Planet Urth Boxed Set

by Jennifer Martucci

  “Yoshi, I have to admit, it’s kind of hard to argue with someone when he’s just told you exactly what you want to hear.”

  “I’m not telling you what you want to hear. I’m telling you what I sincerely believe to be true.”

  “So, you really think nothing’s changed?”

  “Well maybe something,” Yoshi said solemnly.

  “What? What do you mean? What do you think will be different? Tell me!”

  “Well, it’s hard to say exactly. It could be any number of things. For starters, her hair may be different. I’ve read in several gossip magazines that girls often cut their hair when they are sad. Melissa may have chopped all her hair off.”

  Gabriel exhaled sharply, relieved, and then said, “I don’t care if she has buzzed all her hair off, she will look just as beautiful to me. And don’t believe everything you read in gossip magazines. Not all American girls are like the starlets you read about. Women and America are really misrepresented by those kinds of magazines.”

  “Hey I like my Tattletale Weekly! I’ve learned a lot of useful stuff about popular culture from them,” Yoshi said. “Wait until we get to her house before you judge my information sources. She could have a purple Mohawk for all you know.”

  “I doubt it, Yoshi.”

  Yoshi did not offer any further opinion. Instead, he sat silently in the passenger seat of Gabriel’s rented Jeep Cherokee as they drove up Melissa’s street.

  “How can you possibly be calm at a time like this,” Gabriel asked and grabbed Yoshi by the arm.

  “Hey, eyes on the road! You don’t want to see her for the first time in five months wrapped around a tree do you?”

  Yoshi was quiet for a second then added, “I’m happy for you. I’m happy you’re finally going to get to see her.”

  “Thanks, man. I can’t wait. And I’m nervous as hell.”

  Gabriel could not stop smiling as he drove up her hill. His face began to hurt from doing so as her house came into view. He slowed to a near crawl as he approached and felt a familiar feeling of excitement surge in his stomach before he noticed that her bedroom light was on. Eager to see her, he parked the Cherokee four houses away.

  “Is this her house? Where’s the big tree you told me about?” Yoshi asked.

  “No, this isn’t it. We passed it.”

  “Why? Is something wrong?”

  “No, nothing’s wrong. We’re going to walk to her house, cross her property and climb the tree to her window.”

  “Wouldn’t the front door be easier?”

  “Well, yes, of course. But I’m guessing her father is home and would not be too thrilled to see me after what happened last time I was here, how I just took off and left Melissa to deal with the police and everything. And how I hurt his daughter.”

  “When you put it that way, I can see why you’d want to avoid him. He’s probably not a big fan of yours,” Yoshi replied. “It sounds like the tree is the best route.”

  They both climbed out of the Jeep Cherokee and began walking up the steep incline of Melissa’s street. Each residence was uniform in construct, only subtle variations in choice of shutter color or siding hue differentiated them. Composed predominantly of working-class residents, the members of the Blackstone Drive’s community dutifully maintained their property. Gabriel noticed that each lawn they passed had been mowed, flower beds were meticulously upheld, and shrub shapes were maintained. The overall landscape was neat and orderly, a refreshing departure from the unpredictability and, at times, unruliness, that defined the environment of his previous habitat.

  “All the houses are exactly alike,” Yoshi commented.

  “Kind of,” Gabriel agreed.

  “Is that how all neighborhoods are in America?”

  “No, not all, but who cares, really? Look over there, look what this neighborhood has that’s unique,” Gabriel said pointing to the eastern-facing houses that bore odd numbers.

  Beyond the odd numbered houses, the sun hung low in the sky, almost disappeared into the horizon, its vanishing light a faint glow in the west.

  “I see. Sunsets for one side of the street, sunrises for the other. Interesting,” Yoshi said but didn’t seem interested in the least.

  Gabriel believed his friend would have been happier in a less suburban setting, one with tall buildings and bright lights. But Yoshi’s entertainment was not his foremost thought. Furthermore, he was far too distracted to entertain such thoughts. Everything around him shimmered and thrived.

