Labyrinth Society (2 page)

"Of course not. It's much too soon. But we have to give her a chance sooner or later. She belongs here with us. We're her family now. It will be just fine. You'll see," Mrs. Tarpley said in a much softer voice obviously trying to soothe the girl. Devon said something else I didn't catch. Then there was silence and Mrs. Tarpley returned to the kitchen full of apologies for Devon's behavior.

I sighed and took another bite of my
pain au chocolate
and realized I'd better enjoy it while I could because I had a sinking sense of
déjà vu
. My days at the Tarpley Estate were most definitely numbered. But what I wanted to know was, who was I replacing, and where was the dangerous place they were going next weekend?

Ms. Jarvis stayed a bit longer to make sure I was going to be okay. After she left, I was shown to my new room. It was a dream come true with hardwood floors, white walls, and a queen-size bed with a brass headboard and thick burgundy bedspread. Twirling slowly above was an ancient ceiling fan with a white porcelain light fixture. Built-in drawers, bookcases, and a roll top desk took up most of the wall space. But the best thing of all was the large bay window with a cushioned window seat. After putting away my clothes, art supplies, and books, I set a picture next to the bed and went over and sat in the window seat and gasped.

My room had a view of the ornamental garden, and while I'd had a glimpse of the garden already from the kitchen, I had no idea how big it was. It was ginormous and must have taken up at least an acre or more. I could also see something else. The garden was a hedge maze, so huge I couldn't see the center of it from my window. The walls of the maze must have been at least six feet high, maybe higher.

"Do you like your room, Mia?" said a voice from the doorway. It was Mrs. Tarpley.

"It's nice, thanks," I said, truly meaning it. Even when my grandma was alive I hadn't had a room this cool, and in all of my other foster homes I'd had to share a room.

"Is this your
grandmere
?" asked Mrs. Tarpley, picking up the picture on the bedside table. I nodded and waited for the comment I knew was coming next. "You look a lot like her."

Everybody thought so. I'd seen pictures of my grandma when she'd been my age — we could have been twins. We'd had the same chocolate brown skin, thick, dark brown hair, the same mouth with a slightly fuller bottom lip, and the exact same deep dimples. Mrs. Tarpley set the picture down and squeezed my arm.

"We can go shopping this week for a new spread and some curtains if you want. There's a music store downtown the girls like. They have lots of posters."

"No, it's okay. This is just fine." I wanted to say I doubted I'd be around long enough to care how the room was decorated.

"Oh, I forgot. Ms. Jarvis told me you're an artist. You probably want to decorate your room with your own artwork, right?"

"Yeah, that'd be cool." I wondered what else Ms. Jarvis had told her.

"Well, we'll have to get you some more art supplies then, won't we? But right now, why don't you take a nap before lunch? You look a little tired." She turned to go, but I stopped her.

"Mrs. Tarpley?"

"Please call me Mrs. T. It's what the girls call me."

"I overheard Devon say I was replacing someone. Who am I replacing?"

"Try not to let her bother you. She's just upset right now. One of my other foster daughters left recently, and she and Devon were close."

"Why'd she leave?"

"She was eighteen. It was her choice. No one is a prisoner here," she said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"If you all have someplace to go next weekend, I can stay here. You don't have to worry about me. It's okay."

Mrs. Tarpley laughed. "Whatever are you talking about?"

"I heard Devon ask if I was going with you next weekend."

"Uh," she said, sounding slightly flustered. "Um, the girls like to go rock climbing. It's no big deal. Now, you get some rest. Lunch is at twelve-thirty."

I watched her go and got the strangest feeling she'd just lied to me. Then again, I hadn't slept well the night before and was tired. It may have just been my imagination playing tricks on me, because why would Mrs. Tarpley lie about something so stupid? I stretched out across the bed then realized there was something else I'd meant to ask about. But I was too tired to remember what it was.

****

I woke with a start, feeling panicked and not knowing where I was. I'd been dreaming about running through the garden maze trying to catch up with Lily, Tomi, and Devon. But the closer I got to them, the farther away they'd be. I sat up on the bed and groggily looked around for a few minutes before I finally remembered where I was. The clock on the bedside table read 3:25. I'd slept right through lunch and my stomach growled loudly. I got up, ran a comb through my hair, and headed downstairs.

