Miracle - Chapter 7: Chapter 7

My legs pumped mechanically at the pedals of my bike, tires rattling over the stony dirt road. It was even hotter now than it had been this morning, but I barely noticed. My brain was too busy trying to process everything Mrs. Moss had told me. Her son's story was more frightening than anything I could have imagined, but in the end I still didn't know enough. What kind of study Elioud Biogenesis was conducting, why they'd disqualified Timmy Riker before he was even born...
Whether what had happened to him was going to happen to me.
At least he'd had a mother who took care of him. If I went crazy like that Mom would likely drop me off in the middle of a field somewhere and leave me to my own devices.
And what about Maddy? What did all of this mean for her?
In my backpack, I had a copy of the contract Mrs. Moss had signed as a teenager. As soon as I got back to Prickly Pear I would take it to the library, grab a highlighter and a notebook, and go over every single line one at a time. Maybe there would be something in there that she'd forgotten to tell me.
I'd tried stopping by the address in downtown Dumas where Mrs. Moss said the doctor's office had been. It was a FedEx now, and none of the employees knew anything about the company that had occupied their building prior to them taking over. So that got me nowhere.
A rumbling behind me was cue to swing my bike to the side of the road, so that a big black pickup truck could go thundering past. For a couple seconds the distinctive twang of Garth Brooks was deafening as the truck went by, windows down. Once the clouds of dust behind it were starting to settle, I got going again. But up ahead, the truck suddenly put on its brakes.
Then it rolled backward.
I pulled over, and the truck backed up until its driver, a gap-toothed, sunbrowned cowboy type in a ten gallon hat and ratty denim shirt leaned an arm out the window. His radio was no longer blaring.
"Hey there, sugar. Where you headed?"
Once again my ponytail and small build had confused someone into mistaking me for a girl. After the uncomfortable incident with Marvin the other day, though, I wasn't taking any chances. I straightened up so he'd be able to get a good look at me. "Just going home, sir."
"Well, I'll be durned. What's a boy doin' with all that hair?"
I gave him the same answer I gave everyone who asked that question. "My dad's a hippie." No idea if it was the truth or not, since I'd never met the guy, but hey. As far as I knew it wasn't a lie.
"I guess. You sure wear it well, though." The way he was looking me over made my skin crawl. "Hop in, I'll give you a ride."
"Uh... no thanks, sir." His offer wasn't that unusual, folks around here were quick to help each other out, especially in the middle of nowhere. It was probably just paranoia after all the bad luck of this week, but my instincts were warning me it wasn't a good idea. I didn't know this guy.
"Ah, come on. It's a million degrees out and you look like you're about to fry. I can getcha where you're goin' in a blink."
"That's really okay. I'm, uh, trying to get my exercise in today. Thanks, though. Have a good one!" I started pedaling again, keeping to the side of the road so that he'd take the hint and drive on by.
He started rolling forward, keeping his window right alongside me. "Who ever heard of someone exercisin' in this kind of heat?"
Fucking go away, I wanted to snap, but that was definitely not a smart idea. "I'm good, sir."
"Like hell you are, you're sweatin' like a whore in church. Truck's got air conditioning."
I was pretty sure that wasn't true. He was riding with both windows down. I just shook my head and pedaled faster.
He pulled up next to me again. "Kid, seriously, what's your problem? I ain't no serial killer, I just wanna help you out."
"I said I'm good," I panted.
"Fine. Your loss." He pulled ahead of me down the road, big tires kicking up indignant clouds of dust. His truck disappeared around the bend, where a grove of mesquite was growing down in a creek bed. Once I finally got close enough I crossed to that side of the road in relief, to get a little shade from the sun.
I was back to my tense pondering of what Mrs. Moss had said this morning. The stuff her son had been through was like the plot of a movie. Cutting up his own face, stabbing people, an exorcism that sounded like something straight out of American Horror Story. If anything like that happened to Maddy I would lose my mind.
I was so buried in thought that I didn't see the black pickup parked on the road, directly in front of me, shaded by the trees. Until a hand wrapped my upper arm and nearly pulled me off my bike.
"I really think you should get in the truck," said the man in the cowboy hat. He wasn't in his vehicle anymore. He'd been lurking in the shadows of the trees, as if waiting for me.
I dug my feet into the ground hard and fast as he grabbed the handlebar of my bike and tried to pull it toward him.
"Hey mister, what the hell? Let go."
"Get in the truck," he repeated. His eyes were kind of glazed over, and he was putting his face so close to mine I could smell the chewing tobacco on his breath.
"No way, man. Leave me alone!" I started to panic as he yanked at my bike again and I almost lost my balance. He wasn't a big guy, but he was still bigger than me. He had me trapped between him and the side of his truck. The way he was holding my bike, I couldn't get off of it to run.
