Her eyes went wide as hen’s eggs and she almost dropped her bag of groceries all over the pavement. Those scars. That chin. This was Karla, alright. Except for the smarter outfits and perkier hairdos, the version I knew in Root was unadulterated from the truth. If I had grinned any wider, I would have lost my jaw.
“No!” she said, as if she were hissing a curse at me.
“What? No hug? You’re not even gonna say hi? What’s wrong?”
Her eyes narrowed back down into slits as narrow as coin slots. “You shouldn’t have come here! I told you not to.” She glanced behind and flinched as if she expected to be whipped. “How did you find me?”
“I had a little help from your Grandpa.”
“Grandp—Luther?”
“His real name’s Arthur, actually. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
Her chest heaved. Her face twisted in anguish.
“Are you … okay?”
“No, I am not okay! I cannot be seen talking to you. Go! Go away!”
“How about later? Can we meet … later?”
“No, we cannot. We can never meet. Never again. Not ever.”
I felt things collapsing inside me. “I don’t understand.”
“You are a curse, James. You have trapped me here. I could not go back to Root.” Tears gushed down her cheeks. “And now you have only made it worse … by coming … letting me see you here. You should never have come!”
“Karla, please! I don’t understand. Why are you acting this way?”
“Get it through your skull!” she shouted. “I cannot be seen with you. My father … he has friends in the Order who live nearby. Now go! Go away! Before someone sees us.”
“Now, wait a minute. I didn’t come all this way just to turn around. Please … can we just talk … just for a minute?”
Her eyes flitted in every direction. Her anguish had turned to frustration. If this had been Root her glare would have turned me into cinders. She fished in her purse for a key. “Come,” she said. “Follow me. We can talk. But only for a minute. Then you promise you will go.”
***
Karla led me back around the corner to Ardconnel Terrace, to the gate of the private garden. She unlatched the hasp and stepped aside to let me pass. For a moment I thought she might lock me inside and run away, but she followed me in, pulling the gate closed behind her.
We went down three flights of stairs to the bottom of the ravine where a path of faux concrete flagstone led us to a little glade in the back corner, hemmed in by beech trees and ferns. She took a seat on a little bench. I sat down next to her, barely restraining my urge to take her into my arms.
“I’m going to tell you this once, James and that is all,” she said, in a calmer voice. “You are to go away and never return here. Do you understand?”
“No. I don’t get it. And no way can I promise such a thing.”
“But you must! I cannot be allowed the tiniest shred of hope that I will ever see you again. Why can’t you understand?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t,” I said, my eyes starting to sting, my nose getting all stuffy. “How could I? I came all this way to see you. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
She sighed with aggravation.
“It is my little sister … Isobel. She is having a very hard time with my father … now that she is almost twelve. I suspected … before I met you … that she was on the brink of being visited by Root. But now I am certain. The little she talks to me, she tells me of her dreams. But I cannot help her. I cannot save her, because I am stuck here … because of you.”
