Read Online Earth Legend by Florence Witkop - Free Book Online Page A

larger than … " But he never said what was smaller than
my apartment. He just kept backing until he was in the hallway,
where he turned smartly, closed the door, and disappeared.
    I sagged onto the couch and didn't move for
the better part of an hour. Then I paced back and forth. I couldn't
stop. I knew it was nerves and that there was no place to go to for
comfort, no one to talk to. Unless …
    There was someone after all. Wilkes Zander,
the town Mayor and everyone's grandfather. I couldn't tell him why
I was upset but I wouldn't have to. He knew already. We'd talk
around it because we had an unwritten pact never to admit to each
other that I was a stowaway, but he would understand and I needed
someone to understand. So I went in search of a faux grandfather,
thinking that life on the Destiny was one gigantic lie after
another. Fake dirt, fake sky, fake credentials and fake
grandfather. But I was the biggest lie of all.
    I found Wilkes seated on a bench in the town
square. Right beside Cullen Vail. The two were deep in conversation
so I turned to leave until Wilkes Zander called out to me. "Hey,
Elle. Come join us. We were just talking about you."
    I'd have to get used to my throat closing up
every time someone said something that could remotely be
interpreted as knowing what and who I was. Maybe relaxation
techniques would help. Maybe. In the meantime, though, I must join
them or raise suspicion. "I'm kind of busy. Later?"
    Wilkes waved my protests aside and patted the
seat beside him. I didn't dare object and he'd be between Cullen
Vail and myself so I sat. "Cullen says you're a botanist." I nodded
mutely. "You are wasted as a farmer. You should be working in the
greenhouses." I opened my mouth to say something but he shushed me
with a look. "I know you're a great farmer, a wonderful farmer." At
my surprised look, he smiled. "You think I don't know what goes on
around here but I do. I know that you bring in more produce than
anyone else in the area. Possibly more than anyone else on the
Destiny."
    "I try." I licked my lips. Had I forgotten
the cardinal rule in my family and outshone someone else? I should
know better. I did know better. I knew to never call attention to
myself. But I'd tried so hard to fit in that I'd done the opposite.
I'd called attention to myself big time. "The apple trees deserve
all of the credit."
    "It's more than that, Elle, and you know it.
You're talented. You do something that most of us don't. Something
different, I think. Something that only a botanist would know to
do. I'm thinking it's something that should be noticed by those
idiots in charge." He pulled back and examined me closely. There
was just a hint of puzzlement in that look, as if he knew there was
more to my story than being a stowaway, but he didn't know what it
was and he wouldn't ask. Yet. "Cullen and I have been talking about
moving you to the greenhouses with the other specialists, where
your talents can be put to good use."
    "I told you that I don't want … "
    He shushed me again. "It's not about what you
want, Elle. It's about what's best for the Destiny. Seems there's
some concern about the plants not producing as well as expected."
He shook his head. "It's not a real concern, of course. Nothing
they can't deal with. Why we have the best minds from Earth right
there in the greenhouses and they are working on the problem. If it
is a problem, if it's more than just a temporary glitch. But
another mind looking at things won't hurt." He stood up and I
realized that part of the reason Cullen Vail had been so graceful
earlier was the low gravity. Even elderly people like Wilkes moved
with ease. "Anyway, now that you're here, you and Cullen can talk
about it. I'm not needed for this particular conversation so I
think I'll just mosey over to the café and see what their special
is today."
    Without Wilkes as a buffer, the space between
us wasn't nearly enough. I wanted to run away, to look elsewhere,
to stop breathing if that