So I did the only other thing I could think of. I reared back, planted my foot on one of his thighs, and kicked hard as I could. At the same time I peeled his fingers off my arm with all the strength I could muster.
He gave a shout and fell backward. And since he'd been standing with his back to the mesquites, he got stuck. We didn't call those suckers 'devil trees' for nothing. His hat got lifted off his head by one spiny branch while a dozen others sank their two inch thorns into his clothes.
The second he let go I stood up on my bike pedals and hauled ass out of there. I heard him cursing and thrashing behind me, and dared a glance back over my shoulder as I high-tailed it down the road. He was still wrestling his way out of that mess.
I was a good three miles from town, and this part of the road was straight, flat, and hot as the Sahara. I rode hard, hoping those trees would keep him busy long enough that I could find a place to hide.
But in just a couple minutes I heard his engine roaring up behind me. I cursed and veered off the road, but there wasn't a place I could run since the fields on both sides were lined with barbed wire fencing. My bike wasn't designed for off roading, either. I looked back again and the black truck was hurtling my direction, catching air as it barreled off the road and headed straight for me.
"Shit, this guy's nuts!" I scrambled off my bike, letting it crash into the grass, and ran on foot to the only thing that seemed like it might be able to stop a few tons of rampaging motor vehicle: a telephone pole. I got up to it and saw metal rebar embedded at intervals, probably so repairs could be done without a ladder. Worker safety issues aside, I wasn't complaining as I grabbed the highest bar I could reach and used it and another one closer to the ground to get up and over the chest-high strings of barbed wire in the way. I dropped to the ground on the other side and started sprinting.
All this because I didn't want to accept a lift into town?
I guess the guy decided I wasn't worth wrecking his truck for. He pulled up short in front of the telephone pole and hollered some curses from his window. Garth Brooks started warbling again full volume as the truck squealed into reverse, got back onto the road, and roared away.
I fell to my knees in the grass, my chest heaving and my lungs so stressed that the back of my throat tasted like blood. There were dry weed stickers all up my cutoffs, clinging to my t-shirt, tangled in my hair. My shoelaces had turned into a nest of them. My stomach hurt, and the scabs on my elbow from yesterday had started bleeding again a little. But at least I was alive.
I pulled my backpack off and dumped it into the grass next to me. There wasn't any breeze, but just removing the layer of canvas made my back feel a bit cooler. I had a water bottle clipped to my bike. I needed it, but I wasn't sure my legs were going to get me over there.
My backpack started ringing. Still gasping, I fumbled the zipper open enough to retrieve my phone. Unknown Number was scrolling up the screen. I accepted the call and put it to my ear.
"Are you all right?" Ezra's deep voice demanded.
I couldn't help wheeze-laughing, even though I realized it made me sound insane. "I thought the watch tells you that."
"It just gives me your vital signs."
"Yeah? I'm betting it does more. You knew about the dog yesterday."
He made a noise, as if I'd impressed him. "Sometimes it helps with other things as well."
"Then you should already know some psycho just ran me off the road with his truck."
"That was some fast thinking, Connor. You did well getting away. But I can't always tell if you need my help based on the watch's data alone. You should use the S.O.S."
It suddenly occurred to me that I'd been wearing the watch all day. Including during my conversation with Mrs. Moss. If Ezra was using it to spy on me, he could have heard everything we were talking about.
"What is Elioud Biogenesis?" I blurted out, rocking back onto my butt in the grass. My emotions were catching up with the flood of adrenaline. Or maybe the run for my life had set them loose. Either way, I was feeling too angry and freaked out to keep playing this man-of-mystery game with him. He was keeping something from me. Maybe a lot of things. I deserved answers.
He gave a soft intake of breath. "Where did you hear that name?"
"It doesn't matter. Just answer me. You know them, don't you?"
After a moment, he said, "Yes."
"Do you work for them?"
He hesitated again. "Yes."
"Jesus, fuck, I knew it. What the hell is going on? What did you guys do to me and my sister?"
"Connor."
"Why the fuck have you been tailing me my whole life? Who are you people?"
"Connor, I can't—"
"Maybe our mom signed your stupid contract, but me and Maddy didn't and we're not gonna be your goddamn science experiments."
"You're not an experiment."
"No? What are we, then?"
"You're... special. Very special."
Once upon a time, hearing him say that would have given me all the warm fuzzies. But right now I was pissed. "Oh yeah? The kind of special that flips its shit on the world and ends up putting a shotgun in its mouth?"
Now he sounded actually disturbed. "Why would you say something like that? Are you—"
"I just finished talking to the mother of one of your other special kids. That's what happened to him."
"Listen to me. That's not going to happen."
"How do you know?!" I yelled, and now I really did sound hysterical. This was all becoming too much. I was finally talking to the guy I'd been low-key crushing on my whole life, and it turned out he was part of some sadistic conspiracy that had been set in motion before I was even born.
