Chapter 5

The Dallas Arboretum was crowded that warm April afternoon. The flowers were all in full bloom. Tommy marveled at all the assorted colors that caught the eye. He led Jeremiah by the hand all over the grounds, fascinated by all the different varieties he observed. Jeremiah could hardly believe the energy within the other boy. He knew that Tommy brimmed with excitement because he loved flowers, but he did not conceive it would spark so much life in the child. He laughed at Tommy's antics throughout the first part of the afternoon.

Those energies quickly waned, though, as Susan knew they would. The wheelchair accompanied Tommy for exactly that reason. Jeremiah had obliged his shoulders to Tommy for about an hour, but then he began to grow sore and had to stop. When the two of them approached the bus, Robert stood waiting with the wheelchair ready.

Jeremiah lowered Tommy into the wheelchair. "Thanks a lot, Robert."

Robert gave them a slow-witted grin. "You boys look like you are having lots of fun." He shuffled his feet as he spoke. "Tommy's a whole lots tired. Sure hopes he do not get terrible sick again. I cried a whole lots when he went to the doctor place. I thought they was going to take him away likes they did my Momma."

Jeremiah looked up into Robert's half-glazed eyes. The man stood tall, almost six-two, and built like a tackle for a football team. He looked as if he could crush anyone who approached him. The sharp lines of his face gave away the dominant lineage in his genetic heritage. If he ever scowled at anyone and dispensed with his ever-present grin, he would have resembled the fiercest Cherokee warrior. His hair betrayed his ancestry though, for it did not exhibit the coarse, black of a Native American, rather a fine, straight blonde.

"Tommy went to a good hospital." Jeremiah wiped the sweat from his forehead. "They saved his life. I doubt he will have to go again soon. I looked it up on the computer in class. You only get appendicitis once in your life."

"Oh." Robert sighed with relief. "I'm glad 'cause I likes Tommy."

"So do I." Jeremiah walked around behind the wheelchair to push Tommy. "Miss Susan is waiting on us. Are you coming with us, Robert?"

"No." Robert laughed. "I'm supposed to stays here at the bus. Bye, Tommy."

Tommy waved his hand wearily. He seemed glad to be sitting down at last. Nearly comfortable, sleep threatened to steal the rest of his day from him, but he refused to let it overpower him. He still had more lovely plants to investigate. He enjoyed watching the butterflies chase through the azaleas and the birds landing on a branch nearby to gaze at him in a whimsical manner. A blue jay caught his eye as it flew in front of them. He urged Jeremiah to follow it, smiling as it flew haphazardly after a fleeing grasshopper.

Jeremiah wheeled him down a path through rows of multicolored rose bushes. The aroma of them wafted over the path and assaulted the boys' sense of smell with pleasing results. Pushing the wheelchair seemed much easier than carrying Tommy and Jeremiah felt his energy returning quickly. The afternoon lunch crowds were slowly growing scarce, and as they wheeled deeper into the rose gardens, they soon found themselves alone.

“You want to stop here for a moment?” Jeremiah had found a perfect spot with a bench he could stretch out and look up at the sky. He pushed Tommy close to the bench and then lay down. “Have you ever imagined shapes in the clouds?”

Tommy frowned in confusion.

Jeremiah pointed up at a particular cloud. “See that one there? It looks like an upside-down teddy bear.” He smiled at Tommy. “Do you see it?”

Tommy looked up at the cloud Jeremiah had pointed out. He frowned for a moment, for all he could see were clumps of wispy white cloud. Then he leaned over the side of his chair and turned his head down in a manner that caused Jeremiah to laugh. To his delight, he could see the teddy bear, and he smiled with great enthusiasm.

“I wish you could tell me what you see.” Jeremiah gazed back up at the clouds. “Tomorrow you can draw pictures for me of what you found in the clouds. Deal?”

Tommy nodded.

“Sometimes…if you wait long enough…the clouds will change into something else.” Jeremiah pointed to another cloud. “That one looked like a clown hat a moment ago. Now it looks like an enormous piece of pizza.”

Tommy could grasp the pizza for a moment as it floated by. A gentle breeze caused leaves to skitter across the path. He took his attention away from Jeremiah and the clouds and looked down at the leaves as they chased each other in a whimsical dance. A robin landed at the edge of the path to pluck a worm from the ground. He laughed silently as the tiny bird had to flit about to pull the worm out. He watched as the robin finally won its prize and flew up to a branch on a rose bush to swallow the worm.

Tommy stared at the deep crimson rose gracing the end of the branch. He did not notice when the robin flew away. In a far place in the back of his mind, he could hear the screams of tortured children. If he could have done it, he would have pushed the memory back where it belonged. The rose held him transfixed not by its beauty but by its dark secret to his past.

Tommy suddenly gripped the handles of his wheelchair and began to breathe in and out extremely hard. His knuckles turned white as he started to look about him wildly. Jeremiah had not noticed anything wrong until he noticed Tommy shifting violently in the chair. He stood up and raced around the front of the chair to confront Tommy. The younger boy's eyes were wide with terror as he stared at the rose.

"Tommy!" Jeremiah spoke sharply, hoping to bring Tommy back to his senses. "What's wrong?"

