhibiting the signs.”

  “How much longer?” she asked.

  “Perhaps a week,” he told her. “And I may not see you after a day or two, when you become terribly ill. My friends will take care of you as they did for Joyce. I do not want to sully my hands with your actual deaths. I think I am due for another trip since two women I have cared about are gone.” His smile was evil, “or about to be,” he said cruelly. He left again.

  She wanted to scream at him, but she was too weary. She could barely think and thirst was the upmost thought in her mind.

  Chapter 38

  Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always To be Blest.

  Alexander Pope

  Sylvia could barely think. Her head hurt so badly and the dizziness made her ill. She held her head in her hands and tried to think. Who could help her? She had no way to reach anyone. How could this happen? She thought of her Mom and wondered how she was doing. What about Owen? Marian, Carol, Mr. Carter?

  What about the Green Man? In this nightmare she had not thought of him. She had not thought about him at all! How could she call for him and where was he in the odd continuum or pattern that he mentioned? Her headache and dizziness were overtaking her and she curled up in a ball on the floor. She closed her eyes, pleading for his help in her thoughts.

  In her dreams, or delirium, she vaguely heard a vehicle and the closing of two doors today. She thought it was probably the two men who kidnapped her. She was too weak to stand up to them. She wanted to cry, but only one sole tear leaked from her eyes.

  Sylvia wished for the Green Man. Before, he had said that she called him. With all of her heart she thought of Green Man as a key in the door clicked.

  The door opened. There was a blinding flash of green. It was just like in the movies where two heads clanked together like hard pumpkins and the next thing Sylvia saw were the bodies of two men slumped on the floor.

  A pair of strong arms in leafy brocade lifted Sylvia and placed her in the car. Sylvia didn’t remember anything else until she felt a jolt and found herself leaning over the steering wheel. Police came. An ambulance came. And all was blank again.

  When she woke up in the hospital, Joe was standing by along with her mother.

  A nurse hovered by and hissed at Joe, “Just a few minutes. Do not wear her out.”

  “Sylvia,” Joe said gently, “as soon as you are up to it, I need you to make a statement.”

  Sylvia nodded. She started to tell him about Tony, but she was having difficulty talking. Every few minutes her mother would feed her an ice chip or two, soothing her still cracked lips. But, Sylvia felt herself drifting off between stories, but Joe was patient. It was a few hours later when she woke again to find Joe and her mother still with her.

  “Percy?” she said, trying to sit up suddenly in bed, “Percy? Is he okay?”

  “Yes,” Joe assured her, “he’s fine.”

  “Tony?” she croaked out.

  “He gave us quite a chase,” Joe admitted. “He is in custody along with the two men who kidnapped you. Apparently he baited you the other night and knew you were alone,” Joe told her. “You are safe now.”

  Sylvia relaxed visibly. She was feeling better than she had in the last two days. A nurse came in to check her vital signs and asked if she wanted something to eat. Sylvia realized she was famished.

  “We have to take it slowly,” the nurse said. “We’ll start off with some liquids and see how that goes.”

  So Sylvia sipped at chicken broth and poked at some Jell-O and continued to tell Joe more details. Her mother was quiet. She would squeeze Sylvia’s hand at certain comments, but Joe would quietly say “let her talk.”

  Sylvia filled Joe in on Tony’s jealousies and his comments about Joyce. She told him about the illegal dumping of something under the hut where Tony had her held.

  “I’m curious,” Joe said, “how did you overcome those two men?”

  Sylvia thought. She only remembered a flash of green. And she knew. It had been the Green Man who saved her.

  “I don’t remember,” she said quietly to Joe.

  “Those guys insist someone else was there,” Joe asked her gently.

  Sylvia closed her eyes, remembering feeling so weak and pulling herself up to see the two men exit their car. She remembered the flash of green and the comforting arms of the Green Man picking her up and scolding her that she should have called for him sooner.

  She shook her head. “No one else was there,” she told him.

  Joe looked at her quizzically. “I don’t understand how you escaped.”

  “Me either,” Sylvia told him. “I thought I was going to die.”

  Her mother patted her arm, but her hand went up to her mouth to squelch a sob. She blew her nose.

  “Okay, okay,” Joe said. “That’s all for now. Rest, Sylvia.”

  And she did. Sylvia slept a deep and dreamless sleep.

  When she woke up again, Owen was standing on one side of the bed. He held an adorable stuffed poodle in his arms. He looked worried and yet, sheepish at the same time. Marian and Jon stood on the other side with worried smiles and a huge bouquet of flowers.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “We’ve been very worried about you Sylvia,” Marian said, tears pricking at her lids.

  Owen gave her a gentle kiss o
n the forehead as if she was made of a fragile piece of glass.

  “Here,” he said awkwardly, “until you can see Percy again.”

  “Do you know where he is?” Sylvia asked anxiously, “Is he all right?”

  Jon chuckled, “He’s with us, Sylvia. And, we’ve become very well trained in the last couple of days.”

  She looked incredulously at them. “He’s with you?” she said, the hope filling her voice with awe. “How did that happen?”

  “Your friend, Joe,” Marian told her, “When you went missing and they found Percy wandering around, Joe made sure he came to us,” Marian explained.

  “Thank, God,” Sylvia said.

  “When will you get out of here?” Owen asked.

  One of the nurses bustled in. She overheard Owen’s question. “Another day or two,” she said. “She has been severely dehydrated. Her kidneys started to shut down. We need to keep an eye on her,” the nurse told them. “Don’t wear her out,” she told them sternly.

  Sylvia was wired up with a heart monitor, IV and oxygen sensor. She had made significant improvements, but was still weary. She was happy to see them, but was ready to nap again. She yawned. Marian patted her leg and they exited.

  “We’ll see you soon,” Jon told her.

  Sylvia started to drift into another nap, but Carol burst in.

  “Finally!” she said, “I’m so happy to see you Sylvia! I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting! How are you?” she burst out with her many questions.

  “I’m,” Sylvia said her voice still a little weak, “okay.”