Eli remembered a ValuCo price tag had been sticking out of the sleeve of the guy's beige jacket at the fun fair yesterday. Obviously the guy had picked it up in a hurry so he could cover his Mariners 59 T-shirt. Maybe he'd grabbed the baseball cap, too; anything to alter his appearance--just in case his target had started to catch on to him.
The closer they got to downtown Seattle, the more the bus filled up, and now people were standing. The bus driver announced they were in a free-ride zone, and people started getting on and off through a door closer to where that man sat--as well as the one up front.
No one had asked Eli to give up the handicap seat, thank God. He'd been able to sit there while the driver told him where to transfer for the bus to Evergreen Point Manor.
A woman in the back pulled the Stop cord for the driver. Eli watched her get out of her seat and waddle over to the bus's back door. Eli stood up. 'This isn't your stop yet, honey,' the driver told him.
'I know,' Eli whispered. He held onto a pole and leaned close to her. 'There a creepy guy in a green shirt back there. He's got sunglasses on. I think he's been following me.'
Her eyes searched in the rearview mirror. 'Looks normal enough,' she said. 'What--is he a pervert or something? Want me to radio it in?'
'No, but I'd really like to lose him.'
As she pulled over to the next stop, Eli moved closer to the door. Casually glancing back, he saw the man get to his feet. He shuffled past a few passengers in the aisle, then stood behind the woman at the back door.
No one was at the stop as the bus ground to a halt. And no one stood behind Eli at the front door. It whooshed open. He took another step toward the door, then crouched down and turned to the driver. 'Has that guy stepped off yet?' he whispered.
Her focus shifted up to the rearview mirror. She kept one hand on the door lever. 'One second...okay...'
Eli heard that whoosh sound again, and the doors closed right behind him. He felt the draft on the back of his legs.
Grinning, the bus driver started to pull into traffic. The man in the green shirt pounded on the rear door to get back in. Eli spied him through the window. He looked so pissed off. He was running alongside the bus.
'Hey, stop!' yelled a woman passenger. 'Stop, driver! Somebody wants to get on!'
The driver picked up speed. 'Like the song says, 'It's Too Late, Baby!''
'Thank you,' Eli whispered, and he returned to his seat.
The transfer stop to the Number 41 was only a few blocks from where they'd ditched the creepy guy in the green shirt. So while Eli waited in the bus shelter, he kept a lookout for the strange man. He felt bad for not taking his mom more seriously when she'd said she might have a stalker. But his mom was wrong about one thing: this weird guy wasn't stalking her; he was stalking
The bus driver on the Number 41 wasn't nearly as nice as the lady driver on the Number 11. He was a pasty- faced guy in his forties. When Eli asked if this was the bus to Evergreen Point Manor, the driver nodded tiredly. 'Your stop's Northeast 125th. You'll walk three blocks north from there.'
'Um, how will I know if--'
'I'll announce it,' he interrupted. 'You got about twenty minutes. Take a seat.'
Eli did as he was told. He found an empty seat. But at the first stop on I-5, the bus filled up with a score of noisy, obnoxious teenagers who kept screaming and laughing. A big woman with BO ended up sitting next to him, and she talked loudly on her cell phone the whole time. It was all Eli could do not to rip it out of her hand and hurl it out the window. The noise died down when most of the people got off at Northgate Shopping Mall. His stop was two stops later.
It was an industrial park area bordering on a big forest. The buildings housed medical and dental offices, as well as some insurance company branches. Every building looked the same: cold, sterile, and boring--each with a big parking lot. Eli couldn't find Evergreen Court Northeast. He wandered around for fifteen minutes until he saw a bus pull into another parking area beyond some trees. Then he noticed the big stone slab with raised lettering on it at the edge of the lot:
EVERGREEN POINT MANOR
There was also a sunflower carved in the stone. That must have been their symbol, because the same sunflower was stenciled on the orange awning over the front door. The drab three-story building was beige with tan trim and a lot of balconies--probably with views of the boring industrial park. A couple of woman with walkers slowly lumbered toward the front entrance. Eli was amazed to see one bundled up in a sweatsuit, and the other had a sweater on--in this warm weather. Two elderly men sat on a bench by the door. One wore a hat and a sweater; his buddy appeared to have dressed for a golf game, only his shirt was inside out and he held onto a cane. 'Hey there, sport!' the hat-wearing old man on the bench called to him. His friend with the cane waved and smiled.
Eli was waiting for the two ladies with walkers to make it through the door, which opened automatically. He smiled and waved back to the guy on the bench. 'Hi, how are you?'
'Finer than frog's hair!' he replied. 'And it's a beautiful day!'
When the old ladies finally made it inside, they turned and smiled at him and said hello. They seemed nice and so happy to see him. It was weird being in this strange place in a city he still wasn't used to. This whole trip had been pretty scary. He felt so grateful for the friendly smiles. He even started to tear up a little, and he wasn't sure why.
At the front counter, there was a sign, BINGO 2-NITE! 6:30--ACTIVITIES ROOM
'Yes, I'm here to see Vera Cormier,' he said.
She reached for the phone. 'I'll see. I doubt she's in her suite.'
Eli's heart sank a little. Had he come all this way for nothing?
'Are you Vera's grandson?' the young woman asked. She had the phone to her ear. 'I didn't think Vera had any kids.'
'Um, my mom's a friend of hers,' Eli lied.
She hung up the phone. 'No answer.' She turned toward the doorway to a room behind her. 'Hey, Noreen, have you seen Vera? She isn't in her digs. Do you know where she might be?'
'Three guesses!' called the woman from the back room.
The pretty receptionist nodded, then smiled at Eli. 'She's in the garden, honey--'
'You guessed it,' said the woman from the back room.
The receptionist told Eli to go straight down the hall to another set of doors that led outside. The garden was just to the right of the flagpole. He couldn't miss it.
As Eli headed down the corridor, a slightly putrid smell filled his nostrils. He passed a few people in wheelchairs parked in the hallway. Some of them were in their robes or nightclothes, and they looked pretty out of it.
He breathed easier outside. The lawn in back was bordered by the forest. A winding path snaked through the yard and the garden area. Several benches flanked the path, most of them occupied by the elderly residents. A few nurses in scrubs were pushing folks in wheelchairs.
Eli headed to the garden, dense and cluttered with tall plants, flowers, and blooming bushes. Someone had set a bunch of different lawn ornaments in the garden--a birdbath, a fake deer, a couple of gnomes, a Cupid, and even a small replica of the Statue of Liberty. It reminded Eli of a miniature golf course.
A blond woman was on her knees at the edge of the garden, planting some pink, purple, and white flowers. She wore a straw hat and gardening gloves. On the back of her tan sweatshirt was a drawing of some flowers over the words: COMPOST HAPPENS.
'Excuse me, ma'am,' Eli said, approaching her. 'Are you Vera?'
The sweet-looking old lady turned and gaped up at him. 'Am I under arrest?' she asked.
Eli was confused for a moment, then he looked down at his CHICAGO POLICE T-shirt. 'Oh, um, no.'
'Well, that's a relief,' she said, with a grin. Holding the hoe, she dabbed her brow with her sleeve. 'For a minute there I thought I'd forgotten to pay a parking ticket back in 1973 or something. Do I know you, dear?'
'No, we--we haven't met,' Eli said, a bit nervously.
Setting down the hoe, she took off a gardening glove and held out her hand to him. 'Well, I'm Vera, resident