  The air smelled sweet and green with hints of lemon grass and lavender scenting it. Everywhere he looked, something bloomed. Daffodils, tulips and magnolia lined driveways, cherry blossoms and early azalea blooms made debuts in front yards. Blackstone Drive flourished with signs of spring.

  Gabriel, like the street he treaded upon, was awash with hope and vitality.

  And then he saw her house. The light of her bedroom lamps cast a faint golden glow onto the garage that shelved below it. He felt his breath catch in his chest, couldn’t believe he was actually standing underneath her room, that he would hold her in his arms in a matter of minutes.

  He looked beside the house and smiled. The mature oak looked bigger. Though he was sure it hadn’t gown taller in the last five months, he knew it grew wider. With an abundance of leaves that assumed a fluorescent hue in the light of early evening, the oak looked considerably fuller, robust. All the brightly colored leaves intertwined in an elaborate web of boughs reaching and stretching upward, outward. He marveled at the majestic guardian of the Martin home, and eagerly wanted to climb it.

  As if reading his mind, Yoshi spoke.

  “It’s been a while since I climbed a tree,” Yoshi said slightly embarrassed. “You think I can get up there?” he asked and pointed to the lowest branch which was several feet taller than he.

  “Sure you can. You were born and raised in Motuo,” Gabriel encouraged. “Remember? No electricity. No supermarkets. You hunted in the wild.”

  “Thanks Gabriel, but I really don’t need a pep talk. The problem is less about my abilities–which are superior to yours, by the way–and more about the fact that I can’t even get my leg to the lowest knot.”

  “First of all, those things on the tree are not knots Yoshi, their called galls and they occur when a tree is recovering from an injury or stress; it’s like a lump of scar tissue.”

  “What, now you’re a tree doctor or something?”

  “No, I just learned a lot of stuff when I was with Terzini. He wanted me to be well-rounded, well-informed.”

  “With useless information, I guess.”

  “It wasn’t useless. You learned something just now, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Yoshi answered slightly exasperated.

  “Are we going to do this or not, because there’s a gorgeous girl just a tree-climb away who I’d like to see rather than stand here and argue with you.”

  “Fine, say no more,” Yoshi agreed and rubbed his chin as he looked again to the enormous oak.

  “I’ll give you a boost,” Gabriel promised then stooped and offered his interlaced fingers for his friend to step upon.

  Yoshi stepped into Gabriel’s hands and hoisted himself up onto a sturdy outstretched branch. Once he was confident that the branch could uphold his weight, he stood up and looked down at Gabriel.

  “This thing is huge,” he called. “What kind of tree is this?”

  “It’s an oak tree,” Gabriel answered readying himself to reach for the same bough.

  Once Yoshi was farther up in the massive tree, Gabriel began climbing. His hands trembled as he reached for the first branch. His pulse kept rhythm loudly in his ears. He pulled himself up and lifted his leg so that he straddled the bough first, then moved to a squatting position. He stood quickly, stretched and grasped another branch, and another, and another, until he reached the roof of the garage. Yoshi waited for him at the edge as he stepped from the tree.

  “This is it,” Yos
hi began. “This is what you’ve been whining about for five months.”

  “Please, Yoshi! Stop trying to ruin this for me!”

  “Sorry,” Yoshi said sincerely.

  They scampered up the length of the garage roof. When they reached the sill of her window, Gabriel peered inside, expecting to see Melissa’s face just beyond the glass staring intently at her laptop computer as he’d seen her do on numerous occasions in the past. He did not see her face. She was not seated at her desk focusing on her computer. She sat on the edge of her bed with her back facing him, her long hair trailing almost to her waist. And she was not alone.

  Gabriel moved closer to her bedroom window. With his face nearly pressed against it, he saw that Melissa’s arm was wrapped around a male figure. Thin with a large frame and bristly black hair, he leaned into her, his body resting intimately against her.

