Inez walked away, lighting a new cigarette, and heading towards the field with the three lemon trees. Rey took his cell-phone out of his pocket and checked the time readying himself to call Isabel. Christy wondered where Inez was going and turned to Rey to see if he was thinking the same thing. Moments later, a Bell Jetranger helicopter, blue and white, descended, roaring loudly beyond the trees. Branches flailed wildly. Leaves and pine needles flew off the trees. Rey’s heart beat fast. Alexa Bartlett employed a mercenary organization, owned a pharmaceutical company, a school, and even a helicopter. Christy and he needed help.
On Friday, Isabel had drove Rey home after Christy’s. She had asked him if he had fun and he had nodded disinterested. Now, he sat in the car covered in pine needles thinking about the night after he had run through the woods from Huxley, Der, and Joe and didn’t tell Isabel about it. Things were even more tense now. But reaching out to Isabel wasn’t only the right thing to do, the ninth grade was in over its head, and maybe for the birth certificate that said Adele Naresh on it, Isabel had an understandable explanation. As they pulled into their garage at Lighthouse Point, Rey decided he’d make an effort.
As he took off his wet socks, Isabel closed the apartment door. “So it’s been a few days,” Rey said.
Isabel put her jacket on a hook, a hard look in her eyes.
“When we were driving to Christy’s you said you’d show me the letter in a few days.”
“I heard you.” She took off her shoes and turned to see Rey with questions in his eyes. She sighed. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. But you have to open up to me to. It’s a two person problem.”
Rey walked over to the dining table and sat down. He decided he’d tell Isabel everything about the events of the past several months. Isabel walked into the kitchen and emerged with a toaster. She put it on the dining table and plugged it in.
“You should feel free to fill in details as I go. When you were in fifth grade, two men came to see me. They sat here when you were at school and I offered them something to drink.”
“What did they say?”
“Well, their ID’s said they were police officers. So I listened.” Isabel pushed the lever on the toaster down. “A powerful woman was conducting an experiment on the ninth grade at Pemota High. That’s what they told me.”
Rey nodded. “Her name is Alexa Bartlett.”
“You’ve met this woman?”
Rey shook his head. “Well, sort of. I heard her on the other end of a phone call.”
“They said it had to do with brain functioning and a girl they believe was psychic in 1975.”
“The girl’s name is Spring Stone.”
“I worried about your academic and social life. That’s why
I’ve been asking me about drugs. And grades, and whatever else I could think of. I told myself I’d keep silent until the end of the school year if everything seemed to be going fine.”
Rey took a deep breath and asked the question. “What about the birth certificate?”
“They gave me the birth certificate. They didn’t tell me why. They said to keep it until they contacted me. It convinced me of their importance. But there is no one named Adele Naresh. I am your mother.”
“That’s what Aba told me. Pretty much.”
“So you want to tell me what you know?”
Rey didn’t know where to start. He told Isabel everything he could. Aba and Frank Brule. Inez Castel. Brianna Lane. He skipped some details such as the house with the turret. Or Huxley, Der, and Joe tattooing Viola Specks. Isabel listened attentively.
“You want to tell me why you’re covered in pine needles?”
“We met Inez in the woods. There’s a big clearing with three lemon trees.” Then he told her what he could about the medication, the plans to change what the chemical meant to the brain.
“So Aba wasn’t psychic?”
“No. It’s all about this girl named Spring Stone and the Avocadites. According to Spring, an Avocadite is someone who’s bitter because they forget the garden.”
“And you think this chemical is capable of doing that?”
“I don’t know what garden she means. But it seems that way, yeah.” Rey lifted his shoulders and let them drop. Telling Isabel everything felt like a relief.
Isabel put her hand beside the toaster oven. There was a sound between her and the toaster like a fan. Then something extraordinary happened. The sound began to fade away like a volume dial being turned down. After five seconds, there was no sound.
She turned to him, smiling slightly. “And I feel better.”
“Maybe that means Spring feels better.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet. You said there was a letter right?”
She stood up abruptly and went upstairs, returning with a leather box a little bigger than a box of checks. She took a key chain out of her pocket, shuffled through the keys, until she came to one smaller than the others. “I told them I wouldn’t open it until the end of the year. Here’s to breaking free.” She put the key in the lock and turned. Then she withdrew a jewelry box and a letter in an envelope.
Rey snatched the jewelry box up. It was velvet blue with a gold seam. He opened it to reveal a blue stone that had needle like rays on top that followed the underlying crystal structure. “What do you think this is worth?” Rey asked.
“Not sure I want to know to be honest,” Isabel responded. “Shall we read the letter?”
“Go for it,” Rey said.
Isabel withdrew the letter. It was typed in blue ink on professional stationary. There was no return address.
Dear Rey and Isabel,
My name is Alexa Bartlett. I am a Russian entrepreneur and humanitarian. Over the past forty-five years I have perfected and set in motion events to bring about a new face on humanity – a humanity where intelligence, high-minded values, talent, individualism, and goal seeking become common-place and expected. My pharmaceutical company is called Preston. Our mission is to instill these characteristics in people all over the globe beginning in ninth grade.
For decades, I have observed ninth graders in classrooms, social interactions, and intellectual pursuits. Albert Einstein told us that, “The most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the Universe a friendly place?’” The problem is that most people decide sometime around ninth grade that it is not.
This brings us to Spring Stone, the most extraordinary ninth grader I have had the privilege of meeting. Spring was a student of mine in 1975. She died that year. Because of her we’ve discovered a way to manufacture a neurotransmitter that is now in the minds of the ninth grade at Pemota High. My fondest memory of Spring was giving me a avocado every day before class. I will always cherish the days, when I received an avocado from Spring.
If you’re reading this it means Isabel has taken matters into her own hands. The stone is called a Star Sapphire. It is worth a little over a million dollars. Follow my instructions and it is all yours. I had your teacher assign you to bring in your birth certificate for show and tell in sixth grade. If my deductions are correct that means you are now an Avocadite. Therefore, you are a candidate to put in a small amount of effort for possession of the million dollar Star Sapphire. You will have to spend a period of time remaining bitter.
There is a home in the woods near Pemota High based on a drawing Spring did. I built it to serve as a domicile for you. You will need to eat lemons from the three lemon trees while the medication goes global. The medication will influence the lives of ninth graders everywhere. If no one is bitter the neurotransmitter will cease to function. Therefore, you will be the established Avocadite as we change the emotions of the ninth graders. After that, the Star Sapphire is all yours. Einstein said, “Only a life lived for others is worth living.” Your life will be of the utmost importance to us all.