The Garden of Eve Page 9

  Inside, the house was huge and hollow, like a warehouse. It was cool and smelled of roses. There were chairs and tables, desks and couches, tall clocks and gold-framed paintings, but they couldn’t begin to touch the high ceilings and wide windows and long hardwood floors. Evie stepped into the first room she saw, which was a huge dining room with a crystal chandelier in the center ceiling and chairs with red velvet seat cushions around a table. Evie ran her fingers over the soft coverings.

  She stepped out of the dining room and moved farther down the hall until she found a large living room. Then she peered through the door looking for someone alive—anyone—but the room was empty. Evie stepped inside and stared at the tall bookcases. She wondered if Alex had read any of these books, but she didn’t wonder very long. Instead her eyes were drawn to two giant picture frames, each draped with a black cloth.

  Evie tiptoed to the first one and stood in front of it. She lifted a corner of the cloth to peek underneath, but it was dark and shadowy so she couldn’t see. She pulled the cloth higher, then a little higher, until it fell away completely.

  There in front of her was Alex. He was dressed in a beautiful suit that made him look slightly older than he usually looked, and his hair was combed, but it was definitely him. He looked handsome, like a prince, poised with one arm on a banister.

  “Cover that up.”

  It was Alex’s voice behind her, and Evie jumped guiltily.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I—”

  “Mom likes them covered,” Alex interrupted. “It’s too hard for her to look at the portraits. That’s why we keep them that way.”

  Evie still held the edge of the black cloth. She was about to try to replace it, but Alex walked forward and traced the outline of one shiny dress shoe with his finger.

  “I remember the day that was painted,” he said at last. “I had to stand for so long with my hand on that banister, and Mom was cross because I fidgeted too much.” His forehead creased as his finger traced another line.

  “There must be people here,” he whispered, shaking his head.

  “Who are you looking for?” Evie asked.

  Alex glanced up quick.

  “Everyone,” he answered. “My parents, the gardener, the cook . . . Where are they?”

  Evie had been wondering the same thing.

  “I know they’re around here somewhere,” Alex said. “Maybe they went into town. Do you think that’s where your mom might be? I’ve got an extra bike, so we could ride in.” He headed to the door, pausing to study Evie closely. “You’re not afraid, are you?” he asked.

  Evie frowned, twisting the black cloth tight in her hands.

  “Of course not,” she said, but it was a lie. A tiny flicker of fear was growing stronger by the minute, and she couldn’t help thinking of the tree.

  She thought of all the stories she and Mom had ever read, but try as she might she couldn’t recall . . . was there any return once you’d eaten the apple?

  Chapter Twenty

  Into Town

  Just as Alex had promised, there were two bikes in the garage. Actually there were four bikes, but two of them were too big, so Evie took the gold one that matched Alex’s. The seat was covered with dust, and Evie blew it off with a puff of breath. Alex peeled out of the driveway, and it seemed to Evie that, again, he was racing toward a finish line that only he could see.

  “Are you sure you know the way?” Evie called once they’d been riding for a while. The paved road gave way to a dirt road and the bikes jarred over the loose pebbles. Sweat beaded on Evie’s forehead, and she pushed up the sleeves of her sweater but they fell back down again.

  “I’ve done this a million times,” Alex called back to her. “It’s just ahead.”

  Sure enough, soon they were at the edge of Main Street, where both bikes skidded to a stop.

  Evie’s jaw dropped.

  The entire town was covered in flowers. The boards that blocked the windows and doors of the empty shops were bathed in waves of color and the street-lamps were circled with ivy. Not even a Beaumont without a curse could look like this. It was a work of art, as beautiful as any painting, each color spilling into the next.

  “It’s amazing,” Evie whispered.

  “Where should we go first?” Alex asked. Evie looked around and spotted the library. If there was one place in town her mother might be waiting, this would be it.

  “There,” she said.

