HE RETURNED AFTER hours of waiting. Her nerves
screamed at her to go after him, help him, he may be in trouble, but just as
she was about to abandon the dry hollow where she hid, he appeared.
Sunflower hit him in the
shoulder. “Don’t do that again,” she snarled.
He merely laughed … and held out
a holdall.
Eyes narrowed, she snatched it,
opened it. Oh. Fresh clothes. Toiletries, including pads.
“We can wash in the pond we saw a
way back.” Adin watched her rummage, clearly enjoying her reactions. “But first
…”
She accepted the brown bag he
shook with wiggling eyebrows. Food. Proper stuff-it-in food. Sunflower sat flat
on the stony ground, and stuffed her face. Although cold, it was delicious.
Fries, deep fried fish, pork sausages, savoury tarts, and a yummy chilli dip.
“How?” she asked around filled
cheeks.
“Raided the clothes recycle bin
to look presentable enough, washed up in a toilet in back of the local gas
station, and then went shopping. Got some funny looks for the girl stuff, but
so what?” He peered at her. “Charged my phone at the diner.”
Sunflower stared at him. “You
went online?”
“That’s what took so long, yes.”
“And?”
“Your father put out a fresh
appeal for you on your birthday, but I didn’t find anything else about you.”
Sucking the last of the sauce
from her fingers, she prompted, “Fred?” She still called him Fred, easier to
deal with him, as if he were no more than a character in a play.
“Dug some into Paul Paterson’s
life. Seems he vanished around the time you did, so it’s definitely him. Folks
have the kind of money to put him in that fancy school, but he was the fifth
son, won’t inherit much. The bulk of the estate goes to the oldest.”
“Explains why he took me for
ransom.”
“His folks have a reward out.
They’re looking, as your folks are looking.”
“But he can’t go home, not until
I’m dead.”
Adin nodded.
Sunflower rose to gather the
remains of her meal. “Let’s get to that pond.” As they walked on after
shouldering their gear old and new, she asked, “What are you not telling me?”
“He broke out from an
institution. Committed for some mental disorder. His parents want him found
because they say he is a danger to society.”
Closing her eyes briefly, she
walked on. It explained his odd behaviour. How he taunted her. How he watched
her. Yet, to be truthful, he did not actually hurt her. In some ways he, in
fact, cared for her. Monthly feminine products. New clothes. Books, including
the cookery kind. Sleeping tablets. Cough mixture when she had a chest issue.
It didn’t make sense.
She said as much.
“There’s such a thing as mental
torture,” Adin murmured.
And wasn’t that the truth?
They reached the pond, and as the
first rays of sunshine peered over the towering mountains, Sunflower forewent
everything else to become as clean as she could be, revelling in the rose
scented shampoo Adin had bought for her.
Ever would the smell of roses
bring him to mind.
An orphaned boy searches for a lost girl.
A woman abandons her new-born at a motel in the back of
beyond. Adin grows up unloved, bullied, and no one remembers him. He doesn’t
exist.
Until he sees a poster for a missing girl on a lamppost.
There is an instant connection to little Sunflower, kidnapped for ransom, only
to disappear after the money is paid. He exists because he must find her.
Alone, he searches, a journey that takes him into the wild places, meeting
along the way some interesting characters.
In dreams he speaks to her, for she is the one who will
remember him.
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