On my way past the bedroom next to mine, I saw the door was half open, and Tomi was sitting on the bed painting her toenails. This must be her room and it was painted a deep midnight blue with a full moon and stars painted on her ceiling. Her bedspread was white; instead of a headboard, there was a beautiful silk kimono with pink, green, and silver flowers hanging from a rod mounted half way up the wall. Her floor was covered in thick, white carpet with large multi-colored throw pillows strewn all over it. I could see a black writing desk underneath one window with a computer sitting on it. Lily was also in the room, sitting on one of the large pillows on the floor. Both of them sat with their backs to the door. I heard my name and paused near the door to listen.

"Do you ever stop worrying? If Mrs. T. says Mia will work out, I believe her," said Tomi, concentrating on painting her toenails.

"Yeah, I guess." Lily sounded unconvinced. "She's so quiet, though, don't you think? It would suck if she gets freaked out easily, especially when we're out on a job."

"Are you serious?" Tomi laughed. "The girl's been in foster care. I bet she's got nerves of steel."

"Oh, don't even go there, Tomi. You don't know anything about being in foster care. Your parents left you to Mrs. T. in their will."

"They named her as my legal guardian in the event of their deaths. You make me sound like a rug she inherited," Tomi said. Lily giggled.

"There." Tomi held out one skinny foot and wiggled her toes. Her toenails were painted a dull green.

"Why is this stuff called magic magenta?" Lily squinted at the bottle of nail polish. "It looks more like pea soup to me."

"Check it out." Tomi clapped her hands a couple of times. The lights in her room went off. Her toes were a brilliant glow-in-the-dark magenta.

Once the lights went out, I hurried past the door and down the steps before they caught me spying on them. I passed the Egyptian mask and again heard a strange deep voice.

"Late!" it said, stopping me dead in my tracks. But there was no one around.

Maybe a TV or a radio was on in one of the rooms off the foyer. I listened and didn't hear anything else. The house was quiet and the kitchen was empty. The morning rain had finally stopped, and the sun had come out, flooding the kitchen with sunlight. I opened the fridge and saw a thick turkey sandwich on a plate covered in plastic wrap with my name on it. There was also a cup of tomato soup. I was so hungry I devoured the sandwich and chugged the soup in five minutes, washing it all down with a cold can of cherry soda.

As I ate, I thought about what I just overheard. So Tomi's parents had known Mrs. Tarpley. I wondered about Lily and Devon's backgrounds and how they came to be with Mrs. Tarpley. What job had Lily been talking about? Why was she afraid I'd freak out? And where was the other foster kid, Alex? I turned around and almost jumped out of my skin. Leaning against the counter was a man wearing shorts and a white tank top. He must have been in his twenties. He had thick curly black hair and was almost six feet tall.

"Hey, you must be Mia, right?" He had an English accent. His smile was warm and his nose was a little crooked, as though it had been broken. I was so flustered all I could do was nod and look at my feet. It felt like turkey sandwich was stuck in my throat.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I'm Alex Duncan, Mrs. T.'s assistant, driver, handyman, and anything else needs doin' 'round here. I live in the cottage out back of the estate." He stuck out his hand and I shook it.

So
this
was Alex?

"Have you been out in the garden? I saw you looking." I noticed his w's sounded like
r
's and his
h
's were missing in action, making have sound like '
ave
and here like
'ere
. Too adorable.

"Not yet," I said, finally finding my voice. "I've only been here a few hours."

"Then a grand tour is in short order." He handed me a napkin. "You might want to wipe your mouth first."

I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the stainless steel fridge and saw a thick tomato soup mustache. I could have just died. Fortunately, Alex was headed out the back door, and I didn't have time to be too embarrassed. I quickly wiped my mouth and followed him.

With the exception of some stone benches doubling as planters and a separate vegetable garden, the rest of the backyard seemed to consist of the hedge maze. I suddenly felt anxious and didn't know why. I'd been in a maze before and managed to find my way out. This was different. I chalked it up to the sheer size of it. Alex made a beeline straight for the maze and didn't turn around until he got to the entrance. He saw my hesitation and was amused.

"Mazes kind of creep me out." I laughed and tried to play off my nervousness.

"Ah, well," he said, stepping aside so I could go in first. "You're in luck, cause this ain't a maze. It's a labyrinth."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is mazes are designed to confuse. They're like a sort of puzzle you've got to figure out. Labyrinths, on the other hand, have a clear path to the center. You can't get lost. Might take you a while to get there. But there's nothing to figure out."

