by Trudi Jaye
If nothing else, Garth knew he needed to make Simon aware of what had really happened to him. If he still wanted to go with his father, knowing all of that, at least it would be with both eyes wide open.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The scrape of her pen along the surface of the paper was the only sound in the room. Maddy was yet again reviewing Milton’s files, wondering what she was missing. Her heart clenched. It didn’t matter anymore. Even if she figured out what was happening to his father, Garth wouldn’t give her one of his rare smiles. He’d distanced himself so much from her he seemed like a stranger.
It felt like she’d had the very best experience of her life and the very worst experience all in the space of twenty-four hours. The ride on the Carousel had been like a dream, the best she’d ever had. The electricity had fizzed and sparked around her, and she’d felt the storm right down into her very core. The pull and push of the elements had energized her like nothing else in her life, and after that, she wondered how anything else was ever going to match up. On one level, her brain wanted to rebel, and it was telling her she couldn’t have experienced what her senses were telling her she had while on the Carousel. But some other, more optimistic and open-minded part of her soul was singing with the knowledge that she had discovered something special. Something a little bit magic.
The only thing that could match it was Garth. A flash of his warm skin against hers, his lips touching her body, made Maddy shiver. Even now, she couldn’t help the way he made her feel.
But since yesterday morning, when she’d met him to go on the Carousel, he’d been a different person. Cold and distant, he’d barely spoken to her. He was breaking her heart in two and she didn’t know what to do about it. They’d seemed so close. He’d asked her to stay, in a voice that had made her almost give in and forget about the massive pile of work she had waiting in her office.
Now she was left wondering what might have happened if she’d stayed. Would he still be treating her like she was some painful client, a person to be kept at a distance and treated with polite disdain?
She slammed down the pen, giving up on concentrating on her research when so many questions were going around in her head. What had happened to Garth? How had they gone from being so close to being so very distant?
Circling around the edges of her consciousness was another question, one that had her perplexed. What exactly was happening at the Carnival? She’d seen things she didn’t think were possible, heard stories that shouldn’t have been true. Witnessed events that didn’t seem real.
But all of it was coming together inside her head, merging into an acceptance that being part of the Carnival meant understanding there was more to the world than she’d ever thought. It sent a shiver down her spine, and she smiled. Despite her clinical upbringing and her resulting career in research, she’d always felt there was something more.
And now here was her proof.
It was a pity the one man who could have confirmed that for her was now acting as if she didn’t exist.
Maddy glanced at her watch and swore. She was late for her appointment with Simon.
At least she knew she was helping with Simon’s recovery. The boy had been opening up to her, little by little, and she felt like a breakthrough was imminent.
She grabbed a jacket and the box containing her origami paper and raced out the door. The motorbike ride to the Compound cleared out some of the cobwebs that were blocking up her thinking, and by the time she entered the code Garth had given her for the gate and pulled up outside his house, she was feeling like it didn’t really matter if he never spoke to her again. She’d gone through worse when she was a child. Her father’s rejection had taught her to be a survivor, and she was damned if some guy was going to turn her to mush.
She knocked on the door and was relieved when Alathea answered instead of Garth. Maybe she wasn’t quite as over him as she’d thought.
“I’m just leaving. Simon’s in his room,” Alathea said, waving her hand at Maddy and rushing out the door.
Maddy walked down the hallway, taking the time to look at some of the family photos on the wall. She’d never had a chance before, with Garth always hovering over her shoulder, but the exotic mix of photos in and around the Carnival drew her like a moth to a flame.
She recognized the ones of Garth immediately, even those where he was a young, gangly boy. His intense eyes had never changed, and in all his photos, he looked out at the world with a serious expression that seemed to see exactly what was going on around him.
There was only one photo with Garth smiling, and it was of him sitting next to a beautiful woman on a Carousel dolphin. She had her head tipped back, laughing out loud, and next to her, a young Garth was doing the same. It was a single carefree moment, and she glanced away because it felt like an intrusion into some very private world where she wasn’t invited.
Other photos included Milton in the ring and even a double act with father and son. There was a man she presumed was Garth’s grandfather and a woman with kind eyes who held a squirming young Garth in her lap.
There was even a more recent shot of Rilla, Garth, and an older man she didn’t recognise standing in front of the Carnival sign. The other man was tall and burly with one arm around each of the other two. He had a big grin and seemed to be almost willing Rilla and Garth to participate in his good cheer. They were both looking up at him with matching grins, two teenagers with a person they admired.
A noise in Simon’s room startled her, and she realized she’d been standing in the hallway, nosing through the photos like a stalker. She straightened and strode down the hall.
“Hey, Simon,” she said, knocking on his door. “Can I come in?”
There was a noise of things being moved around quickly and then Simon’s voice, a little too high-pitched. “Um. Yeah, sure. Come in, Maddy.”
She opened the door slowly to give him a chance to finish whatever he was doing that had him panicked and put her head around the door. He was sitting in his bed, his eyes a little too bright and his face flushed. “Hey, stranger,” she said. “How are you doing?”
