The Garden of Darkness

“I wouldn’t leave you alone. Otherwise, poof.”


Later, they passed farms and fields, and stopped at one horse farm to replenish the feed they’d already given to Sheba. The barn was silent, and the air was still. They found the granary with no difficulty, but not without first having to pass the body of a man hanging from a beam. A chair was overturned beneath him. Jem righted the chair, and they moved on.





WHEN THE FIRST three stars had appeared in the sky, they came across two delayed-onset children—a boy and a girl. They sat on a porch. They were, at first, so still that Clare and Jem almost went right by them. When one of them moved, even Sheba shied. And then the boy spoke.

“You’re not Cured, are you?” The boy who spoke was maybe as old as seventeen.

“They’re way too organized to be Cured, Sam,” said the girl. “And they’ve got a horse. And a dog. I’ve never seen a Cured with animals.”

Clare tried not to stare at the girl. Her shirt was cut low enough that Clare could see the dappling of the Pest rash, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. The girl looked to be about fourteen. And she was very obviously pregnant.

She saw Clare looking at her.

“Two months to go,” she said, and she actually smiled. “The baby’s not Sam’s—we got together after Pest. But he’s going to be the father. I’m Becca.”

Becca heaved herself out of chair with the help of Sam, who carefully took her arm.

“I’ll get started on dinner,” said Sam. “We have enough for all of us. For tonight, anyway. We don’t get many visitors.”

“We don’t get any visitors,” said Becca. “I hope you’ll stay for the night?”

Becca spoke tentatively, and Clare suddenly realized that she was shy.

“We’d love to,” said Jem. He and Clare exchanged a look.

“But after tonight,” said Clare, “we’re headed towards a place that may have the cure, and we’re moving fast. Would you like to join with us? It’s not just Jem and me. We’re meeting up with others. You could come.”

Both Sam and Becca smiled.

“That’s kind,” said Sam.

“But we’re not going anywhere until after the baby,” Becca said.

“It’s still wonderful that you’ve found your way to us,” said Sam. “I’ll just go out back and send a chicken to its doom. Chicken’s good for Becca. We found a book on what to expect when you’re expecting, and it was pretty firm on what to eat.”

They ate together in a small dining room. The wallpaper had a pattern of alternating daisies and cornflowers. Sam and Becca provided dinner—the chicken, potatoes, beets. In exchange, Jem and Clare gave them a bag of beans and some fine flour. Jem helped carry everything to the table, while Sam set out the dishes. Jem treated Becca as if she might break.

Sam and pregnant Becca. They would have to live a lifetime in a couple of years. Or less. And then, Clare thought, Becca would need to find another, younger, child to mother her child.

That night Clare and Jem shared the only other bedroom in the house. Jem slept in a sleeping bag on the floor. Clare had won the bed after a coin toss. But after Clare heard Jem tossing and turning on the hardwood floor, she pulled back the covers, pointedly. He climbed in next to her, sleeping bag and all. It had felt more odd to Clare having him on the floor than having him in the bed.

“Good night,” she said.

“Good night,” said Jem. There was a pause.

“What’s going to happen to Becca?” Clare whispered to Jem.

“She’ll do the best she can.”

“But Sam must be only a few months from Pest. Maybe a year.”

“I know.”

“And Becca’s just a baby herself.”

“Go to sleep. You’ll feel better. All this whispering is worse than my sister’s slumber parties.”

They hitched up Sheba at dawn. Bear stayed close to Clare.

“You really won’t come with us?” Clare asked Sam and Becca.

“Becca and I are fine,” said Sam. “We’re going to be fine.” And he put a hand on her round belly.

“You really could come with us to the Master’s,” said Clare. “Think of the difference it would make to your baby if there were a real cure.”

“If Pest comes, it comes,” said Sam. “But I don’t really think it’s going to come. We have to be immune, or we would be dead by now, don’t you think?”

“Actually, Sam,” said Clare. “I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re immune.”

He smiled at her indulgently. “Don’t worry so much,” he said. “I’m going to be here, and I’m going to take excellent care of Becca both before and after the baby comes. I won’t let her down by dying.”

“Oh, Sam,” said Clare.

But he just smiled and put his hand on her shoulder, as if to comfort her.

Clare could hear Becca saying goodbye to Jem. Becca laughed.

“He’s kicking,” she said. “Want to feel?”

Jem put his hand on her belly gently. “Wow. When my cousin was going to have a baby, it never kicked this much. This is great.”