Flowertown (12 page)

“Hey, Gomer,” Ellie said, “I can hear you. You know that, right? I mean, I’m sitting four feet away from you.”

The guard looked like he wanted to kick her where she sat, but Guy put his hand out to stop him. “Nobody’s been searching the room. It’s been trashed. There’s a difference. I’ll handle it.” Both guards looked unhappy with the decision, but a look from Guy kept them quiet. Ellie saw resentment on their faces as they holstered their weapons and headed out the door. Guy had been at Feno for less than forty-eight hours and already he seemed to wield a great deal of authority.

When they were alone, Guy pulled the door shut and leaned against it. He pointed to the heap of toppled chairs. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”

“I was feeling a little penned in.”

“Want to tell me about it?”

Ellie shook her head. “A couple of years in here, you’ll figure it out.”

Guy nodded, his eyes moving over the damage around him. “Found your phone.”

Her mouth went dry and Ellie was very glad to be sitting at that moment. She said nothing, only held onto her knees and waited. “I’ve sent someone out to retrieve it.”

“Be sure to tip him for me.” Her voice wasn’t as steady as she’d hoped.

“Aren’t you going to ask where it was?” Ellie could only shrug. “Someone turned it in at the med center, said they found it on the street just past the stairs.”

Ellie struggled to hide her relief, but when she looked up she could see Guy examining her face. He nodded at something he saw there.

“So I guess that means you’re free to go. The last truck is loading witnesses now.” He turned and opened the door. “You might want to hurry. It’s a long walk back to town.”

Ellie sat for another moment, trying to read Guy, trying to get her thoughts together. This wasn’t the place. She didn’t know if she’d ever have another clear thought. Without another look, she got to her feet and headed out the door. She hurried to the end of the hall, and by the time she made it around the building and saw the line of people climbing into the truck, she was at a full run.

The truck dropped them off at the still-smoldering ruins of the records office. Again the ride in the closed truck had made her shaky and woozy; Ellie knew she had to get something to eat soon or she would faint. Blue explosions blossomed before her eyes and she had to lean against a Feno truck to steady herself. The stench here at the cordoned-off area was worse than anything she had ever smelled. Water puddled around oil stains and charred debris, and she wondered if the bag she’d hidden was still intact within the runoff drain. Maintenance crews were hauling debris away in dump trucks under the gaze of armed guards. There was no way she could get the bag out today. Ellie headed toward her apartment, putting the bag and the stolen files on the ever-increasing list of things she would have to worry about tomorrow. Tonight she wanted to sleep.

As she headed down the hallway toward her room, she smelled chili and seriously considered finding the source and falling to her knees to beg for some. Her stomach groaned, and when she pushed open the door to her room and saw Bing and Rachel huddled over bowls, she let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a cheer.

Bing dropped his bowl and ran to her, holding her by the shoulders and guiding her to the bed. “Oh my God, Ellie, what happened? How are you here?”

“I’ll tell you anything you want, Bing, but please, can I have some chili?” He passed her the bowl and then returned to his spot beside Rachel on the other bed. Ellie put down two large spoonfuls in no time and then took a closer look at her much-improved roommate. “What are you doing eating chili? Eating
anything
?”

“I know, right?” Rachel grinned at her, showing the gap where her front tooth had been. “I went for another round of detox and they gave me this shot that made me feel so much better. I mean, like, a hundred times better.” She turned her smile to Bing. “And Bing showed up looking for you and totally saved my life by making chili. I’m absolutely starving.”

“No doubt.” Ellie scooped the last bits out of her bowl. “I can’t believe how much better you look.”

Rachel laughed. She could even make a missing tooth look cute. “I can’t believe how much better I feel. Two days. In two days I am outta here! I’m still super tired, but at least I can eat something. And I got a shower.” Ellie noticed Bing’s face redden. “Of course Bing here had to help me. It was so embarrassing. I was too tired to stand up, and you know how nasty the floors are in there. He brought me a chair
and helped lather my hair. He was so sweet. And a perfect gentleman.”

Bing leaned back on the bed out of Rachel’s line of sight. Ellie licked the spoon to keep from laughing when he looked heavenward and mouthed “Oh my God.” She could imagine what a perfect gentleman he had been in his mind. “Yeah, he’s a real champ.”