  Together they rode down Main Street, then fitted their bikes into the raspberry bushes that hid the bike rack, smashing the ripe raspberries in the process.

  Alex stopped to taste a few of the berries, but Evie dashed up the front steps and pulled at the library door. It swung open easily, and she waited to feel something—some small spark that would tell her that Mom was nearby—but she felt nothing.

  She bit her lip as Alex came up behind her.

  “It’s so weird,” he whispered. “The librarian ought to be sitting right there.” He was looking at an empty chair behind a desk in the center of the room. “Want to look around?”

  Evie nodded.

  “I’m going downstairs,” she said, slipping out of the room. She walked down a spiral staircase then past a big door that said, VAULT. DO NOT ENTER. Then she turned the corner into a children’s room.

  “Mom?” she called, but it was empty.

  Evie sat down heavily on one of the small plastic chairs, and suddenly she wished she were seeing the real library, where she could take out a stack of books. Then she’d bring them home and curl up in her bedroom with stories that stayed on the page.

  Maybe she’d even make Father read one of them with her.

  But what if she never made it home?

  Evie got up and made her way back up the stairs, where she found Alex in a small reading room with comics spread out on the floor.

  “Isn’t this great, Evie?” he said. “We can do whatever we want, and as soon as we find everyone else, it’ll be perfect . . .”

  Evie pushed a stray comic book with her toe. “I don’t think we’re going to find anyone else,” she said. “All the people are back home in the real world.”

  Alex frowned. “Maybe there are people standing right where we’re standing, only we just can’t see them.” He paused. “It’s like we’re both dead now.”

  With a start, Evie realized that this was exactly what it felt like.

  “Let’s go,” she said, walking back to the library door. She pulled it open, then stepped outside into the bright sunlight. The fragrance of the air was so strong it nearly made her sick. Eerie silence pressed in around her, and for the first time she realized there wasn’t a single sound in all of Beaumont. The wooden sign hanging outside the grocery store swayed back and forth silently, as if on greased hinges.

  This new Beaumont reminded her of watching Mom develop photographs. Each photograph had a negative that was the same image in reverse. Instead of black on white, it would be white on black. The Beaumont they’d come from had been cold and gray with nothing living except the people, but this Beaumont was bright and sunlit, teeming with plants of every kind, yet it was silent and empty.

  Alex slid up beside her. “I don’t want to go home yet,” he said. “Let’s go just one more place.” He spotted Maggie’s shop. “How about the farm store?”

  Evie looked across the street. The walls of Clayton’s Farm Supplies were lush and green, and she wondered if Maggie was there. Did she know that Evie had broken her promise?

  Evie hesitated, but Alex was already walking over. She followed slowly behind him, and as they got closer to Maggie’s shop, the skin on her arms prickled, and she found herself thinking of the orchard’s dark, twisted silhouettes.

  Alex dropped his bike next to the shop and pushed open the door.

  “Check this out,” he murmured, peering inside.

  Every inch of the store was covered in dark brambles, thick brush, and reaching vines. “Maybe there’s someone here.”

  He s
queezed through the door and Evie propped her bike next to his, then followed him inside. She tried to clear a path but had to push with her hands to find her way. Thorns tore at her skin. There was something angry about the room—something completely unlike Maggie’s shop in the real Beaumont.

  “I’m sure no one’s here,” Evie said. “No one could stay in this jungle . . .”

  She tripped on a vine and fell, dust swirling as her hands hit the floor. It was then that she saw the bones. Brittle gray twigs. She scrambled to her feet, backing into Alex.

  “What’s the matter . . . ?” he asked.

  “Look.”

  Evie pointed, and Alex’s eyes lit up. “Awesome!” he said, but Evie shook her head.

  “No, it’s not. Don’t you see? It’s Eve.”

  Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, Evie knew she was right.