"Because I'm not going to let it, Connor. I won't let anything happen to you."
He said it so quietly and firmly that I couldn't help believing him. Or at least, believing that he believed it.
I took a shaky breath. It was so hot out, and I was exhausted. My brain felt like lava in my skull. My vision was swimming and I couldn't reason myself out of the swirling chaos in my head. I slumped until my forehead was resting on my knees. "Ezra... I'm scared."
"I know. And I'm sorry. I should have guessed you'd go tracking down answers on your own. But you have to trust me when I say that the less you know for the time being, the safer you and your sister will be."
"You guys are trying to take her away," I whimpered into the phone, threading my fingers into my sweat-soaked hair. "You can't do that."
"I'm working on it."
"On what, exactly?"
He sighed. "You need water. You have some on your bike, don't you?"
"You spying on me again?"
"Look at your watch."
The screen had a blue droplet icon blinking in the middle. I snorted. I was what, a Tamagotchi now?
"Go have some water, Connor. Get yourself home. Enjoy summer with your family, and don't worry. I'm going to take care of everything."
"Right," I muttered, picking stickers out of my hair.
"You have my word."
I stood up slowly and shouldered my backpack. "Whatever."
"And Connor? I'm serious. The next time you're in a situation like that, you've got to hit the S.O.S. Don't wait so long."
"You'll really come?"
"Yes."
"Maybe I should just press the damn button now, then."
He sounded genuinely confused. "Why?"
"Because, I..."
...miss you.
That was pathetic. He'd just admitted to working for the organization that was trying to take Maddy away, that had done God-only-knew-what to us before we were born. I knew almost nothing about Ezra. Just that he was gorgeous and strong and somehow made me feel safe, in spite of everything. And right now the whole world felt like a very, very threatening place. I pulled the phone away from my ear, staring at the Unknown Number text on the screen.
"I don't know how else to get in touch with you," I finally said, raising the phone back up. "I don't have your phone number or anything."
"Why would you need it? If you're in trouble you can just—"
"Maybe sometimes I want to talk to you when I'm not in trouble."
"You do?" I guess that was surprising to him.
"Sometimes. I mean, you are my... my..." I chewed my lip, because I didn't want to sound like a child. "My friend. Kind of. At least a little. Right?"
"I... Yes. Yes, I'm your friend."
"So can I have your number?"
"No."
Figures. "That's what I thought."
"But if you want to talk to me, you can. Whenever you want."
"How?"
A pause. "Talk to the watch. Say my name, and I'll listen."
So the thing did have a microphone. "It's not the same. Like, what if I want to cuss you out?"
He chuckled, and my bones got a little weak. I had never heard him laugh before. Come to think of it, I'd never seen him smile, either. Suddenly I was dying to know what that looked like. I bet he has an amazing smile.
"Then do it. I'll listen to that too."
I shuffled through the grass, toeing it carefully before stepping down. When I'd been running earlier I'd just had to pray there were no rattlesnakes underfoot. But now that I wasn't being chased, it was best to be cautious. I got to the telephone pole, climbed back over the barbed fencing, and made my way over to my abandoned bicycle.
"Ezra... are you ever gonna tell me who you are? The truth, I mean, not that guardian angel crap you fed me as a kid."
"You don't believe in angels?"
"Course not." What kind of dumb question was that?
"Then maybe just believe the guardian part."
I'd gotten my water bottle off the bike and popped the top. I was so thirsty that it tasted every bit as sweet as Mrs. Moss's tea. I gulped down almost the entire contents of the bottle, but saved the last bit to squirt over my face. Man, that felt nice.
"Good boy," Ezra said, and I realized that the water icon on the watch had gone away. "Now get on home. I'll come see you soon."
"When?"
"Soon."
"But that's not—"
"Goodbye, Connor." The call ended.
I sighed, gazing at my phone's black screen. Why did I feel so disappointed? That had been our longest conversation yet. But I wanted more. Wanted to keep hearing his voice. Wanted to look up and see his big dark shape standing across the road, watching over me. I wanted his spicy citrus scent and the protection of his arms around me, to hear his heart beating in a way that promised he was no figment of my imagination. It was childish and dumb, but that didn't make it any less earnest. I picked my bike up, plucked the stickers off my butt so they wouldn't be stabbing me the whole ride home. Wheeled back up to the road, and got up onto the seat. Then I paused, eyeing the watch on my wrist and feeling silly for even considering talking to it. Out loud. Like a crazy person.
But there was no one around. And... it seemed to work yesterday. Sure, why the hell not.
"Ezra. You can really hear me?"
The watch thumped once in reply.
I could suddenly breathe a little easier. "Okay, then."
I started for home.