  Gabriel felt as if he’d been struck in the stomach. He struggled to breathe. His eyes burned and his mouth went dry. He blinked several times to expunge the moisture that accumulated suddenly, unexpectedly, and blurred his vision. He turned to Yoshi who sat waiting with his back against the siding that framed the window.

  “Let’s go. This was a mistake,” he said levelly.

  “What? What are you talking about? This is what you’ve been waiting for.”

  “Did you not hear me?” Gabriel said sharply. “I said let’s go!”

  “What the hell’s your problem?”

  “Look, Yoshi, I’m not in the mood for your crap right now. Let’s just get the hell out of here. Okay?”

  “I don’t get it. Why?”

  “You really want to know Yoshi?”

  “Yes, I do!”

  “Look! Look in the window and tell me what you see!” Gabriel ordered.

  Yoshi stepped up to the window and looked in.

  “She moved on,” he said apologetically.

  “Yes, she moved on! And I am not going to interrupt her date to talk about the possibility that Kevin and his friends were somehow saved by Terzini and sent back to do who knows what,” Gabriel said heatedly.

  “All right, all right, calm down. Let’s get out of here.”

  Yoshi moved down the garage roof, gripped a branch and descended the oak with dexterity that implied he’d done it hundreds of time. Gabriel moved toward the tree but paused to look over his shoulder at Melissa and her supposed new beau.

  In the instant that he did, Melissa and the mystery guest parted. Gabriel turned his body and rested on all fours. He stabilized himself in such an awkward position by carefully tensing his leg muscles and engaging his upper-body strength. He strained to see. He tilted his head to get a better look, then saw the boy’s profile and immediately wished he hadn’t. He recognized the boy with Melissa, and felt as if a dagger had been thrust through his heart. Despite his education and broad knowledge base, he could not, for the life of him, understand why Melissa would choose to be with the boy on her bed. He felt disappointed and disgusted. He did not want her to be with anyone else, least of all the person she was with.

  Eric Sala sat beside Melissa on her bed and gazed longingly at her. Eric Sala was the boy she had embraced just seconds ago.

  Gabriel struggled with what he was looking at. He could only view Eric as an outspoken member of Kevin’s gang, a jerk and a troublemaker. He could not envision him as someone she would choose to spend time with, much less hug. Eric had been responsible for many of Melissa’s miserable days, had assisted Kevin with his attack against them in the woods five months earlier and had even gone as far as personally assaulting her. In fact, Gabriel’s lasting memory of Eric was of him tackling her to the ground then straddling her while restraining her with one hand, and raising the other to strike her into submission. He could not fathom how his act of violence, added to the numerous verbal attacks, had been pardoned by her, how he ended up in her arms. The situation did not make sense.

  Part of him wanted nothing more than to make his presence known, confront them both and demand an explanation of their relationship. But that very primitive part of him, the part that wanted to act irrationally, did not dictate his actions. Though such an act would have undoubtedly been gratifying momentarily, he knew it would have repercussions. He knew nothing good would come from acting impulsively. Ultimately, he did not want to embarrass or hurt Melissa, though he was hurting.

  Gabriel felt heartbroken. It was a foreign feeling for him. He had never been hurt by one he loved. Melissa was the only person he’d ever loved. He did not know what to do. He felt hot and cold, confused and enlightened, angry and sad. All of his emotions seemed to conflict as he experienced them simultaneously. He felt dizzy and nauseated and struggled to catch his breath.

  Without warning, the surface he knelt on seemed to give way beneath him. He didn’t realize he’d relaxed the muscles that held him upright in his unsafe position. Shock caught him off guard, diminished his natural defense instantaneously. He began to fall.

  Melissa’s bedroom window, illuminated with soft, golden light, rushed away from him. The lower half of his body raced toward the driveway below. Gabriel’s body scraped along asphalt shingles until his feet caught in the seaming of the gutter.

  Yoshi called out from the ground below.

