Brianna Lane’s room smelled of wood chips and lavender. Behind the door, concealed from Rey and Christy, were thirty-five bottles of Mountain Springs water. She had three posters. One depicted Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain in a bit of abstract art entitled Forever 27. She had a poster of the Stanley Kubrick film Lolita, the Salvador Dali painting “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus,” and she had wall to wall fashion ads from a magazine called Lights Up surrounding the posters. The furniture was dark oak. Casey, her gerbil, was in a cage on her bureau.
“Why does your sister like the movie Lolita?” Rey asked.
“She likes the book, I know,” Christy said. “I’ve never asked her about the movie.”
Rey took in the rest of the room. “Forever 27,” he read quietly. “Where’s the gerbil?”
“Right there,” she pointed to the bureau. “Rey, I know what you’re thinking. It will kill my sister’s gerbil.”
Rey sat on the bed. “Frank Brule said that he gets weekly injections.”
“But wasn’t that part of some random story?” Christy sat on the chair in front of Brianna’s desk.
“He was trying to tell me something. He said sometimes these feelings come over him and he says things, but he doesn’t know why. I say we inject the gerbil with the fluid and put it on the Ouija Board.”
“Rey, if my sister comes home and finds her gerbil dead, my Mom will ground me for a year and force me to see an exorcist.”
“How old is it?” Rey walked over to the cage and lifted the lid.
“She’s had it for like two years.”
“How long do they live?”
“Three years tops.”
“It won’t die.” Rey put his fingers in front of Casey’s face and the gerbil nibbled on them. “We’ll inject it with a little.”
Christy sighed. “Rey, we can’t.”
Rey turned around and noticed the bottles of Mountain Springs water behind the door for the first time. They had off white paper in the middle and Mountain Springs written in cursive font. On the back of the label was a promotional blurb about Mountain Springs. Rey walked over and picked up one of the bottles.
“Christy, your sister knows what’s going on.”
“I know.”
“What do you think about what she said, a girl in the ninth grade who’s seeing things. That sounded like Annette.” Rey put the bottle in his front pocket. “I’m going to take one. I bet I can get it analyzed.”
“Also, I don’t get why Brianna would be talking to Ms. Parker in the hallway. My sister hates Ms. Parker.”
Rey took a breath trying to quell his nerves. He stood there staring into space. Then something within him pushed him, forced the words out, and he found himself telling Christy everything about Brianna’s visit to Ms. Parker’s class. He walked over to the bed, and put his head on his hand, looking at Christy’s open-mouthed expression.
“I couldn’t tell you. I mean I am telling you, but I didn’t think I should because I knew you’d get mad.”
“I am mad, Rey.”
“Christy you can’t say anything. Ms. Parker said that we’re going to pretend to go along with it and if you do anything Ms. Parker will get fired.”
Christy took a deep breath. “Fine.” Christy walked over to the gerbil and picked it up with both hands. “Casey’s in for a strange awakening.”
Meanwhile, Rey took the bottle of water out of his pocket and turned it over to read the back of the label: Mountain Springs is as cool and refreshing as a shot of cold air from the Pemota Canyon Mountains. Produced in Pemota, California, Mountain Springs will remind you of the pure taste and exhilaration of water after a long run. Enjoy.
“I guess I should have read the label before drinking it,” Rey said. “It’s from Pemota.”
“I’ve never heard of a company in Pemota that bottles water. Come on.” They left Brianna’s room, Christy holding the gerbil, and Rey examining the bottle.
They walked down the hallway, and Christy opened her door. Rey put the bottle of water on the bed and withdrew the vile of purple fluid from his backpack. “When Frank handed me the syringe, he said, ‘I’d be a real trooper.’ What else could he mean?” Rey said.
“Rey, it’s because he injected himself with it, and he thinks you should too,” Christy said.
“Maybe.” Then he reached into another compartment and withdrew the syringe. “All right,” he said. “Should we put it in some water?”
“Probably,” Christy said. She took a mug off her desk which read: “My Sisters an Alien.” Brianna had gotten her it for her birthday last year. Christy had said that she would keep it as a reminder. “Let’s use this,” Rey said, holding up the Mountain Springs bottle. He poured an inch of Mountain Springs into the mug. He placed the mug on the corner of the Ouija Board, then handed Christy the vile. He injected the purple fluid into the water, waiting to see if it would dissolve. It did. After thirty seconds passed, the purple fluid was no longer purple. It looked like water alone.
“Weird,” Rey said.
Then he plunged the rest of the purple fluid back into the vile and placed the vile in his backpack. Christy was holding Casey, watching him as if in a trance. “Be careful,” she said. “Don’t inject very much.”
They placed the gerbil on the Ouija Board and Rey wondered where to inject it.
“Inject it anywhere,” Christy said. “Try here.”
Rey did so. Casey perked up, eyes wide. Rey pushed the plunger slowly.
“Jeez,” Christy said. “That’s enough. I mean its brain is the size of a pea.”
