The Greening: a novel of romantic suspense...with a touch of magic (The Green Man Series Book 1)

by Sharon Brubaker

  Sitting down with her lunch, she thought about the clean up projects and wondered how they could improve local opinion. This was a fairly small community area. Even though she had not really grown up here, she knew the whole county had a small town feel to it. Everyone seemed to know everyone. Historically this was a blue-collar community. The Army post in Aberdeen employed many blue collar workers as well as professionals. Many people worked in nearby Delaware and a few commuted to Baltimore or Philadelphia. It was a nice slice of America in which to raise families. Perhaps something on the angle of America and apple pie might go well here. Family and community and family activities ran through her mind. She thought she could mention this to Mr. Carter. She was lost in her thoughts and jumped when a voice broke through.

  “Can I sit here?” It was Owen smiling at her.

  “Sure,” she said looking up at him. “Please do.”

  “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said as he sat down and took a drink of his soda.

  “No,” Sylvia replied. “That’s all right. I was lost in thought about…” she broke off, not knowing exactly what to say.

  She pulled her thoughts together and continued, “I’m looking into the superfund cleanups from Thurmont,” she told him, “and trying to think of a way to improve public opinion of the company.”

  Owen nodded. “Have you been on the EPA superfund site yet?” he asked her.

  “No,” she said in surprise. “Tell me about it,” she said eagerly, leaning forward to listen in the din of the cafeteria.

  “Well,” he said, “It’s a government site that lists all the superfund cleanups. It might give you some good ideas from other communities.”

  “Thanks,” Sylvia said gratefully. “How do I find it? Do you know the URL?”

  “Just type in ‘EPA Superfund’ on a search engine,” Owen told her. “You should be able to find it easily that way.”

  “How’s your job going?” Sylvia asked.

  “All right,” Owen answered. “I’m mostly going through paperwork at this point. I’m hoping to get out into the field by the end of the week.”

  “Is there room for one more?” a voice interrupted their conversation.

  Sylvia looked up to see Anna, impeccably dressed once again in a gorgeous pantsuit standing next to Owen. The pale lavender of the pantsuit brought out her chilly silvery gray eyes perfectly. Once again, Sylvia had the childish thought she was dealing with the Snow Queen from fairy tales.

  “Sure,” Owen said amiably, his eyes brightening when he looked up at Anna, “I’ll go get a chair.”

  He pulled a chair from another table and Anna sat down quite close to Owen. Sylvia had never been a jealous person, but she could feel the green-eyed monster rising within her. Sylvia felt as though she was suddenly thrust into a game of chess with Owen as a pawn. Or so Sylvia thought. Anna seemed to be making deliberate moves towards Owen and trying to see where Sylvia stood. It was somewhat like the politics that Gwen had told her about in her own bit of corporate America. Anna seemed to look at her coldly, and triumphantly moved imperceptivity closer to Owen moment by moment until her arm was lightly touching his. The small round luncheon table suddenly felt too crowded and Sylvia suddenly felt like an intruder. She didn’t want to play this game. Under the table she shredded her napkin into small bits and tried to smile confidently at Anna.

  “What were you two discussing?” she asked.

  “The EPA superfund cleanups that are going on,” Sylvia answered her

  “And what will you do about it?” Anna asked pointedly.

  “Working on raising the public’s opinion of Thurmont,” Sylvia said, meeting her silvery gray eyes evenly.

  “Rah, rah, sis boom bah,” Anna said with quiet sarcasm, “Quite the little cheerleader for Thurmont.”

  Sylvia could have slapped her. “Not quite,” she said trying hard to keep the sarcasm out of her own voice. “Excuse me,” she said. “I need to get back to the office.”

  “Nice to see you,” she said directly to Owen. “Tell Marian I said ‘hello.’”

  “Will do,” Owen said and he started to rise as she left.

  Sylvia dumped her tray and walked back to the office with anger and jealousy building with each step. She didn’t know what it was about Anna, but something about the woman rubbed her the wrong way. She knew that part of it was the competition with Owen, but there was something else that she couldn’t put her finger on.