  “Gabriel, you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Gabriel lied then slid his feet gingerly along the drainage trench until he reached the edge of the roof. He reached for an outstretched branch and quickly navigated the entanglement of leaves and boughs until he reached the lowest one.

  When his feet landed upon sturdier ground, his chest began to tighten. His eyes continued to burn. He dared not speak, didn’t trust that his voice would project without faltering. He did not look at Yoshi who walked alongside him down Blackstone Drive. He kept his head turned from his friend and looked to the skyline.

  Clouds assembled, swiftly strengthening their ranks and readying for rain. The air felt weighted with moisture, a preemptive maneuver before the complete strike began.

  They moved swiftly down the hill and arrived at Gabriel’s vehicle. Once inside, Gabriel turned his key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. He allowed the Jeep to idle for several seconds as he collected his thoughts. His brain struggled to comply with what he demanded of it.

  Frustrated, he pounded the steering wheel with his fist. Smarting and angry, Gabriel fought to focus on the original reason for their return. Instead, his rational thought process was muddled, blindsided by unforeseen events and unimaginable pain.

  He rubbed his eyes with both hands, determined to purge the image of Melissa hugging Eric Sala from them. But the more he rubbed, the more intense the sensation of sand wedged beneath his eyelids became. So he gave up, stared straight ahead and shifted the Jeep into gear.

  He drove to the end of Blackstone Drive and stopped at the stop sign. Rain drops began to fall.

  “We’ll get a room for the night. I need to shower and sleep,” Gabriel said wearily.

  “Do you want to talk about what just happened?” Yoshi asked.

  “I can’t.”

  “Then what’s the plan?”

  “We’ll find a motel and get a room for the night. In the morning, we’ll head over to Harbingers High School and I’ll find Melissa and try to see what’s going on. At least I know she won’t be on a date there. After we talk, we’ll have to figure things out from there.”

  “If you aren’t with Melissa anymore and it’s you this Terzini is after, then she won’t be in any danger, right?”

  “Wrong,” Gabriel began. “She’s still in danger because of all she knows, everything I showed her the night I told her about me.”

  Gabriel’s chest began to ache more penetratingly. He felt as if his heart were being drilled against with a jackhammer. He remembered, in vivid detail, the night he’d told her of his origins. He remembered what she wore, how she smelled, what she ate. He remembered how she delighted in the efforts he made to make the evening perfect and how she glo
wed when he told her he loved her.

  He also remembered the stricken look on her face when he shared with her his darkest secret, the expression of horror when they went to Terzini’s underground lab and unearthed a partially formed person in the development tank.

  He started to think that perhaps he would have been better off just letting her go then. If he had embraced the anger and hurt, merged them together perfectly enough, he would have been capable of killing Terzini when he’d had the chance.

  Gabriel grew tired of entertaining what ifs; they were a futile waste of energy. The fact of the matter remained that he loved Melissa. Melissa appeared to have moved on, but was still in danger. He would not allow harm to come her way, harm he was responsible for, simply because she no longer possessed feelings for him. He had left her. The materialization of his biggest fear was his own fault.

  He avowed silently as he drove along the darkened and winding roads of Harbingers Falls to right the wrongs he had initiated, right them and then leave for good.

  Chapter 17

  From deep within the folds of lengths of velour drapery that smelled of mothballs, the faceless man rose from his crouched and concealed position and pressed his face to the window. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen, wondered whether his eyes had deceived him. Squinting, he looked again to be sure and found that, to his delight, his original perception held true; Gabriel James had left Melissa Martin’s home.

  Moments earlier, he had looked on in horror as Gabriel, accompanied by a man of short stature, had marched up Blackstone Drive and onto the Martin property. Terrified, he had watched, certain that Gabriel had returned to take Melissa away. If that had happened, he would never get to meet her, to become her friend. He had traveled so far, endured unspeakable hardships and experienced countless disappointments almost exclusively at the hands of human beings. All of his suffering would have been in vain had Gabriel taken Melissa from him. But he had not.