The Green Ones

Episode 1, Part 13

Before I know what I am doing, I remove the leaf from my pocket and shove it into the woman’s hands. I’m babbling about my brother and the accident, and how Centavo thinks he’s in telekinetic paralysis. I don’t mention my mother’s garden, at least I don’t think I do. I simply keep rambling until I’m out of breath and tears are streaming down my face.

Neca has shifted from the woman’s side to mine. He ushers me to a couch, and I sit.

“Oh, dear god.” The woman holds the unfurled leaf in one hand and a bud in the other. She stares at Neca and me. She glances around the room as if to make sure no one else is present.

There aren’t even any windows to the outside world, nothing except a viewscreen containing a waterfall surrounded by lush greenery.

“Where did you get this?” she rivets me.

“I—I—” wiping the tears from my cheek, I hesitate.

Neca steps in, “From a secret garden.”

“No one knows? You’re certain?”

“I don’t even think Centavo knew until this morning.”

“Wait,” the woman looks at me anew, “then that means this is—”

“Centavo knew her parents,” Neca adds.

“They’re dead!” I blurt out the words, not even sure why the fact is significant. With so many people digging up my past, their death has become raw and painful again.

The woman rushes to my side and sits. Without asking permission, she puts an arm around me. From this close, she smells like my mother.

I close my eyes and squeeze her in return.

“I’m so sorry, piotzin. You’ve been through so much. Don’t worry, I know what to do. We’ll save Olin.”

“Thank you. I don’t know how to thank you.” I straighten myself, relatively certain I never mentioned Olin’s name. I look the woman in the eyes. They’re warm and familiar. “Wait, what did you call me?”

“I’m sorry,” she removes her arm from around me, “was I too forward?”

“No, you called me piotzin. No one’s called me ‘little chick’ since—”

“Like Centavo, I knew your parents,” her smile is pained. “We were friends.” She gently curls the leaf around the buds and clutches them to her chest. “Especially your mother and I.”

It makes sense two people with such love for plants would find each other, even across the immortal/worker divide. I nod. “So you can brew the medicine Centavo spoke of?”

“With the divine gift you’ve given me, yes.” She clenches her hand around the leaf and buds from the unassuming plant I had once mistaken for a weed. “I certainly can.”

She stands, a look of determination washing over her. “It will take some time. I must start immediately. I apologize, but the work will require leaving your creature comforts in the capable hands of our friend, Neca.” She turns toward the mysterious boy that brought me to her door. “You remember where everything is?”

He nods.

“Good.” She glances at a clock on the wall. “I’m afraid I won’t be finished until the middle of the night.”

“It’ll be easier to return by darkness.”

“Very well.” She sets about arranging equipment on a vast counter running the entire length of the room.

I recognize simple things like scales and burners. Most of it is as alien to me as fins to a monkey. In the corner I recognize what looks to be a huge distillery with copper coils curling around it.

“Oh,” she looks up as she binds her hair in a bun on top of her head, “there are no residents, and none scheduled. Still,” she stares directly at Neca, “do try to be discreet.”

He winks, “It’s me.”

“Yes,” she stabs her hair with a glass dropper, “try anyway.”

“Come on.” Neca takes my hands, pulling me from the couch. “She’s feisty when she’s working.”

After standing, I watch the immortal woman swoosh back and forth along the counter for a moment longer. I don’t even know her name, but I like her, more than I’ve liked anyone in a long time. Then again, she reminds me of my mother.