  Sylvia logged onto the Internet when she returned to the office and searched for the EPA site. It was a tremendous site with tons of information. She jotted down some notes to take home with her.

  When Mr. Carter said good night to her, she mentioned that she would have some ideas the next day. He looked pleased as he wished her a good night.

  Thinking about her barren desk, Sylvia thought a basket of herbs might be a nice aromatic addition to her workspace. She wondered what else she could bring in to brighten up the place. She would have to ask Carol if she could hang her own pictures or if she could choose prints she liked from the company’s cache. She called Marian to ask her if she would want to go herb shopping on Saturday.

  “Oh, Sylvia,” Marian said, “I’m sorry, I can’t go. Owen is bringing someone from work for dinner, and I’ll be pretty busy putting it together.”

  “Okay,” Sylvia said, sounding dejected.

  “You’re welcome to come to dinner also,” Marian suggested. “Owen said that he’s bringing a scientist colleague. I think her name is Anna or something, on Saturday.”

  “No thank you,” Sylvia declined the dinner offer with a little more vehemence than she meant to express to Marian.

  “Do you know Anna?” Marian asked.

  “We’ve met a couple of times,” Sylvia answered her truthfully.

  “It sounds as though you don’t like her very much,” Marian prodded.

  “I really would rather reserve judgment,” Sylvia told her, “and talk to you after the dinner party.”

  “All right,” Marian said.

  “I’m sorry you can’t come plant shopping with me, but maybe we can go again soon. I would like to start some pots on the deck and work on the landscaping in my spare time,” Sylvia told her.

  “We’ll go in the next few weeks,” Marian promised. “Talk to you soon.”

  Sylvia hung up steaming at the fact that Anna would be having dinner with Owen and Marian this weekend. She went and e-mailed Gwen with her frustrations and then stomped out of the house and walked down the beach to the marina and back up the road. Feeling only slightly better she took out her frustrations by eating some ice cream for dinner while she watched an old movie. The phone rang. It was Gwen.

  “Boy,” Gwen said to her after they had said ‘hello,’ you sounded really upset.”

  “This is silly,” she told her friend. “Owen and I haven’t even the semblance of a date let alone a relationship. I don’t know why I’m so worked up about it.”

  “It sounds as though she’s a bitch and you like Owen and you don’t want him to get hurt,” Gwen said soothingly.

  “You’re right,” Sylvia said, “but I think I’m jealous too. Actually I know I am,” she admitted ruefully. “I just don’t know what it is about that woman that sticks in my craw,” she complained to Gwen.

  “And it makes me nervous since I’m the new kid on the block at Thurmont,” she admitted. “Anna doesn’t seem like the kind of colleague I would want to spill my guts too. She’s more of the back-stabbing kind,” Sylvia told Gwen.

  “I know if I was there you might throw something at me, but if this thing between you and Owen is to be, it will be,” Gwen advised. “Give it time and hang in there.”

  “Oh….you!” Sylvia retorted with exasperation. “Stop trying to make this into one of your cheap novels. That’s not what it’s about!”

  “Yeah, sure,” Gwen said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. “Sylvia, do you honestly think I’m stupid or something?” her friend asked.

 
“No,” Sylvia replied, “but, there isn’t anything going on with Owen. I have no claims on him. For God’s sake, I just met the man. He could be a real creep.”

  “Do you think Marian would love a creep so much?” Gwen pushed on.

  “N, n…no,” Sylvia admitted, “but, still, Gwen, there’s nothing going on nor do I think there will be.”

  “Right,” said Gwen once again sarcastic.

  “Thanks for calling,” Sylvia said. “It was nice to growl about it with someone. I didn’t want to cloud Marian’s opinion of Anna until after she has a chance to meet her,” she told her friend after she explained that Anna would be at Marian’s for dinner on Saturday.

  “Marian’s a pretty good judge of character,” Gwen said. “The ice princess won’t pull anything over on her.”

  “You’re right,” Sylvia admitted. “So, I need to be patient…and it’s damn hard!”

