Free Earth Legend by Florence Witkop Page B

greenhouses and I'd fix it.
    As I pushed open the door to my apartment, I
thought back to what was happening in the greenhouses. I hadn't
wanted to go there, but now I was glad I had because I knew that my
family's fears were right. Things were going wrong and much sooner
than any of us would have thought.
    It was a good thing I'd succeeded in stowing
away. Because in the coming weeks, possibly months, until I got
things back on track, I would be all that kept ten thousand people
alive.
     
     
    Chapter Six
    I am discovered.
     
    Alicia visited the next morning. Nothing new,
she stopped by often to visit Braveheart. Sometimes she brought her
own cat so mother and kitten could be together. During her visits
she'd developed an interest in the potted plants all over my place.
She liked the cherry blossoms best because of their delicate pink
color. I'd promised to give her a tiny tree for herself and she was
there to get it.
    "You have to do what I taught if you want it
to be healthy."
    She held it tightly. "I promise."
    "If it starts to droop, bring it back and
I'll tell it to stand up straight." I laughed because it was a
joke.
    She liked jokes so she giggled. Then she
scared me. "Just like you tell the orchard to grow nice apples and
cherries and they do."
    She hadn't forgotten. I'd hoped she would. "I
can't really do that. I was being silly. Sometimes I talk to
myself."
    "Like Grandpa Zander?"
    "Yep. Just like him."
    She giggled again. She was enjoying this
conversation. "No one pays attention to Gramps when he talks to
himself but when you talk to the orchard, it listens. Trees like
you." She held out the miniature cherry tree I'd potted for her,
not caring that I could talk to trees because in her child's world
it wasn't important. "It's pretty. Will it grow big?"
    "Not if you keep it in the pot. It'll stay
the right size for the pot."
    I stared out my window long after she left,
shaking like a rag. I liked Alicia but there were times I wished
we'd never met. It was because of her that I had an apartment and
was an accepted resident of New Rochelle, not to mention that I had
a kitten. But if she blurted out what she knew to the wrong people,
I could end up in jail.
    I shook my head. What was I thinking? She was
a child. Who pays attention to children? Who believes them? I
should stop worrying and get outside and be sociable. I should go
for a walk. Everyone walked everywhere in New Rochelle, it was
great exercise and a good way to find out what was happening in
town because gossips also took walks.
    I headed towards the town square because
that's where I was most likely to find people, but no one I knew
was there. On the other side of the square, however, several people
were clustered around the harvesting center building. I knew them
from delivering apples and cherries so I sauntered over. Gerald,
the guy who checked deliveries, wasn't busy. No one was, which was
unusual. Most days the harvest center was a bustling place. "Elle."
He waved a couple of fingers in my direction. "What's doing? No
apples today?"
    There could be. Trees in the orchard were
heavy with fruit but I didn't dare bring too much too often. "Not
yet. Soon." I looked around. "Slow day?"
    There was no humor in his laugh. "Slow week.
Several slow weeks."
    "How so?" The hairs on the back of my neck
rose. Was it beginning?
    "Not as good a harvest lately as we'd like."
Gerald put on a positive face. It was hard but he managed. "But
it'll pick up."
    One of the guys agreed. "Yeah, it'll get
better. Elle's apples and cherries are growing great. So maybe some
of the other crops are slow, they'll catch up and it'll get back to
what it should be. You'll see."
    Another spoke slowly and without the positive
lilt of the first speakers. "If that doesn't happen, I'm going to
ask Elle to visit my blueberries and wave her magic wand or do
whatever she does to make her crops the best on the Destiny."
    They all laughed and someone said something
about witches, and then