  “Think,” she urged Alex. “Maggie’s sister planted a seed, just like we did, and then she disappeared and no one ever saw her again. This room . . . she must have died here. Who knows how long she lived. Maybe she tried to get home but couldn’t make it.”

  “Or maybe she wanted to stay.”

  Evie frowned.

  “Who would want to stay here?” she asked, but Alex was already reaching out to touch the brittle fingers of the long-dead hand.

  “What are you doing?” Evie asked.

  Alex was breathing hard. “I get it now,” he said. “I know how we’ll bring the people back.”

  “What are you talking about . . . ,” Evie started, but Alex’s eyes were already closed tight. He breathed deep and Evie felt warmth seeping into the room. A breeze blew through the shop and then a golden light began to glow just where Alex’s finger was touching the bones.

  “Live,” he murmured.

  The light grew stronger and Alex’s hand began to tremble. Evie remembered what it had felt like to change the flower—as if she was taking in the life around her and shaping it into what she wanted it to become. She knew that’s what Alex was doing, only what shape would the bones take?

  A distant outline formed inside its gleam. It was like a drawing of a person rather than a real person, yet the drawing was slowly coming to life. Little by little an old woman was looking back at them.

  Eve.

  Evie couldn’t help herself. She reached out, but her finger cut through the light as through thin air. Then a new breeze blew past, and this one was cold, like the October wind in the real Beaumont. Alex’s hand shook, and the figure in the light leaned forward. She was staring straight at Evie, her eyes full of urgency.

  What was she trying to say?

  Her mouth formed words that Evie couldn’t hear because the old woman’s voice was like the wind. Evie strained to listen.

  Was she warning them?

  The old Eve looked at her imploringly, and Evie thought she understood.

  She didn’t want to come back.

  “Stop!” Evie said, but her throat was hoarse and Alex didn’t seem to hear her. The light grew stronger and the old woman’s outline became even clearer.

  Then the image of the tree filled Evie’s mind just as it had when she’d first opened the box with the seed, only this time the tree was their apple tree and it was wilting. Its branches drooped and the apples were dropping one by one.

  “No time,” the old Eve seemed to be saying, and now Evie understood.

  She glanced at Alex. He was concentrating so hard that sweat was forming on his brow, but Evie couldn’t stand it any longer. She reached for the bones, touching one finger to the smooth skeleton. She thought of the spider plant in her living room and took a deep breath.

  This time it wasn’t life she imagined running through her. The cold raced into her fingertips and the light began to dim. Evie heard Alex breathing hard next to her. She felt the ebb and flow of life between them, the two forces fighting against each other, but it was Evie who won. The last of the golden light disappeared with a flash and Alex fell to his knees.

  He turned and his eyes were dark, like storm clouds.

  “Why did you do that?” he demanded. “I’d almost brought her back.”

  “She didn’t want you to,” Evie said, but Alex stood up defiantly.

  “She did so. I saw her in my mind and she was saying yes. If I’d been able to finish, maybe we could have brought your mom back next, but you ruined it.”

  Evie’s mouth dropped open in surprise.

  “I’m telling you, it wasn’t right—”

  Alex didn’t wait for her response.

  “If you’re not going to believe, then you ought to go home.”

  “That’s what Eve was trying to tell us,” Evie said, clenching her fists. “If you weren’t so stubborn, you might have understood. We’ve got to get back before the tree fades away and we’re both stuck here like she was.”

  “I’m not stubborn,” Alex said. “I’m staying.”

  Evie’s eyes popped.

  “What?” she stammered. “But there aren’t any people here! Why would you want to stay someplace all by yourself?”

  “There aren’t any people here yet,” Alex said, “but that’s the whole point. There could be. Just think, Evie, back home no one can see me, but here I could bring back anyone I want. I bet you don’t even need the bones. I bet if you just concentrate hard enough . . .”

  He shut his eyes as if he might try right there and then, but Evie grabbed his arm.

  “You’ll turn into a skeleton, just like Eve!”

