Becoming Calder(18)

I grinned. "I've eaten every single butterscotch candy. All . . . well, I lost count, but all of them." I grinned bigger and so did she.

She turned toward me more fully. "How do you get them in my room?" she asked, her eyes wide.

I laid back on the large rock and laced my fingers behind my head. I was soaking wet, but the sun was shining, and I'd be dry soon enough.

I squinted up at Eden above me, closing one eye against the sun. She had turned and was looking down at me, waiting for my answer.

"My sister delivers things. I send them with her when she has a delivery up at the main lodge."

Eden nodded her head vigorously. "Yes. The little girl who . . ." She paused and I tensed, waiting for her to make note of Maya's mental state.

"Sews so beautifully."

I relaxed and smiled, nodding. "Yes, that's her."

Eden smiled and tilted her head. "Well, now I'm going to have to deliver two butterscotch candies. I didn't know you had an employee." She smiled at me and I chuckled. God, she was so pretty. She dazzled me with her pale blonde hair and those big, dark blue eyes that seemed to have a whole world behind them—a world I suddenly wanted to know, to explore.

"How old are you, Eden?" I asked. "Hector never mentioned . . ."

"I'm sixteen."

I was surprised. She looked younger and I had always assumed she was. To me, her age was directly linked to the foretelling of those great floods. I nodded, doing the math and suddenly feeling more anxious than I had before. I moved that aside.

"Can I see it?" I finally asked.

"It?" she said, a look of confusion on her face.

"The mark."

"Oh, yes, the mark." She hesitated for a brief second, but then turned around and moved her hair away from her left shoulder and brought her blouse down to bare it.

I moved closer and squinted my eyes to see what looked like a smallish birthmark near her shoulder blade that was supposed to be an eclipse.

"And the moon shall move in front of the sun, as the waters rise and cover the earth," I whispered, quoting from Hector's Holy Book.

I felt Eden shiver slightly as I traced the mark on her back. I guessed it did look like an eclipse, as much as any birthmark could.

Eden pulled her shirt back up and turned toward me again.

She suddenly looked shy and I wondered what she was thinking. I watched her, waiting to see if she'd tell me.

She smiled a small smile. "In the church I went to before I came here, I think there was a story about the first man and woman in a place I imagine to look like this one." She waved her arm around at the towering rocks and the spring right in front of us, glistening in the sunlight. Her smile widened. "There was even a snake!" She laughed and I couldn't help smiling, too.

"I remember it because my name was in it somehow . . ." She gazed off as if trying to remember.

I tilted my head, squinting again. "Tell me more."

Her smile disappeared. "Well, I wish I could remember more of the story. I don't think it ended too well for them." She looked up, considering. "Or maybe it was the rest of the people who didn't fare so well."

"No, I mean, tell me about the place you lived before this. Tell me about your house, and your car, and the city you lived in."

Sadness altered her expression. "I don't remember much, feelings mostly. The pictures in my mind are so blurry. And it's like, when I try to remember them, my head starts hurting." She rubbed her palm over her forehead as if it was hurting now, looking off in the distance behind me.

I studied her for a minute, wanting to ask her more questions, but also wanting that far-off look of sadness to disappear from her eyes.

Suddenly she looked back at me. "Will you tell me what you're building down by the river in your free time?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Have you been watching me, Morning Glory?" I grinned, but her eyes widened and she looked down, as if she'd just been caught. I laughed. "Eden, I'm kidding. Is it okay if I call you Eden?"

She looked up at me and laughed a small laugh, too, but then went serious. "Yes, of course." She looked down and then back up at me. "And I do watch you sometimes," she whispered and then looked away. "I'm sorry. It's very rude . . . how much I . . . watch you."

My heart did something strange in my chest and I just stared at her for a minute. This beautiful, quiet girl—the blessed one—had been watching me? I didn't know what to say to her, so I opted for simply explaining my project. I cleared my throat. "Uh, I'm building an irrigation system. All this carting water in jugs and containers seems really . . . time consuming when there could be an easier way." I sat up. "I actually read about it in a fiction book I can't remember the name of now. I mean, you know, before Hector banned fictional books. But it's not like it came with directions or anything, so it's a matter of figuring it out. I think I've got it though. And if it works, it could water all the crops in about half the time. I'm hoping it will mean a spot on the council for me."