  “Yes, I’ll agree. You’re at ‘friendly’ with Owen and want to be ‘friendlier’ and that can be an uncomfortable place to be. Good night!” Gwen said. “I’ll give you a call back after the weekend to get Marian’s report.”

  “Okay,” Sylvia laughed, “Good night.”

  Feeling much better, she hung up the phone and tried to focus her thoughts on the project at work. She jotted down a few more ideas she thought would appeal to Mr. Carter before she went to bed.

  Mr. Carter was pleased with her suggestions the next morning. She mentioned that with a small town like atmosphere and community that it might be fun to run a fishing contest in the stream that was returning back to health. Also, Sylvia suggested that they start an outreach program to the schools. She suggested that some of the scientists working at Thurmont and perhaps the environmental experts like Owen could speak at schools in the fall to discuss their jobs. She wondered if the parent company might create some support materials. She also suggested educational grants or contests for environmentally friendly inventions and good news fliers to the community on their community efforts. Mr. Carter nodded with pleasure at her suggestions.

  “Good ideas,” he told her, “But all of your suggestions couldn’t really start until the fall because the corporate wheels are difficult to turn. We’ll also need to do some outreach work this summer,” he told her. “Bay Days are coming up in July the weekend after the 4th and we’ve been asked to run a booth with some marketing items. I could compensate your weekend time by substituting it for a day off during the week,” he suggested. “We’ll need to man the booth with at least one other person. We can split up the time during the day, but, we can plan that in a couple of weeks. I like your ideas about the ‘good news’ fliers. Get started researching and complete a couple of mock ups. I have a budget and I can fly that through some of the folks upstairs pretty quickly.”

  Sylvia agreed. She thought it would be great to have a day off mid-week. He discussed plans of giving her a tour of the plant on Thursday. Mr. Carter wanted her to work on creating a friendly link on the website and design brochures for the public answering questions regarding the superfund cleanup on top of the fliers and Bay Days. He was working on a standardized letter to have on file when complaints or questions came to the company. He also wanted to have some informational brochures available for the booth at Bay Days, so they were under a time crunch. Sylvia spent the rest of the day working on a brochure importing images from the website and pulling together a draft on the history of the company. Before she knew it, the day was over and Mr. Carter was asking her if she would be attending the company meeting at the local fire hall.

  “Yes,” she answered him. “I thought it was mandatory from the e-mail I received.”

  “Technically they cannot force you to come, but it is strongly recommended,” Mr. Carter suggested. “Be sure to wear your badge and sign in,” he advised. “Usually they provide a decent meal. For a bachelor like me, it’s a good thing,” he said smiling and patted his large paunch.

  “I guess I’ll see you there,” Sylvia said. She drove to the local fire hall where parking was already crowded. She maneuvered into a space and went in, surprised at the crowd. After signing in she went into the queue for dinner. They had provided a variety of sandwiches, salads, chips and desserts. Sylvia chose what looked like chicken salad in a red pepper tortilla, a garden salad and some chips. She looked around the room to see a friendly face. Mr. Carter was deep in conversation at a full table of other middle-aged men. Sylvia did not want to join that group. She looked for Carol, but didn’t see her and finally found an empty space at a table near the back.

  There was a mixture of men and women at her table. They introduced themselves and then politely ignored her and continued their conversation leaving Sylvia to eat quietly. The meeting began and the gentleman at the podium began talking about financial reports and the company stock. Sylvia was bored. At this point she really wasn’t interested. She looked at the occupants at her table. They politely ignored her, listened to the speaker and quietly commented among themselves. She looked around the room for Owen. Finally she saw him far across the room with Anna at his side. She had her folding chair as close to him as she possibly could and her slim hand placed on his thigh. She couldn’t help herself from staring, her emotions roller coasting.