  Alex sighed. “No, I won’t,” he said. “All my bones are buried back home, and besides, why shouldn’t I stay? There’s nothing for me there, but here I have a whole world I can make exactly the way that I want it to be.”

  His eyes glowed, and Evie swallowed hard.

  She thought about Alex’s parents, but to them he’d been dead for over a week already. Then she thought about all the things that might have made a boy like Alex want to go home if he were alive, like holidays, or learning to drive someday, or playing video games, or going to school, but none of those made any difference to someone who had died, so Evie didn’t say them.

  “Are you sure?” she asked instead.

  Alex nodded.

  “I wish things were . . . different,” Evie murmured, and Alex’s eyes softened.

  “Me, too. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad at you,” he added. “It’s just I was really close, and I knew I could make it work.”

  Evie wondered if he was right. Would Eve have stayed if Alex had been able to bring her back? Would she have been a real person or only a ghost?

  “I have to go,” she said. “Father will be looking for me.” She paused. “You’ll be okay?”

  “Yeah.” Alex nodded. “This is the next best thing to heaven.”

  Evie sighed, and for a long time they stood silently, neither one willing to move. Then Evie shifted nervously.

  “I’ll miss you,” she said, and Alex grinned.

  “Of course you will. Life won’t be any fun without Alex the Great.”

  Evie punched him on the arm, but then before she could stop herself, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

  Alex’s eyes widened in surprise, but Evie didn’t wait for his response. She walked across the shop, then out the open door to where she’d dropped her bike. She didn’t turn around until she was ready to go.

  “Bye, Evie!” Alex called, waving madly from the doorway. Evie waved back, then she leaned forward, pedaling hard and fast.

  It wasn’t until town was far in the distance that she slowed enough to take her hand off the handle bars and put a single finger to her lips. It was the first time she’d ever kissed a boy, and she wondered if it counted if you kissed a ghost. But maybe Alex wasn’t a ghost here. She could still feel the warmth of his skin, and the memory of it made her think that he was making the right decision after all.

  He was choosing life the only way he knew how. Now it was time for her to do the same.

  Chapter Twenty-One />
  Mom

  By the time she reached the orchard the sun was already setting, and Evie could feel the fear pulsing through her. She saw the image of the wilting tree in her mind and wondered how long she’d been gone. Did time move differently here? Had it been hours? Days? Years?

  She shivered, wondering if it might already be too late, but another thought nagged at her as well. Had Alex been right about finding her mom? What if she didn’t need some dusty old bones to bring her mother back?

  How could she come this far and not even try?

  Ahead of her, the apple trees swayed, soft and white against the deepening night. She found the center row with her bright red scarf still marking the entrance, then ducked into the orchard. The canopy of blossoms blocked the light of the moon and she walked quickly, darkness pressing in around her.

  Then Evie began to run, trying her best to follow the length of the twisting, turning row. Her legs ached and her heart pounded, but finally she rounded a corner and there was the tree waiting for her. Its branches drooped and the apples had almost all fallen, but it was still there.

  Evie sank down onto a bed of ferns.

  How long did she have left before the tree disappeared?

  She thought of Father and wondered what he was doing right then. Had he been searching for her all day? Or hadn’t he noticed she was missing? Would he be sorry if the tree faded and she was stuck in this world with Alex?

  Then she thought of Mom and remembered the card sitting unopened on the mantel. Now she had a chance to have more than words on a page.

  Choices, Evie thought. The warning had spoken of choices . . .

  But there was only one choice she could make.

  Evie sat cross-legged, picturing her mom. When she closed her eyes she felt the breeze grow colder, but she refused to budge.

  “I’ll make it in time,” she whispered.

  She breathed deep, but her thoughts were wild. They sprang from one thing to the next, first thinking of Alex, then Father, then Mom, wondering what she would look like and what Evie would say first if she could see her just one more time.