Second Self

Chapter 9

"Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature." ,

An unseen honeycomb far above us dribbled amber liquid across the morning sky. Riding in the vehicle with the seats faced toward the front, with the manual control engaged by a driver, the drive felt less surreal than the day before. Maybe that was the point. It might have been their small act of kindness toward a person lost in a foreign land. Our car snaked around the slope, where the lights hadn't touched the night before. Crops that looked like grain grew in fields on either side of the road, although the plants were darker coloured than they would have been back home. I watched them ripple in the breeze as we drove. After a period of silence, Gem said to the driver, "Pull over at Twisted Grove."

Under my breath, I added, "Please."

The driver turned into a little parking area at the side of the road. We got out in front of a small grove of trees. A wooden walkway wound through the brambles. "I think we both need to see something pretty," Gem said, bobbing his head toward the path. He began to walk on the boardwalk without glancing back to make sure I was following, stopping beneath a twisted bough that passed low over the walkway. Walking up behind him, I discovered a beautiful view from the spot where he stood. Limbs that lay on the ground wound around each other like lovers lost in licentiousness, while others ran straight for meters before they turned at sharp angles to wrap around the trunks of neighbouring trees. Branches reached out for their paramours, separated from them by a few meters of black soil. Hands linked. Boughs twisted in the shape of hearts—a few of these were cracked and broken.

"There's a grove just like this back home," I said to Gem's back. "Our class stopped by after going on a field trip to the museum in North Battleford."

"I remember." He turned to face me. "You looked for a long time at a sign that listed theories about why the trees were so strange."

"In the end, I decided I'd rather not know."

I kept to myself how jealous I'd felt, watching Casper stand beneath a branch that looked like it was touching his shoulder. It wasn't long before I'd started to shiver, thinking maybe there was a branch hanging just over my shoulder; someone's eyes on my own back, wishing they could touch me as much as I wanted to touch Casper. I'd been too afraid to turn around.

"What's going to happen when we get to the Penitentiary?" I asked, desperate to shake off the memory.

"If we're lucky, we'll have enough time to talk about what's happened to you. Maybe we'll be able to get a few answers from our prisoners."

"And what if we aren't lucky?"

"The Ministry will take the detainees before we get a chance. For all we know, they might let them go."

"Don't they realize what's at stake?"

Gem shrugged. "Do we know?"

I scowled. "I think I figured it out around the time I discovered how Denovo killed my brother."

"I'm sorry, Rory. I didn't mean it like that. My brother is—"

"Cruel?" I interrupted.

"Deceptive," Gem said, heading toward the car. He stopped to catch my eyes as he opened the door. "Keep your temper in check if you see my brother there. Can you do that?"

"I can try. I do not promise anything."

"I guess that's the best I can hope for." Gem shut the door behind me after I got in. After several minutes of slow driving, we stopped in front of a metal gate that blocked the road.