The Girl in the Garden

Chapter 2

Ben sat alone in the office for a long time. Marion told him to wait there while she tended to Dylan's injury. "Mr. North has never been called in on a boy's first day," she said as she closed him up in the claustrophobic room. "I don't know how he'll react."

Usually, an ominous warning like that would cause Ben to feel anxious and afraid, but now that the inferno inside him had subsided, all he felt was empty again. He reminded himself that this was a temporary situation; he would be out of this awful place soon enough.

In the silence of his solitude, he found his thoughts running wild. He tried to ignite the fire he felt with Dylan, but there was just black emptiness. He had never experienced anything like it before; it felt like he blacked out. He figured that under normal circumstances, that would have worried him. What if he had a tumor or epilepsy or something? Instead, he felt a craving for it to happen again. Whatever it was, it filled him with something that felt alive for once, and it protected him from someone who could have hurt him. That was what he wanted to feel again, protected. But who was there to protect him now?

He was in the middle of this thought when he heard the doorknob turn. The door swung open to reveal a frazzled-looking man in a wrinkled suit. He was carrying a red-brown leather briefcase and was reading from a file in his hand. He slapped the file down, and it sent a jolt through Ben. He glanced at it, but all he could see were the words "Incident Report" before Mr. North noticed his wandering eyes and closed the folder.

"Benjamin Everett," Mr. North said, and Ben realized he was getting tired of hearing people say his name like that. Every time someone said his full name, it was because they had bad news, or they were about to change his life for the worse. "Not even here for an hour before you have your first incident, and what an incident it was. Just what did you do to Dylan's hand?"

"I didn't do anything."

"It says in this report that he found a knife in your guitar case. Weapons are strictly forbidden. Just bringing one into the house means two weeks of extra chore duty. But it's the burn that's truly concerning."

"I told you, I didn't do anything. That knife was Dylan's, and he probably burned himself."

"And why would he do something like that? Dylan has lived here for years, and this is the first time I've been called in for an incident involving him. Do you think it's fun for me to come in here on your first day? Do you think I have time to deal with delinquents like you? I oversee the operations of twelve of these houses, Benjamin Everett, twelve!"

There it was again, his full name. He wondered if this kind of treatment continued, would the fire inside him return? Part of him wished it would, he wanted to see what it would do to Mr. North, but another part of him knew that wouldn't go over well.

"Yeah, twelve houses," Ben said, "I already told that lady Marion I'm not interested in the back story, I won't be here long."

Mr. North's face was red, so red he looked like a cartoon. "You insolent brat, you will speak to me with respect."

Ben didn't say anything. He tried to remind himself that he didn't care. They could give him chores, they could yell at him all night, it didn't matter. He was empty inside.

"I can see that you're dead set on being one of the rotten ones, and I'm wasting my time here. I have Marion's report, and I'll speak with Dylan and hear his side of the story. If you insist on lying and wasting my time, then I'll give you none of it to waste." He scooped up his file with a huff and turned back to open the door. "Marion, get in here and watch this young criminal in the making. I'll speak with Dylan, and I'm sure he'll help me get to the bottom of all this."