  All of a sudden she realized she was seeing an aura around Owen. She blinked a couple of times, looked away and looked back at him. It was there, a green and bluish energy around his body that ‘breathed’ like the tree auras. It seemed to have different thickness around portions of his body. She looked over at Anna. She had to look hard to see her aura. It was dark compared to Owen’s. She concentrated more and realized her aura was a deep red. Fascinated, she looked around the room. If she concentrated on a table of people, she could see the energy emanating from several of the occupants, but not all. One woman’s aura curled up like a puff of smoke another’s looked like a wild hairstyle or a crown, but most were a small layer of white energy that surrounded their bodies like the auras on the plants, but were thicker around their head and shoulders.

  She would love to tell the Green Man about her new skill, but did not want him to appear in the middle of the meeting. The man at the podium droned on and on. He had a small aura, but it could clearly be seen with the lighting in the room. Another man joined him who looked out at the crowd. His eye caught Sylvia’s. She supposed it looked as though she was staring at him, but really she was looking for his aura. His aura was large, full of energy and was red with streaks of lemony green. It was almost a sickening combination. Staring at it made her slightly nauseous. She would have to find someone who could tell her what everything meant. He raised his eyebrows and nodded and she knew it was for her. His gaze made her uncomfortable. She thought if she was telepathic that his mental note was ‘fresh meat.’ She tore her eyes from his gaze and looked down at her empty plate. When she glanced up again, his gaze had moved on.

  The meeting ended and Sylvia realized she hadn’t listened to a word. She picked up her purse and nearly ran out of the fire hall, wanting to exit before Owen, Anna and the guy at the podium. She started her car and screeched a little exiting the parking lot quickly. At the stoplight she took a deep breath and reached to turn on the radio. She jumped and slammed on the brakes to keep her car from rear-ending the one in front of her. The Green Man was sitting in the passenger seat.

  “Ohmigod!” she cried putting her hand to her fast beating heart. “You scared me! Do you always just have to ‘appear’?” she asked. “Can’t you give me a warning, like the rustling of leaves or something?”

  “Sorry,” he said, but there was clearly a note of humor in his voice, “but I didn’t think it prudent to appear in the fire hall.”

  “You’re right,” Sylvia said, “But, why are you here?” she asked.

  “You called,” he said simply.

  “Oh,” Sylvia replied remembering how she desperately had wanted to talk to him at the fire hall. She started to head towards home when the light turned green again.

&nbs
p; “Something like ET’s phoning home?” she queried him.

  The Green Man laughed a deep belly laugh that resonated through her small car like a tenor singing opera.

  “I can see people’s auras now!” she told him with amazement. “It was incredible!” she said. “A lot of them were like the plant auras – a layer of white light around their bodies, but some others had color.”

  The Green Man was calm, “Good, good,” he replied in his rich baritone, “that is part of your gift.”

  She could tell he was pleased by the tone of his voice.

  “What does it mean?” she asked. “And what does it mean when there are different colors?”

  “What colors are you seeing?” the Green Man asked her.

  “Mostly I saw a white light,” she said, “and I saw green, blue, red and yellow.”

  “Hmm,” the Green Man, “Very good. If you practice, you’ll begin seeing colors more frequently,” he told her. “Relax and let it come.” He disappeared, this time with a soft sound of the rustling of leaves.

  Sylvia rolled her eyes and swore softly under her breath in frustration. At least he had given her a warning leaf rustle when he disappeared. She assumed he was laughing in whatever cosmic place he went to.

  Chapter 13

  Ancora Imparo

  “I am still learning”

  --Michaelangelo

  The next two days at work were too busy for Sylvia to focus on auras. Mr. Carter had arranged a tour of the plant for her and it took much of the day to walk through the facility where her office was located. It was much, much larger than it appeared to be from the outside. Past the front office building there were two research and development laboratories. Although she did not see her, this is where Sylvia assumed Anna worked. She also did not see Owen or his office and wondered where it was located. On Friday, she took a jitney to get to the manufacturing plant that was down a small road and through the trees. It was almost camouflaged with its tan brick and nestled between rolling hills. She had not realized that a large manufacturing plant was out of sight from the main company facility. Sylvia was surprised at its immensity. It was quite an operation. Trucks carrying bags and drums of chemical fertilizer and pesticide components and completed product came and went in a steady stream. Sylvia found herself saturated with information.