Bing grimaced. “I guess it was a bad idea lying about the med check.”

“You could say that.”

“They checked, huh? Sorry.”

“They didn’t…they knew I wasn’t in the building and then…” The enormity of the explanation was more than she could face at that moment, and the chili seemed to be heading directly to her eyelids. “It’s a long story. But hey, guess who interrogated me? Guy.”

“What?” Rachel threw her spoon in surprise. “That little prick.”

Bing looked surprised at the profanity from the girl. “So the army was there.”

“No. He’s not in the army anymore. He signed with Feno.” Ellie could see Bing’s curiosity firing up and she shook her head. “It’s another long story. It’s nothing but one long story after another, and I really don’t have it in me.” She put the empty bowl on the floor and fell back into the bed. “There are so many things I have to tell you, Bing, but I just can’t tonight.” Her speech grew thick as she sank into the sagging bed.

“Go to sleep, Ellie.” Bing stood up and pulled back the covers of Rachel’s bed. “You too, young lady. And I don’t want to hear that you were dreaming about me in the
shower.” Rachel giggled as she let Bing tuck the blanket in around her. “I’m going to stay here until both of you are asleep. You know you’re both killing me. I’m not built for worrying like this.”

“Our hero,” Rachel said.

Ellie watched Bing settle in on the floor between the beds and pull out a paperback. “Amen to that, Rachel.” She was asleep before he could answer.

She was dreaming she was sorting through enormous boxes of laundry when she felt someone touch her cheek. Her eyelids refused to part as she came up from sleep. “Bing?”

“No.”

That whispered voice brought her out of her dream. She opened her eyes and saw Guy sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning over her. Even in the near darkness, she could see his eyes were bloodshot and he needed a shave. Without a thought, she lifted her hand and caressed his cheek.

He leaned into her palm and closed his eyes. “I brought your phone back.”

“Yourself? Don’t you have underlings that can run errands like that?”

“I wanted to see you. I didn’t know where you’d be tomorrow, and it’s not like I could call you.” He kissed her palm. “I’m so sorry about today. About all of it. Your file and detaining you and those goons. It never should have gotten to that.”

Ellie put her fingers over his mouth to quiet him. “You look exhausted.”

“There aren’t words to describe what I am right now.” He let her pull him down across her body, and Ellie wrapped her
arms around him. Earlier today she would have beaten him to death, but now, in the quiet and the dark, she couldn’t think of anything that had ever felt better than his body against hers. She felt his lips on her neck as he twisted himself fully onto the flimsy bed, and she wished she could rip away the clothes and blankets that wrinkled between them. Before she could get to his skin, Rachel cleared her throat from her bed with a theatrical “ahem.”

Guy pulled back, putting his feet back on the floor and pulling the thin sheet back up around Ellie’s shoulders. She kept her hands on his arms, stroking the muscles there. “I’m going to go.” She nodded and he leaned in once more to kiss her. He let his mouth slide to her ear. “Be careful, Ellie. Really careful.”

She clung to his neck, but he pulled away, shaking his head as Rachel once again made her presence known.

Guy looked over to the other bed. “You can relax. I’m going.”

“Good,” Rachel said from her dark corner.

He traced his fingers over Ellie’s cheek before rising and slipping out the door. As the light from the hallway disappeared and the room grew dark, Ellie rolled onto her side and faced the wall.

“You are kidding me,” Rachel huffed. “He arrests you and interrogates you and then expects you to keep banging him?”

“It’s not like that.” Ellie sighed. “You weren’t there. You don’t know him.”

“Don’t even think about it, Ellie.”

But that’s exactly what she did.

The sun warmed her face. Ellie stretched long in the small bed, feeling stiffness before she even knew she was awake. Her mouth tasted like paste, but she felt more relaxed than she could ever remember feeling. She didn’t want to open her eyes, lost in the softness of deep sleep. She heard Rachel moving around the room and decided to ignore her in the hope she would go away and let her sleep all day.

“I know you’re awake.” It was Bing.

“No, I’m not,” Ellie said, keeping her eyes shut.