I was so wrapped up in what he was saying I didn't even realize we were already inside. As we turned corner after corner, I noticed how cool it was inside the labyrinth, how neatly trimmed the high hedges were, and how precisely it was designed. Nothing was overgrown, and not a single weed dared show itself among the unrelenting greenery. There were also lots of small benches and statues of Greek gods and goddesses nestled into almost every corner.

"Who takes care of this thing, you?"

Alex laughed. "Don't be daft," he said, screwing up his face like he'd just smelled something bad. "Do I look like the type of bloke who gardens?"

I laughed even though I had no idea what a bloke was.

"Nah, we used to have a full-time horticulturalist, Dr. Hector Flores. But, he's outta commission. Alzheimer's." Alex shook his head and frowned.

"Flores? Is he related to Lily?"

"Yeah, her granddad. He created this labyrinth. He used to work at the university with Mrs. T.'s husband, Dr. Tarpley. He'd been around forever before he got ill. Mrs. T. don't trust anyone else to maintain it. Does it all by herself, now."

"So Lily lives here because of her grandfather?"

"Yep. Besides her granddad, she ain't got no one else but us. Same thing with Tomi. Her mum and dad were archaeology grad students of Dr. Tarpley's. Got killed in a plane crash on the way home from a dig in Greece."

"And Devon?"

"Devon's mum was Dr. Tarpley's secretary, years ago. Name was Jillian or Joanne. She left when she got pregnant with Dev and moved out west. Dr. Tarpley lost touch with her. But when Mrs. T. got wind she'd died, she tracked Dev down and brought her here."

"You weren't one of her foster kids then?"

"Me? Nah, I met Mrs. T. in London a while back when she got lost in the east end. I helped her out of a jam when she got her handbag nicked and—"

"Nicked?"

"You know, stolen," he said, impatiently, obviously not wanting to be interrupted in the middle of a story.

I tried not to wince at the word
stolen
remembering back to the awful memory of my time with the Higgins's. Alex was too busy finishing his story to notice the look on my face.

"… turned out she needed an assistant, and as it happened, I needed a job, and to get out of London. A beautiful partnership was formed."

"Why'd you need to get out of London? What did you do?" I couldn't imagine what someone as adorable as Alex could have done wrong.

"Sorry, luv." He seemed self-conscious. "I'm way too sober to tell you my story. Ask me again when you're twenty-one and I'll tell you over a pint. You're buying," he said, laughing. Little did he know I planned to hold him to it, even if it was nine long years away.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and I noticed the further into the labyrinth we got, the less noise from the outside I could hear. It made me feel a little light-headed.

"You alright?" Alex gave me a strange look.

"Yeah." But I wasn't so sure. "What about the girl who left?" I asked to change the subject. "Where'd she come from?" I hoped talking would make me feel better, because the last thing I wanted to do was to faint in front of Alex.

"You mean Morgan Lake?"

"I guess so. I overheard Devon say she's been gone for less than a month."

Alex, who'd been Mr. Information up until now, suddenly clammed up and gave me a tight smile. He shrugged and it was like something closed behind his eyes.

"Morgan was here for about a year. Not quite sure where she came from. Left when she turned eighteen. Nice kid, though, never a problem," he said in one long, breathless rush.

"Oh, so she wasn't connected to the Tarpley family?"

"Nah," he said, shaking his head. I was relieved. Hearing the other three girls had a personal family connection to the Tarpley's was making me feel like the odd girl out. Morgan Lake must have come from foster care like I had.

"Where'd she go?"

"Dunno." He walked ahead of me and around the next corner. I had to jog to catch up to him. Why didn't he want to talk about Morgan Lake?

"Here we are," he said.

We had reached the center of the labyrinth, which was square with stone benches all around the inside against the hedges. The center was paved with ancient-looking brick. It didn't match somehow, and I wondered if maybe the center section had originally been part of another garden. A small pond was in the center filled with greenish water. There were four bright round copper disks, one on each side of the pond, with strange symbols engraved on them. The sun glinted off the disks, blinding me momentarily and glinting off a ring Alex was wearing. It was the first time I noticed the ring. It was silver, with a half-inch wide square in the center. The design in the middle of the square was a familiar one. It was a labyrinth.

Suddenly, the lightheadedness I had felt earlier grew stronger, and I swayed on my feet. The air felt charged with electricity. I smelled something hot and metallic and stinking like rotten eggs. The world started spinning, and I pitched forward towards the pond. The water was glowing. I was being sucked into it. I started screaming. Alex was calling my name, and his strong hands were pulling me backwards. Then everything went black.