Tommy remained in a world all his own. Shadow visions formed from the depths of his memories. They were things he could not explain. The bushes appeared to move in on him. He saw the long thorny limbs reaching out into the path to entrap them. An invisible danger loomed ominously nearby. The colors were fading from the petals, replaced by the black color of death. Bright red droplets of blood dripped from dangerously long thorns.

Jeremiah felt scared. He could not bring Tommy out of the delirium. He tried to shake the little boy, but it would not work. He looked up and around for an adult. It struck him as odd that no one else walked with them on the path. They were alone. He looked back to Tommy who cried as he weakened.

Jeremiah suddenly sensed the danger. He stood upright and looked all around him. He had the feeling that someone watched them from an unseen place. Then he realized that something about the rose bushes frightened Tommy, for he sensed something dangerous lurking within them. He could not say for sure what it was, but he did not wish to remain on the path any longer. Tommy had partially regained some of his senses when exhaustion overpowered him.

"Who’s out there?" Jeremiah kept looking around. He still felt like someone unseen watched them. “I’m warning you! I know self-defense!”

Tommy tugged on Jeremiah’s sleeve.

"I’m here to protect you. Cover your eyes until we get out. I'll tell you when." Jeremiah spoke reassuringly. "I'll get us out of here as quickly as possible."

Tommy put his palms up to his eyes. Jeremiah walked around the back of the wheelchair and started to push Tommy when movement in the bushes beside him caught his eyes. He glanced about at it, his heart hammering in his chest. There was no way it could have moved. It was a plant. He could not suppress his fear, though.

Jeremiah turned and started to push Tommy back down the path. The bushes began to rustle and shake as they passed by. Jeremiah panicked and began to run with Tommy as fast as he could go. The rustling of the bushes followed them and grew in intensity. The wheelchair shuddered violently. He could not remember so many curves in the path and several times he thought they were about to be cut off.

When Jeremiah glanced back over his shoulder to make sure that no one followed them, the front wheel caught on a crack in the pavement, stopping the chair suddenly. Tommy pitched forward, fortunately into newly tilled soil that softened his fall. Jeremiah stumbled over the wheelchair and landed hard on his knee on the pavement. He quickly rolled upright, uttering an expletive as he favored the knee.

“Tommy!”

Jeremiah stood up and limped over to the younger boy. Tommy weakly pushed up from the dirt, spitting out some that had entered his mouth. Jeremiah knelt, feeling ashamed he had caused harm. He thought for sure that Tommy would be angry, but Tommy surprised him again by clutching tightly to him. Still, unsure of how he should react, Jeremiah slowly stood up with Tommy and limped back toward the wheelchair. When he cast a wary eye back toward the rose garden, everything seemed normal.

"What happened to you boys?" Susan cried.

Jeremiah nearly jumped out of his skin at her sudden appearance. “Miss Susan!”

"I began to get worried about the two of you." She looked the boys over and quickly assessed their situation. "What was it that frightened you?"

Tommy clenched Jeremiah's hand. Jeremiah hated to lie to Miss Susan. She had been too nice to him. He intended to tell her about the roses when he noticed Martin dusting off his sleeves. An incriminating rose petal floated to the ground.

"We were afraid we had gotten lost. We had to go back to the bus and get the wheelchair from Robert." Jeremiah bit his lower lip.

Susan smiled as she carefully looked them both over. "Well, you shouldn’t run with the wheelchair. It was not designed for speed. The two of you looked like you were running from a ghost! Fortunate for both of you that Tommy landed in the dirt. He is a bit filthy, but Martin will take care of that later. Now let us go to the others. They have been waiting for some time."

Susan took over pushing Tommy to give Jeremiah a break. She took them down another path full of azaleas in bloom that opened onto a lush green area. The trees provided a cool canopy of shade over several picnic tables. The children impatiently waited for their arrival.

A blue and white cake sat in the middle of the table where the children gathered. Nine candles burned on top of it. Tommy could hardly believe his eyes. They wheeled him around the head of the table with children on either side of him. He frowned in confusion, for he had never encountered a birthday before. He stared at the cake that had his name on it and then looked at Sarah with the same perplexed frown. She smiled at him.

"I looked through your files and found out that today is your real birthday, April Fifth. You are actually nine years old today." Susan could not contain her good cheer. "This is a surprise birthday party all for you. Okay, children... Let's all sing happy birthday to Tommy."

Tommy listened tearfully as they began to sing to him, for he had never had anything done solely for him. He hugged Susan several times, as the others sang. He did not care if some of them could not carry a tune. He knew in his heart they meant well. He smiled at all of them after he wiped his eyes. After the song ended, he drew in as much breath as he could and then blew out only part of his candles. Jeremiah helped him blow out the rest.

"I hope you get your wish." Susan took the cake to another table to begin cutting off pieces for the children.

Tommy forgot his troubles for a while and enjoyed the company of the other children. They began to realize he was not so terrible. Some of them ventured forth to hug him. Susan brought forth a gift to give him. Another surprise left him in joyful tears. Susan had known how much he liked to draw and had found a child's art set. There were finger paints, watercolors, felt-tipped markers, and a much larger variety of colors than his first collection. He smiled enthusiastically and hugged her with gratitude. It was the happiest day he had in a long time.