“Yeah, you are. I know because you’ve stopped snoring.”

“I don’t snore.”

“Okay, then you’ve stopped trying to catch gnats in your epiglottis.”

Ellie laughed, putting her arm over her eyes to keep out the sun. “Leave me alone.”

“I have two words for you.” She could feel Bing’s breath on her face. “Crispin’s Diner.”

“You bastard.”

“I know. C’mon. My treat.”

Ellie pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the bed. “Good lord, I didn’t even take off my shoes. How come you gave Rachel a shower and you wouldn’t even take my shoes off?”

“Because your feet, even bare, look nothing like Rachel dripping in honeysuckle lather.”

“Bigot.” Ellie kicked around in the pile of clothes by the bed. “Just because I’m older and meaner, you judge me.” She pulled a shirt out from underneath the bed and sniffed it. Deciding it would do, she pulled at the hem of the wrinkled shirt she wore. “Keep your eyes peeled, buddy, and I’ll show you what you’re missing.”

“I’ll try to contain myself.” Bing sat back on Rachel’s bed and began to roll a joint. He had seen Ellie dress plenty of times. “Holy shit! Did they do that to you?”

“What?” Ellie yanked the clean shirt down. “Do what?”

“Bruises. You’ve got them all over your arms.”

She held her arms out to inspect them. Ugly purple marks spread all along the backs of her arms, up near her shoulders. Her wrists, too, had turned a greenish blue from being dragged by the guards. “I guess it got a little rough in there yesterday.”

“Tell me you didn’t resist armed guards.”

“There was no resisting, trust me. They had me off the ground half the time. But I might have thrown a little temper tantrum. Just plastic chairs. And a few tables.”

Bing shook his head and laughed as he lit up the joint. “Leave it to you to pick a fight in a roomful of goons. It sure looks like they did a number on you. That or you bruise easily.”

Ellie busied herself throwing her incredibly filthy jeans into the corner on top of Rachel’s bloody shirt and pulling
on a slightly less filthy pair that hung from the doorknob. Bing didn’t seem to notice her silence, and when she sat back down on the bed, she waved off his offer of a smoke. “I’ve got to tell you something.”

“Don’t try to tell me you’re a man.” Bing took another deep hit and winked at her. “I confess. Sometimes I peek when you dress.”

“No, this is something else. It’s about the bruises.”

Bing leaned forward on the bed. “If you tell me that son of a bitch Guy hit you—”

“No, stop. It’s nothing like that. Geez.” She pulled her hair hard off her face. “And lean back. This is hard enough to say. I don’t need you in Full Bing Alert Mode.” He leaned back a little, but Ellie knew she had his undivided attention. She swallowed hard. “I think the bruises are because I have…um…I’ve been blue-tagged.”

His lips moved like he was practicing words before he said them. Other than that, Bing did not move at all. They stared at each other, Ellie terrified he would say something to comfort her or, God forbid, start to cry.

“How long have you known?”

“About a month.”

Bing stared out the window, smoke slipping through his open mouth. “Have you told anyone else? Rachel? Captain America?”

“No, just you. Although Guy knows. He had my file.”

Bing clamped his lips shut, and Ellie could imagine the things he was trying not to say. Finally he settled on, “Is that what you were trying to tell me yesterday?”

“Yesterday?” She had to think to remember. She thought of the stolen files, the cryptic message, the news broadcast,
even the bullets she had seen in Dingle’s Market. “God, it’s like we haven’t spoken in weeks. There are so many things I’ve got to tell you.”

Bing slapped his knee with his free hand and extended the joint with the other. “Well, there’s no point in telling it in this dump when the dump down the street is making pancakes. Let’s go to Crispin’s. Why aren’t you smoking?”

“I don’t know.” Ellie laughed as she pulled on her sneakers. “I just feel all relaxed and rested. I guess that’s what sleep will do for you.” Bing held out his hand to pull her up, and she scowled at the softness in his eyes. “Don’t stare at me with mushy eyes.”

“Can I send you a Hallmark card with puppies and roses on it? Add you to my prayer chain?” Ellie laughed and pushed him away as he spoke. “I could knit you a shawl. Or slippers.”

