Chapter 72

When we return to the house, Allys tells us that Kara did just what she told us she would do--she went to her room and rested. When I ease the door open to be sure, Kara is lying there still as stone, her face serene, her chest rising in gentle puffs. Sleep of the angels, my mother called it.

Since I promised to keep an eye on her, I thought I should stay nearby, but Jenna says as long as she sleeps, there is no need, so I offer to help with some chores in the garden. Jenna had been right the other day when she had me help dig ditches. The physical labor does help drain the brain--at least for short bursts--and that's better than nothing.

I stay busy the whole afternoon, hauling rocks to build a retaining wall for another herb garden and driving stakes and stringing wire around another garden to keep BeeBots away. Jenna and Allys prefer the real kind of bees that can sting. I guess I do too.

In the late afternoon, I spot Kara out on the porch. She is wearing the new shirt and pants she bought at the bazaar. I'm about to put my own shirt back on and return to the house when Jenna gives me a signal that it's unnecessary. I keep an eye on the porch as I work and see Kara help Allys bring groceries in from the truck and then sweep the jacaranda petals from the porch. She lifts the broom and sweeps away a few cobwebs too.

Jenna brings a bottle of cold water out to me and reports that Kara seems to have recovered from her venting episode. She is doing everything she can to be helpful. Jenna's voice is hopeful, and that fills me with hope too. When she leaves, I attack one last row of rocks. My back aches from lifting the fifty-pound rocks, but it feels cleansing too. I never thought I would say that about such dirty work, and now I wish I had helped my dad and uncles gut our house on Francis Street. Sweat pours down my chest. I stand back and look at the wall. It is straight and sturdy. My dad would have approved.

Maybe it will all work out like Jenna said, if we just give it enough time. I hoist another rock from the pile.

I saw and heard and knew at last ...

I drop the rock and spin around. Kara is a few feet away. She stares at my bare chest and raises her eyebrows.

"I didn't hear you walk up."

She remains silent. Her gaze slowly crawls across my body.

Soon, Locke. Soon.

Soon? What does that mean? I step toward her. "Kara, what are--"

"I just came to tell you that dinner will be ready soon. Jenna says you should come in and clean up. Soon."

She smiles and walks away.

Soon. I finish the last row of rocks, wondering if I have too many loose words floating inside my head, wondering if I am hearing things that aren't even there. BioPerfect? Far from it.

The rest of the evening is calm. Kara helps with dinner and afterward cheerfully offers to do the dishes with Miesha. I even hear them laugh together once. Later she plays a game of tic-tac-toe on the floor with Kayla. Jenna and I watch her, and I think we both feel a loosening in the room, like a net that has been pulled tight over us is finally unknotting.

Soon. But when I crawl into bed and turn out the light, the word still floats in my head.

Remember this, Locke. Someone has to pay. We deserved more than we got.

And still other words haunt my dreams.