His answering smile was a little less than his usual grin, and he waved a hand to the chair next to his bed. “I’m okay.”
“Are you up for a session with me today? We can postpone it if you like.”
He shook his head. “I like our sessions. They help.”
Maddy came over and sat in the chair, furiously trying to remember what had cheered her up when she’d spent a little too long in bed. Her problem was boys were so different from girls. She’d been happy with the origami, using it to test her skills. And she’d had full use of her hands as well, which Simon didn’t.
“How have you been doing with the other animals I showed you?”
Simon glanced over at his bedside table. Following his gaze, Maddy saw a little row of frogs and fish, all in different colors, patterns, and sizes.
“Oh, wow, Simon. That’s amazing. It took me a long time to get that good.”
Simon ducked his head, a small blush forming on his cheeks. “Garth helped with some of them. He went out and got me a whole bunch of paper.”
Maddy’s heart tripped a little at the mention of Garth, and she tried to keep her mind off how nice it was of him to do that for Simon. “You’ve certainly made use of your time.”
“I thought it might be boring at the start, but it’s kinda fun and it actually helped with my hands.” Simon held up his hand and wiggled his fingers.
The cast on his arm was smaller, made of lighter material than the last one Maddy had seen. “Is that a new cast?”
Simon nodded. “Henry made it for me. He reckoned the old one wasn’t helping me heal properly.”
“Henry?”
“Viktor’s son. He’s a genius, I think. He invents things.”
Maddy raised her eyebrows. They’d made their own cast for Simon? She leaned in, trying to see if the splint seemed to be doing the job properly. From her limite
d knowledge, it looked right, only somehow lighter and sturdier at the same time. “Does it feel okay?” she asked.
“It’s good. It feels better than the old one. It somehow feels like I’m healing faster too. Henry said he’d put something in the cast to help with that as well.”
Maddy started. A cast that helped him heal faster? “I don’t know if that’s possible, Simon.”
Simon shrugged. “That’s what I thought when he first said it, but…” He lifted his arm as proof.
Maddy shook her head. It was more than she could comprehend. But wasn’t that just the conclusion she’d come to about an hour before? “How about we do something a little more complicated today? You name an animal, and I’ll show you how to make it with paper.”
Simon bit his lip and looked up at the ceiling, searching for inspiration. “How about a tiger?” he said.
Maddy smiled. “Great. Just follow what I do.” She carefully began folding, waiting while Simon followed suit with his paper. He was so intent on getting it right, so focused, that she couldn’t help smiling as she watched him. He was a great kid and so smart it was scary.
“Is that right?” he said, looking up at her with his serious expression.
Nodding, she showed him the next fold. “You’re really picking this up fast.”
“I like paper, I guess. And making things. It makes sense to me.”
“Hmmm. Me too. When I was in the hospital, I made an entire school of fish—lots of different bright colors—and the nurses helped me tie them to the ceiling. It made me feel like I was at the bottom of my very own ocean.”
Simon glanced up at Maddy and then at the pile of fish on his bedside table. “That sounds pretty cool. Maybe we could do the same thing? Do you think Garth would mind?”
Maddy’s heart gave a little double beat at the worry in Simon’s voice. “Of course he wouldn’t mind. Let’s do it,” she said firmly. She’d kick Garth’s butt if he even tried to object.
“But we have to finish the tiger first. I want to see what it looks like.”
They folded in silence for the next few minutes, and then Maddy held up her finished tiger, its rolled tail swishing. She placed it on the bedside table, and Simon put his next to hers. It was very close to identical.
Maddy went out to the kitchen and found some yarn, cello tape, and a pair of scissors, and soon the pair of them were laughing and giggling over their attempts to thread the string through the small holes they were making.
“This seemed a lot easier when I was young,” said Maddy, wiping a laughter tear from her eye.
“We need a hole punch.”
“Maybe if Garth were here, we could ask him. But I don’t know where it might be. The thread and the scissors were hard enough to locate.” And she didn’t feel entirely comfortable going through all his drawers.
“I think I should be in charge of cutting the hole and tying on the yarn. But can you make me some more fish?” Simon’s face was much lighter and happier than when she’d arrived. “Maybe you could make me a shark?”
Maddy shook her head. “Why are boys so bloodthirsty?” she said with a smile.
***
Garth struggled to keep his mind in the game. He was rehearsing with a couple of the clown crew, trying to put together an act that would be up to the standard of the rest of the acts that had been emerging from the different teams. Missy was going to be the star of the show, of course, and Alfie was using his dogs to make a light-hearted joke about wolves at full moon.
But he was coming up a blank on how to make something amazing for the clowns.
“Hey, boss, why don’t we call it a day? We’re all beat.” Zach was being polite. Garth had been as good as useless for most of the session.
“Good idea,” he said. The emotions rolling around in his head were too confusing. He couldn’t tell which ones were his own and which ones belonged to Maddy.
Their Mark.
