Page 18 of The Infinite Glade
Old Man Frypan leaned forward. “Sorry about your friend . . .”
Cian scoffed, “She wasn’t afriend. The girl’s right. She was a thief, a liar, and a murderer. But we needed her. Everyone in the sequencefrom the highest to the lowest levels needed her.” He started pacing again, throwing those arms up and down, but this time he was practically stomping.
Ximena’s face flushed as she stepped back into the light of the fire. “She was a liar for sure.” She moved her head with Cian’s movements, back and forth. “But I doubt anyoneneededher.”
Erros brushed hair from his forehead. “She did everything she could to protect generations and generations of families . . .”
The heat from Ximena’s head flushed down her body and into her gut, the place where Abuela taught her all her power and intuition lives. “She destroyed families. Prevented generations. You obviously didn’t know her that well.” She couldn’t sit or stand still with all the anger she felt moving inside of her, she needed to walk it out. She’d hike up the coast and sleep in the daylight. Anything to get Kletter out of her mind.
“Ximena, please don’t leave . . .” Isaac said. He was too soft, too kind, and the world didn’t deserve someone like him. He would have been better off back in the safety of the Villa’s glass pod or better yet, the island he grew up on. Those islanders should never have believed anything Annie Kletter said, and they of all people should be more upset about how she upended all of their lives.
“Ximena, stay. Please.” Isaac was practically begging, but she already stayed longer than she should have. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to these two tell you a story as ifshewere some hero for the world.”
“Travel safe . . .” Jackie said with snark. “Might want to have your knife out in case you run into any Cranks . . .”
“Yeah anyway, you’re the one withherknife,” Erros said, insinuating that Ximena was either close with Annie, or killed her. Ximena didn’t think the anger inside of her could move any faster, but Erros’ comment had her feet marching over to him before she even knew what she was doing.
Within seconds Ximena stood face-to-face with a seated Erros and placed one hand on her holstered knife. Kletter’s knife. “I lifted it from her dead, decomposing body, and I’ll lift your weapon from yours one day too, if I have to.” She took only a moment to look at Erros’ crossbow and back at him again to make her point clear. “And saying she protected generations?” She pointed back to Isaac, Frypan, and even Jackie. “Kletter single-handedly messed up their generation and endedallfuture generations in my Village.” That righteous anger boiled inside Ximena, and her second-sight grew louder and louder.La verdad quedará enterrada. Extraños nos enterraran. The truth will remain buried and strangers will put us in the ground.Ximena was a seed that not even Kletter could bury, and she wouldn’t let Cian and Erros put her in the ground either.
“Those people aren’t buried . . .” Cian said.
Ximena froze as she turned to leave.What?She turned around so fast she could have started a fire with the twigs and leaves under her feet. “Why did you use that word?” She had only ever known her Abuela to perceive what she was thinking, but it was based on her grandmother knowing her so well, knowing the small movements of Ximena’s eyebrows when she was excited or how her chin tightened when she was nervous. “Why did you say that? Buried.”
“It’s not your mind I’m reading. It’s your frequency.” Erros took a deep breath.
“What’re you talking about?” Jackie asked, but Ximena wouldn’t waste time explaining things to Jackie who was bent on misunderstanding her. If Abuela were there with her, she would have tried to remind Ximena that not everyone has an inner guidance like she does, and that Isaac, Frypan, and even Jackie would have their own knowing to follow at their own time.
“The thing, her knowing about being buried . . . she said about strangers putting us in the ground . . .” Isaac whispered over to Jackie. “Some kind of curse or something, I think?”
“You’re practiced in this?” Ximena demanded of Cian and in that moment in front of the fire, she felt everyone’s eyes on her, even the eyes of her ancestors who were long gone.
Erros shrugged. “It’s not a practice. All thoughts have frequency.”
“You’re gonna have to say more than that.” Old Man Frypan leaned forward.
Cian took a deep breath. He motioned for Ximena to come back and sit by the fire, an invitation she only accepted because her legs felt like empanada dough. Also, despite the anger burning inside of her and feeling like she wanted to run far away, her inner-knowing was telling her to hear what Cian and Erros had to say. “The Flares didn’t just affect the earth. For obvious reasons, yes, everything changed. But . . .”
Erros picked up where Cian paused. “Didn’t you ever wonderwhyWICKED had set up such elaborate trials, all about the brains?—”
Cian broke in. “Don’t say it like that—their brains. It was their minds. Big difference.”
“Okay.” Erros tried again, “. . . theminds. . . ofthe Gladers?”
The wordGladercaused Jackie, Isaac, and Ximena to look at Frypan one by one.
Frypan cleared his throat. “Every day.” There was silence among the group, just the fire crackling and popping. Ximena knew more than most what Frypan had been through.
“Sorry . . .” Cian said. “We didn’t realize . . .”
“Hey. I’ve got nothing to hide,” Frypan said. “I may be old, but I’m not senile. Not yet, anyhow.”
Cian tossed more wood onto the fire. “The very first Gladers, some of them had telepathy . . .”
“Thomas.” Frypan nodded. “He had an implant. Never found out for sure, but I think we all did.”
Cian ignored his comment completely. “WICKED took credit when they could, but the truth was, everything WICKED did was to map the changes to the brain, I mean mind, and understand how the Flare changed a person’s thoughts into frequency.”
“Thoughts into frequency?” Ximena couldn’t help but repeat the phrase. It rolled off her tongue without her even trying to speak. It felt truer than an eagle landing on a tree. Solid. Perched. A clear view of everything. Thoughtswerefrequency. Why had she never realized that before? A snake-shape of truth-shivers slithered down her back.