They watched Casey lift his head up and stare blank eyed as if frozen. Then he started to move. “Do you think it’s working?” Rey asked.
Christy put Casey in the center of the board. “Ask a question,” she said.
“Casey, tell us the answers to the mystery at Pemota High,” Rey said.
Casey ran over to the M and hoped on it with his two front paws. Then it ran over to the Y and hoped on it. The gerbil continued to run and stamp his two front paws down on one letter after another. Christy grabbed a notepad and pen off the nightstand. She watched spellbound, writing carefully. Several minutes passed. It was four sentences long. Christy looked down at the pad when the gerbil finally stood still.
“What's it say?” Rey asked.
Christy read slowly. “My names Spring. Spring Stone. It's great to meet you guys. I've been watching everything you've done since the beginning of the school year.” Christy looked up at Rey.
Rey smiled.
Casey began running and hoping again. Rey got up and locked the door. Christy wrote frantically as the gerbil ran from one end of the Ouija Board to another, prancing from one letter to another like it was dancing. Again, several minutes passed. Finally, Casey stopped, stood still.
Christy read from the pad. “On Sunday, you'll hear about functionalism. You guys probably don't know what that is. No offense. Most people don’t. But what you need to know is the brain is a mysterious thing. The Avocadonine you are holding in your hand is a neurotransmitter. You’ve heard of serotonin and dopamine. Or medications that find their way to the brain and effect neurotransmitters. Well, the Avocadonine is just like that. But it’s me. I can perceive everything that happens. It’s like I’m psychic.”
“How?” Christy said. Casey ran again, hopped, and spelled out a short sentence. “I just sense it,” Christy read from the pad.
“Can you control us?” Rey asked. They stared at Casey waiting for a response but Casey was standing still. Then Rey lifted up his hand and smacked himself in the face, hard. “Ow.”
The gerbil was on the move again. Christy wrote carefully, being sure not to misinterpret any of Casey's hops. Then she read. “That's for not telling Christy about Brianna.”
Christy laughed, but Rey did not. Rey wanted to cut to the chase. He asked it as if choosing his wo
rds carefully. “What's an Avocadite?”
Christy read from the pad after Casey had spelled it. “It's someone who forgets the garden. They become bitter and eat lemons.”
“Who is gonna eat lemons?” Rey asked.
Casey spelled and Christy read, “No one. Yet.” Christy and Rey looked at each other, eyebrows furrowed. “Spring, we're confused,” Christy said.
Again, Casey ran and hopped. Christy wrote. What they could gleam at this point was that the Avocadonine Frank Brule had given Rey was a chemical that effects the brain and is also Spring herself. But that left a million unanswered questions. “Well, this should help clear things up,” Christy read. Someone knocked on the door to Christy's bedroom. “Who is it?” Christy asked.
The door knob shook. “Christy, what's going on in there?” Radelle asked.
“Mom, we're just doing the Ouija Board,” Christy said.
Radelle paused, apparently thinking. “You got a letter today. I forgot to tell you.”
Christy looked at Rey. “Huhn. Okay. Slide it under the door.”
Radelle slid the envelope under the door. Rey stood up and snatched it up. He looked at the return address.
Aba Brule
39 Dean Martin Dr.
Las Vegas, Nevada, 89103
“It's from Aba Brule,” Rey said, incredulously.
“It's okay this time, Christy,” Radelle said. “But I don't want the door locked from now on.”
“All right, Mom.” Christy looked at Rey and rolled her eyes.
Rey opened the envelope. He pulled out a newspaper clipping, and a letter.
“Read it,” Christy said.
The letter was written in long hand, clearly and carefully.
Dear Rey,
I hope this letter is a welcome surprise. If Spring was right, you are staring at a gerbil on a Ouija Board right now. I knew Spring when she was a student at Bartlett’s School for the Gifted. That’s Alexa Bartlett, who owns the school and a pharmaceutical company. Alexa is a billionaire and a warped mind and soul. She is intent on warping the minds of the ninth graders. And you will have to stop her.
It will probably be disappointing to you, but I am not psychic. The gerbil on a Ouija Board is a check point on the journey you’re on. If Spring is right, and if we win, you will see all three check points come to fruition. The neurotransmitter in your hand is called L-95. Or as Claudette Laurie and Alexa are calling it: Avocadonine. Claudette Laurie started a rumor about a list of Avocadites. It is our job to help the future Avocadites remember the garden. I leave you with a quote from Rilke -- “Live your questions now, and perhaps someday without knowing it, you will live along into your answers.” Good luck.
Your friend,
Aba Brule
“So much for 'there's a girl in the ninth grade that's seeing things and spreading some crazy rumors,'” Christy said.
“Yeah,” Rey said, nodding. “Not sure I like the sound of this.”
“Read the article.”
Rey pulled out a newspaper article, written in one column, with no indication as to where it came from. The headline was “Track Star Doesn’t Go to State Championships.”