The mandelbroccoli bushes got shorter and wilder until they blended in with the forest. Laurie didn’t know where she was or where she was going. But she knew how to get there. At least, she hoped she did. By now it was late afternoon and the shadows were getting longer.
The trees of the forest were large oaks and maple, with an occasional pine or spruce. There were a number of saplings and bushes of various sorts. It was hard to see far because of all the leaves, but walking was easy enough if she skirted the spruce and berry bushes.
“Chirrrup!”
Laurie’s heart started pounding. More Jargon? How many? Where?
“Chirrrup!”
No running this time. She walked toward the noise as quietly as she could. It seemed to be behind a large tree. No, not a Jargon. It was . . . a squirrel. An ordinary squirrel. It yelled what were probably very nasty things in Squirrel, then ran up the tree to safety. And that tree! She recognized it. It was the big tree behind her house, at the edge of the woods . . .
Laurie was home.
* * *
Lying in her own bed after a hot bath made Laurie feel happy and tired. As far as her mother knew, Laurie had been gone only an hour or two. To Laurie, though, it felt like at least a week since she’d gotten lost in the woods. She was too sleepy to think about it. She hoped Xor had gotten his wish and was learning how to blend in. She was sad that she didn’t get to see her new friends again. She had promised to come back . . . after delivering . . . delivering that letter . . .
Two seconds later, she was out of bed and tearing open the plain white envelope.
Hi, kiddo. If you’re reading this letter, you’ve figured out who it was for. I wasn’t sure the Garden would actually work, and I don’t like good-byes.
You helped us build the Network. We couldn’t have done it without you. Fresnel says once you learn a few things and unlearn some others, you’ll make a good Composer.
See you around,
capt. Winsome “Losesome” Trapp
She read it twice before she noticed that Winsome’s last name was Trapp. It made sense. For all of the sour things Winsome had said about Colonel Trapp, they were a lot alike, sending strange messages and bossing people around. It looked like Laurie wasn’t the only one who had trouble getting along with her parents.
She lay down again and thought about tomorrow. Tomorrow was the first day of summer school. It didn’t sound as scary as it did before. If she could navigate the Byzantine Process, beat Ponens and Tollens, make infinite strings, and teach turtles to build towers, sitting in a classroom didn’t sound that hard at all.
She might even learn something interesting.
The End