“Shut up!” She pulled him back to her and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Save your style points for Rachel. Maybe someday she’ll fall for that crap.”

“Did I mention that I saw her naked yesterday? And that I touched her?”

“Yeah, I think that came up. Lunatic.”

Bing grabbed a table near the window of the little diner, keeping his back to the corner as was his practice. Ellie sat beside him so the sun wouldn’t hit her directly in the face. In Flowertown, window seats had lost a great deal of their appeal. She was just glad she couldn’t see the work trucks that continued to dismantle the records office. Peg, Crispin’s only waitress, turned over their coffee cups and poured them each a cup.

“Thank God you’ve come, Peg,” Bing said. “We’re starving and we want everything on the menu.”

Peg sighed. “Well, you might want to stop wanting eggs. Or sausage. Or whole wheat toast. And the only cereal we have left is Frosted Flakes.”

“You didn’t get any supplies either?” Ellie asked. “How big was that truck that overturned? For crying out loud, can’t they send another?”

“Oh, they sent one,” Peg said. “From what I understand it was turned back on the barrier once those explosions started. Something about it being a security risk. Like starving to death isn’t.” She set the hot pot down on the table and pulled out her pad. “In better news, we’re having a great deal on pancakes. While they last, of course.”

Bing tapped his finger against his coffee cup. “How many can we have?”

Peg glanced out the window and then back toward the kitchen. “All you want.”

“Sounds good to me,” Bing said. “We’ll pay you in kind.”

Peg nodded and turned back toward the kitchen. Ellie watched her go and then grabbed Bing’s arm. “What does that mean? Why did she say that?”

He blew out a nervous breath. “I’m not entirely sure. But it means something.”

“Holy crap, you’re faking it? Why did you say that about paying in kind?”

“Because that’s what Torrez said to me, remember?” Bing lowered his voice. “It’s like some kind of signal.”

Ellie leaned back in her chair and shook her head. “You mean to tell me all this time that you have been yammering
on about conspiracies and underground movements, you didn’t even know for sure they were happening?”

“I know plenty. Trust me. It’s just that this is different. And keep your voice down.”

Bing looked around the empty diner. “We don’t know who to trust.”

“For what?” Ellie laughed. “Pancakes? Weed? I know who to trust for both of them. Shit, this is what I get for staying high all the time. Yesterday I was sure the whole world was turning on me. Now it turns out it’s just some junior superhero league passing messages with their decoder rings. God, I’m such an idiot.”

Bing leaned in close over the table. “You think it was a decoder ring that blew up our building yesterday? You think you got those bruises from a junior superhero?”

Ellie turned from him, not wanting to get back into that fearful state of mind. For the first time in weeks, she felt rested and level. Her rage seemed to have been lulled back into submission. She didn’t want to climb back up on that treacherous branch. “It was just a misunderstanding. The only reason I got pulled out of the line was because you told me to lie.”

“Oh, I get it, sure. The only superhero allowed in your story is Guy ‘My-Dick’s-As-Big-As-My-Biceps’ Roman.”

“What exactly is your issue with Guy? Seriously, every time we argue about something you always bring it back to Guy. Have you got a crush on him or something?”

“Have you had some sort of head injury?” Bing asked. “Because the Ellie I knew would have burned the building down if she found out that someone had read her file. She would have fed him his spleen with a grapefruit spoon. The
Ellie I knew wouldn’t care how good he was in bed; she’d have—”

“The Ellie you knew is tired of being the Ellie you knew.” They both leaned back as Peg returned with a bowl of butter pats and a bottle of syrup. She raised an eyebrow at their heated silence and turned without a word. When she was beyond earshot, Ellie leaned forward on her elbows. “I’m tired, Bing. Yesterday when Guy brought up East Fifth and those early days, and I was staring out at that barrier zone, I just kept thinking, ‘This is my life. This is my whole life. This is all I have.’ And I realized I’ve spent half a decade either numb or enraged, and I’m really tired. I’m tired of being so mad; I’m tired of feeling that black dog inside of me.”

Bing poured sugar into his coffee. “Do you think it might be the QOL meds? Like maybe they’re tranquilizing you?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Bing, what next? Think maybe I’m getting my period?”

