Cleo found a terraced garden at the back of Jensen’s store. She entered through a rickety gate, and placed my cage beneath the shade of a tree. Along the fence were zinnias as big as umbrellas.
“You’re Cleo, Creasemore’s friend, aren’t you?” Molly tamped the soil around a lettuce plant. In the distance, I heard the neigh of an approaching horse.
“Yes, that’s right. He drove me back from the Pool of Knowledge. I live here in Oakside.” Cleo shook a clump of dirt from her foot. “Heard you were working on a cure.”
“No one’s supposed to know. Who told you that?”
“My husband. His name is Samuel.”
“Samuel? What does he look like?”
“Wouldn’t help you to know. He’s been infected by the ghost plant.”
“I understand.” Molly rose from her knees and pushed a wheelbarrow to another part of the garden, then emptied a pile of soil. “Jensen’s threatening that unless I find a cure, he’ll make sure I never work anywhere again.”
“I know him too well. Jensen’s a cheat and a bully.”
“He plans to charge for the cure and make a lot of money. But there’s something he doesn’t know—the ghost plant infects not just people, but plants. Imagine if corn crops disappeared? Once it matures and releases its seeds, birds will scatter them everywhere. I’m trying to come up with a cure before that happens. See those zinnias?” They were so huge, it was hard not to see them. “I tried, but made a super fertilizer instead of a cure. I have to start all over again. I’m so sorry this happened. Never meant to harm anyone. I was only amusing myself and created a new hybrid. Maybe the the Pool of Knowledge’s board was right to kick me out.”
“When Samuel and I stopped there for help, Armantrout and Creasemore said you were one of the few who voted not to make the place into an amusement park. They admired your courage.”
“Armantrout is like a father. Understand, I have nothing against having fun. But the Pool of Knowledge is more than that. For years, my mother landscaped its gardens, and after she died, I cared for all its plants and trees as though they were my children, congratulated each new bud and leaf. At the garden’s center is the pool, which is a storage house of everything we know. The moment any person touches their lips to the rim of la guida’s goblet, they add the essence of who they are. Sadly, there are fewer truth-seekers to replenish the pool with their droplets of knowledge. Which is why the board is thinking about turning the place to other uses. That can’t happen.”
“The world was not nearly as complicated when I was younger,” Cleo said.
Jensen approached on his mare. “How’s it going, Molly? Any good news?” He climbed off his saddle.
“I’ll need to get a few ingredients from Pool of Knowledge.” Molly raked the ground. “It will take maybe a week to get them and come back.”
“Make sure it doesn’t take any longer,” Jensen said. He tipped his hat to Cleo and walked toward my cage. “What have you got in there?”
“A gift for Iris. She loves birds.”
“Iris, that girl who waves her hands in the air instead of talking?” He bent down for a closer look. “My friend had a talking bird. Was going to take her out on the road as part of an act” Jensen poked his nose inside the bars. “Pretty bird. Pretty bird.” I skittered around the bottom of the cage and tweeted some nonsense, acting like I was scared of him. Satisfied, Jensen got back on his horse. “Remember what I said.”
We watched the dust of the mare’s hooves fade into the distance.
“I used to think he cared about people,” Molly said.
“Let me come with you to the Pool of Knowledge. Cleo picked up my cage. “Maybe I can help.”
“I could use help. But why bring the bird along? It’ll slow us down.”
“I have to.”
“What about your daughter, Iris?”
“This is my daughter.”
Molly’s rake fell to the ground. “I can tell your husband’s disappearance has upset you. Sit in the shade and I’ll fetch a cup of water.”
“That is not necessary. I’m perfectly fine.”
I rattled the hook on the door. “Please open the cage door,” I said. Molly turned around, thinking someone else was talking from outside the garden. I knew it was important to warn all the birds about not spreading the seeds of the ghost plant, and for the first time, I felt there was a real purpose to my becoming who I was. This beak, these feathers, a reason I could now speak to both birds and people. I wanted my father back. All of him. All the time.