The Girl in the Garden

Chapter 4

After breakfast, Ben decided to stay downstairs. He didn't like the way Jeffrey was acting, he thought they'd had some sort of connection the night before, but now it seemed like it never happened. He sat down in the office while Marion worked. As she typed, Ben caught her looking at him from time to time with a lingering smile that crinkled her eyes.

"What?" He finally asked her. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"I just haven't seen you look like this before. You're glowing."

"What? No, I'm not, don't be stupid."

She laughed and went back to typing. "I haven't known you for very long, Ben, but you wear your emotions all over your face whether you realize it or not."

"I do not."

Marion winked and went quiet. Ben knew that she thought it was a meaningful kind of silence. One where she assumed he would realize how right she was and how thankful he was to have her in his life, but he just felt annoyed with her.

When it was time for lunch, Marion asked Ben if he'd like to help her get it ready, and he jumped at the opportunity to stay busy. He helped her stack slices of meat and cheese to make thirteen sandwiches, each one cut diagonally across and placed on a white ceramic plate on the counter. They made a salad that mainly consisted of lettuce and added a scoop to each dish, then Marion called the others to come and eat.

The ruckus of boys was overwhelming. It always was at mealtimes. Ben pressed himself into the corner of the kitchen as his housemates bustled through the space. There was a flurry of shouts and a storm of jabbing elbows as they jostled for plates and shuffled back out of the room to eat on their own.

Ben looked at Jeffrey, who stuck close to the middle of the action, and purposely averted his eyes. It was clear to Ben that Jeffrey considered their night together to have been a mistake, the best thing to do would be to try and forget about it, but Ben couldn't do that. The feeling Jeffrey gave him was the only thing better than the mysterious fire in his veins, and it seemed like it had the potential to hurt fewer people. It seemed that way, any way, but with every passing minute that Jeffrey didn't look at him, Ben's emotional pain deepened.

Finally, when Ben and Marion were alone in the kitchen again, they each took one of the two plates left and sat at the table together.

"What's going on with you two?" She asked, and Ben pretended not to understand. "For the past two weeks, you and Jeffrey have been totally inseparable, but today...."

"Sometimes people just need space, I guess."

"Right." Marion dipped her head in surrender as she took a bite of her sandwich. She always seemed to know when to drop the subject and never made Ben feel pressured to talk when he didn't want to. He appreciated that about her, even if he would never tell her that.

Before they could finish their meals, they heard Dylan shouting from the front door. It didn't sound like an angry shout, more like he was excited about something. Marion was quick to respond, and Ben found himself following after her. They reached the door, and although Dylan made space for Marion to see out the window, he did what he could to block Ben's view.

Slipping past Dylan, Ben managed to peek out the window to see an antique-looking car that had pulled up to the curb out front. A man with a severe face and a black suit got out of the driver's seat and came around to open the back passenger side door. Ben could just barely see the outline of another man who swung one of his feet out of the car and onto the sidewalk, followed by a sleek black cane. As he unfolded himself from the car, Ben realized he was almost impossibly tall, well over six feet, and as skinny as a skeleton. He wore a long coat that billowed behind him in the wind, with the collar pulled up close to his face.