“Clearly you’ve gotten over your anger.” He stared at her over his cup until she laughed and shook her head. “I know, you hate me.”

“I do, seriously, I hate you.”

“How long have we known each other, Ellie? Four years? Four and a half?”

She shrugged. “It was cold when we met.”

“Yeah, so winter, four years ago. Do you remember what it was like? Do you remember how it was when we first met?”

“To be honest, no.” Ellie smoothed out the paper napkin before her. “I was heavily medicated for most of it. The first year or so is kind of a trippy nightmare.”

“Well, you didn’t miss much. As bad as it might have been in lockdown, it wasn’t much better outside. The med
center goons busting everybody’s heads, the shitty quarters, nobody ever knew what the next day would bring, but everybody knew it would suck.”

Ellie nodded. “I have a vague recollection of that sensation.”

Bing rested his chin in his hand. “We’ve seen each other at our worst. You were there when they brought me in. They were pumping my stomach and you threw a chair at the nurse, told them to leave me alone.” Ellie laughed. Bing had told her this story many times, filling in the gaps of her drug-clouded memories. “They were wheeling me out when they took you down, and I could hear you roaring. I’d never heard anyone actually roar before.”

Peg returned with two plates of pancakes. Ellie cut into hers with her fork and smiled. “And then they let us eat together. It always comes back to food with us, doesn’t it?”

Bing talked around a mouthful of pancake. “Do you remember the first thing you said to me that day in the dining room?”

“That I knew you.”

He dropped his eyes back to the plate and swallowed. “That’s right. I forgot about that. You kept saying that you knew me from somewhere. You said I used to visit you at night.”

“That made the guards nervous.” Ellie laughed and poured out more syrup. “Those were some serious drugs they were giving us. I was sure of it, though. As soon as I saw you, I knew you. I just knew I could talk to you.”

“But do you remember what you said?”

Ellie shook her head. “There were a lot of drugs, remember?”

“I told you about trying to kill myself, and that the first chance I got, I was going to do it again. You reached across the table and, as serious as a heart attack, asked that if I succeeded, could you have my room.” Ellie laughed out loud, bits of pancakes landing on the table across from them. Bing grinned. “I knew right then that I wasn’t going to kill myself because finally I had found someone in Flowertown who would tell me the truth.”

“Well, I was never known for my subtlety.”

“But you were always known for your keen aversion to bullshit. That’s why I don’t understand this thing with Guy.”

“Bing…”

“I don’t, Ellie, I’m sorry. I mean even if, and this is a big if, if you believe the army has the well-being of the people at heart,” he pointed his fork at her, “you said that Guy has signed with Feno, which officially makes him one of the bad guys. He’s arrested you and interrogated you; he’s read your private files.”

“He also tried to warn me.”

“Warn you. About what?”

“He didn’t say. But when he brought my phone back last night he said—”

“What do you mean last night? Guy came to your room last night?”

“Yeah, I don’t know what time it was. You were gone.” Ellie watched Bing stab at his pancakes. “Rachel saw him. He brought my phone back to me.”

“He came all the way from the compound just to bring you your phone? And you just let him in? No questions asked?”

“He let himself in. Don’t look at me like that, Bing. You know we never lock our door, and even if we did, you could break in with a hangnail. He knows where I live, he had my phone, and he brought it to me. And he apologized.”

“I bet that was sincere.” He rolled his eyes. “Apologized for what? Arresting you or just turning his goons on you?”

Ellie ignored the sarcasm. “He also warned me to be careful.” Bing dropped his silverware and fell back in his seat. His cheeks were red, and Ellie recognized the anger in the white line around his lips. “What?”

“What? For four years I’ve been telling you something is going on and you pass it off as crazy. One word from Guy and you’re on full alert.”

“Is that what this is about? You think I don’t listen to—”

“Four years, Ellie.” Bing pushed back from the table. “Four years I’ve been watching you roll your eyes at me and dismiss me and make fun of me. ‘Oh, that’s just Crazy Bing.’ Now one word from a guy you probably wouldn’t even recognize if he had pants on and suddenly you’re worried. You know why? Because you’re an authority whore.”