He needed to start thinking of her as the Mark. Otherwise, he wouldn’t make it through this Gift. His emotions were all over the place, and although some degree of that was normal, this was worse than usual. He was on his own, dealing with this crazy situation.
He sat on the edge of the ring and put his towel over his head, wiping the sweat off his face and shoulders. He’d thought a physical workout might help, but all it was doing was making him more frustrated with his inability to function.
A slap on the shoulder made him look up. Eb stood next to the ring, his face serious. “Hey, boss. You okay? Anything I can help with?”
Garth sighed. “Thanks, Eb. I don’t think so, not at the moment. Unless you can think of something that’s going to take our performance from great to amazing.”
“It’ll come, boss. It always does.” Eb paused. “You take care of yourself, okay?”
Surprised, Garth looked back at Eb. There was real worry in his eyes. “I’ll be fine. I’m just a little on edge.”
Eb nodded and gave Garth’s head a friendly pat before wandering off toward the showers.
Garth watched him go and then, for no reason, felt himself smiling, his heart lightening a little. But while it was good to know his Carnival family was looking out for him, it didn’t warrant this sudden feeling of pleasure that was coursing through his body. It was emotion coming from Maddy, not his own.
He was far too frustrated to be suddenly feeling so good.
She was doing something that made her happy. For the first time since he’d been inside her head, Garth felt good about being there. He couldn’t tell what she was doing, but he knew she was close. He frowned, trying to think where she might be. Who would have invited her onto the Compound other than him?
Simon.
Of course. She was still doing sessions with Simon.
Without thinking it through, he stood and walked out and then down the gravel road to his house. As soon as he went through the front door, he could hear them. They were giggling like little kids. He wanted so badly to be a part of whatever they were doing that he walked straight down the hall, not even thinking he might be intruding on a session.
When he walked into the room, he stopped, stunned. Maddy and Simon were sitting on the bed, surrounded by hundreds of small folded paper fish. Some of them he recognized from ones he’d been making with Simon, but many of them were new kinds of fish, strange shapes, some small, some big, all in different colors and patterns. They were fastening string to each one, and he saw a pile of them already attached.
They didn’t see him straightaway. They were caught up in the private joke they seemed to be sharing, as Maddy pretended to swim a large grey fish—presumably a shark—toward Simon, who was holding up a small pink fish. They were laughing so hard they couldn’t speak.
Garth cleared his throat. They jumped and turned to look at him, equally surprised looks on their faces. Maddy’s eyes became serious for a moment and she stared at him with an intensity he didn’t understand. He felt confusion through their connection and the spike of an emotion he couldn’t quite place. But then the moment was over. Maddy looked back at Simon, and the boy swam the shark in her direction. They cracked up laughing again.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, feeling like a fifth wheel and embarrassed to be so desperate he was asking them to include him.
Simon grinned up at Garth. “Maddy is helping me make a school of fish for my ceiling. She made me a shark.” He pointed to the folded shark Maddy was holding. “But she wants to call him Chester. I told her he has to have a more shark-like name. Like Butch. Or Fang. Or…” He held up his arm, at a loss for another name.
“Jaws?” suggested Garth.
“Exactly!”
“Sharks aren’t that bad. There can be nice sharks as well. I think I’m going to call him Fluffy.” Maddy’s voice was filled with laughter.
Simon made a little noise of horror, and Maddy erupted into another fit of giggles.
Garth felt the need to stick up for Simon a little. “It’s your room, Simo
n. You can call him what you like.”
Simon grinned at Garth. “Will you help us put them up?”
Garth looked to where they’d started taping the fish to the ceiling so they dangled down at different lengths. A slight breeze ruffled the ones already hanging, and it created a brightly colored wave effect along the ceiling. It was going to look amazing when it was finished.
“Sure, I’ll help.” He paused, still looking at the ceiling. “You know, we could get some glow-in-the-dark paper and make some of those fish that live right at the bottom of the sea.”
Simon’s enthusiastic nod was all he needed. Suddenly, his day seemed a little better, not quite so confusing. He climbed up on the chair set to one side and started sticking on the fish as Maddy handed them to him.
It was nice, easy fun, and he was enjoying it immensely.
At least he was until about ten minutes later when he realized he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. He put one hand to his eyes, as if to cover them up.
Both Maddy and Simon had seen him with his full-black eyes. He knew for a fact that most people found them scary when they saw it for the first time.
Now he knew what emotion Maddy had been feeling: fear.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Maddy didn’t know what to think. Were they contacts? Part of his act? When he’d first cleared his throat and she’d looked up into his face, his all-black eyes had been the first thing she’d noticed. Her breath had caught and she’d stared, unsure what to make of it. If his eyes were intense before, the change to all black made them mesmerizing. They weren’t pure black. Subtle layers of texture indicated what he was feeling; she could see he’d felt uneasy when he first walked in. So she’d done her best to make him feel at ease and included him in their origami project. Whatever the deal was with his eyes, he was still Garth.
And now he’d just disappeared like someone lit a fire under his butt. She didn’t understand it. She glanced at Simon, frowning. What would he think?