The Devil's Elixir

41

They were back in Balboa Park—Tess, Alex, and Jules, wandering across the plaza, hordes of people all around them, out making the most of another gorgeous Californian scorcher and taking in the wealth of attractions the park had to offer.

Tess hadn’t found any psychologists in the area called Dean. So she’d given up and decided Alex could use another excursion, this time to the Air and Space Museum.

They left Jules’s Ford Explorer in the lot behind the Starlight Theatre, and as they walked alongside a bank of colorful flowers that bordered the walkway, Tess’s mind drifted back to her chat with Alex’s teacher and the flower that kills. Her first thought when she’d heard it was that it had to come out of some cartoon Alex watched, maybe something some dastardly alien with a Dr. Evil laugh was trying to unleash on an unsuspecting world, only to be thwarted right in the nick of time by Ben and his wondrous Omnitrix. But here she was, still thinking about it and wondering why her earlier easy dismissal of it wasn’t staying down for the count.

“Alex, do you remember that flower you drew for your teacher, in the park? The white one?”

He nodded, not really interested. “Uh-huh.”

“Where did you see it? Was it in the park?”

“No.”

“Where then?”

He slid her a curious sideways glance. “I don’t know . . . I just . . . I know it.”

“But you said something about it. Do you remember?”

He nodded.

She stopped and crouched down so her face was level with his, and put her arm softly on his shoulder. “Tell me why it’s special.”

He stared at her like he was sussing her out, then said, “It can fix people. But it kills them. So it’s not good.” He paused, then he added, “I told them that.”

“Who, Alex? Who’d you tell that to?”

“People. Brooks, and the others. But they didn’t like it.” Tess felt completely lost by his words—then something behind her seemed to catch his eye and his face lit up like a bank of stadium floodlights. “Look!”

Tess followed the direction his little finger was pointing in. Up ahead was the Air and Space Museum, with two sleek fighter planes flanking its entrance. Alex slipped out of Tess’s grasp and scampered off.

She couldn’t compete with that.

She glanced at Jules, shrugged, and they both trotted off behind him.

The murderous flowers would have to wait.