"Why don't you draw something first?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and started again. "You sure?"
I laughed. "Yes."
Calder chuckled. "Okay. Hey, how about this? How about we do both at once? I'll draw and give a lesson at the same time. I can multitask like that. You feel free to ask any question you want."
I tilted my head. "Okay, if you're sure that won't distract you."
He shook his head. "No. Remember, I'm used to drawing under my desk while listening to a lecture."
I laughed. "All right then."
He scooted until his back was against a rock and he was mostly in the shade, and leaned forward to grab the charcoal pencils and the pad. Then he brought his knees up and leaned the pad of paper against them.
"First tell me what you know."
I know I love you and you're the most beautiful boy I've ever seen.
I looked down, ashamed I didn't know much. I cleared my throat. "I know how to read. And that's really all."
I looked up to find his pencil still and see him studying me. "No math? No science?"
I shook my head again, scooting back so I was leaning against a rock, too.
Calder started sketching again. "Okay. So we'll start with the basics then."
And so we sat there as he sketched, and he taught me the basics of mathematics, addition and subtraction. I caught on quickly. Somewhere in my memory, I knew I had begun learning this before. It was hazy and unclear like all of my memories before this place. If I closed my eyes, I remembered a smell—like cleaning products and chalk—and I remembered being happy in that place, a school probably. But that was all I could muster.
After an hour or so, Calder set his pad down. "You'll be up to speed in no time," he said.
"Why exactly are you doing this?" I gestured my hand toward the paper. "I mean, other than for the exchange? Hector wouldn't approve of it, and we could both be punished. Why are you taking this risk?"
Calder studied me for a few seconds and then looked away, out at the spring. He bit his full bottom lip and his brow creased. Finally, he looked back at me and said, "Xander talks to the workers at the ranger station at the entrance to the state park a few miles from here."
I was surprised. We were strongly encouraged not to engage with other members of the "big society" where wickedness, evil, and imbalance prevailed. Except for the council members who worked, and Hector who went on pilgrimages when the gods ordained it, no one else had any reason or desire to venture from Acadia. Aside from the main lodge, we were totally self-sufficient, reliant on no one other than ourselves.
"He does?"
Calder nodded. "He's formed friendships with a few of them. When we were kids, we used to steal from the station. Or rather, Xander did the stealing; I just did the partaking. Anyway, a couple years back, he got caught red-handed. Only, instead of turning him in, the woman who caught him asked him what he liked best of all the things he was taking. He told her, and now sometimes she brings candy and other things just out of kindness." He looked away again, thinking. "I don't think every single person out in the big society is wicked and evil, Eden. Maybe some are, maybe most. I don't know. But, the point is, I don't think Hector's completely right about that." He shrugged. "And if he's not right about that, maybe he's not right about a few other things, too—like the fact that you shouldn't have an education. I know the gods talk to him, but he's also human."
We sat there, looking at each other silently. The small waterfall next to us provided gentle splashing sounds, and somewhere far away, a dog barked.
"It's why I have to get a place on the council," he said quietly. "I have to see what's out there, Eden. No matter how much time we have before the floods, I just have to know."
My heart was beating fast, not just because of Calder's closeness, but because talk like this simply wasn't done, at least as far as I had ever known. Something stirred deep inside of me, seeming to come to life.
"You trust me," I said, knowing he wouldn't have told me what he did if that wasn't the case.
He nodded once. "I started trusting you a long time ago."
Warmth and a fierce feeling of pride filled my chest. Being trusted by Calder Raynes made me feel more special than I'd ever felt in my whole life. "My parents were kind," I said. "I remember so little of them, but that's one thing I know. They were kind."
"Will you tell me about them?" Calder asked, very gently.
I sighed, struggling to remember. "They were both blond." I took a piece of my own hair between my fingers and then let it fall. "Surprising, right?" I smiled and so did Calder. "And um, my mother, she smelled like flowers." I closed my eyes and inhaled as my mind conjured up her sweet, delicate scent. When I opened my eyes a minute later, Calder's head was tilted as he watched me, and his eyes looked darker somehow. I swallowed.
"What else?" he whispered.
"I think my dad did some kind of work with other people's money. And my mom, she didn't work, at least not that I recall. We lived in Cincinnati, I do know that." I shrugged. "I know they were good friends with Hector. I remember him being in our home. I remember my mother telling me we were coming to live with him. Here I'm assuming. But then . . . they were gone, and it was only Hector and me in a different house for a long time, years maybe. That's it. I've tried so hard to remember more from the time before, but it simply won't come. And I was young, I suppose."