Flowers in Your Hair

[Susie Quinn]

"But this place is not the whole of the Astral Plane." Susie drew her knees up to her chest and curled her arms around her legs as she watched Andrea. She wondered how far she could walk in the grass before she reached some other place.

[Andrea Kaine]

I nod solemnly. "That's why I need a place to hide."

[Susie Quinn]

Susie frowned. "How do you get here? I... I'm not sure how I did it. Except..."

Except... the injection. Unbidden, memories of Meadowbridge came rushing over her, the dreary grey of that landscape dimming the beauty of the gathering dusk. Fireflies were starting to brighten up the area around the tree, and Susie wiped away the tear that was dripping down the side of her nose. It was full of sad memories, nothing that she wanted to bring into this quiet place.

The little drop of moisture lingered on her finger until she rubbed it away.

[Andrea Kaine]

I see a dreary brick building under a rainy sky, and I see a sterile, green-painted classroom with empty desks and drawn blinds. A man in medical scrubs leans over me to administer an injection while a balding man with bulging eyes reads orders off a clipboard: "Five mils of neocortisine in a propofol solution..."

I blink and see Susie in front of me in the waning light of the sunset. A tear track glistens on the inside of her cheek, and she is staring at me with a look of surprise.

"I'm sorry, it was on the front of your mind," I say. "I couldn't help but see it. I don't think the injection could bring you here on its own, even if that's what they meant it to do. I think a part of you was already here. You've just woken up into that part of you."

My eyes sink to the grass between us. I let my mind wander back to the long-term care ward in the Jozua Clinic where my body lies connected to half a dozen whirring, beeping machines. I'm sure that Susie will be able to see it, too.

"I've been here for a long time."

[Susie Quinn]

Susie nodded, solemnly, a sense of kinship settling down over the two girls as they sat beneath the tree in the warm, glittering twilight. The physical world was not kind to them; it made perfect sense suddenly that they should find each other in this little pocket of the Astral Plane. As though they were sisters of the mind, only just now meeting but linked together by Destiny, or something else equally grand.

Perhaps she read too many books. Tom always said so, but he still smuggled in novels to their little hidey hole for her. She was not allowed to read fiction. The staff did not want her imagination tainting the visions she received.

She blinked a bit, looking around. She hadn't had a deja vu moment in ages. Living entirely in the present was refreshing. Susie reached out cautiously toward Andrea and held her hand; an innocent gesture of friendship and understanding.

[Dr. Winters]

Augustus put the yellow legal pad down on his desk and carefully centered it over the blotter. After a moment he nudged it again, squaring it with the other's edges. A tree on a hill? A mysterious girl called Andrea Delphi, bringing birds to life with a thought...

It was nonsense. Perhaps Susan Quinn had finally cracked for good. Of course, she was always a bit soft headed, but her visions had always been true. This one, however, was so bizarre as to be unbelievable.

Dr. Winters circled the words Astral Plane with a red pencil. He'd type this up personally and send it up the chain. In the meantime Ms. Quinn would have some time off from her treatment schedule. There was no need to continue and risk further damage unless he was told otherwise.

Whatever Susan had seen, though, it seemed certain that it was not going to happen in the next twenty-four hours. Augustus flipped through the three neatly hand written pages, and circled a paragraph that was written in all capitals, the pen pressing deeply into the paper so as to imprint the pad beneath it.

THE ENGINES FROM BENEATH THE POISON MOUNTAIN LAY WASTE TO THE CITY OF ANGELS THEIR GEARS GRIND THE BODIES OF GODS AND MEN INTO DUST AND THEIR CHAINS OF LEAD AND LIGHT BIND THEIR SOULS WHILE THE DRAGON WATCHES AND LIES IN WAIT FOR THE MOTHER ABOUT TO GIVE BIRTH HE WAITS WITH OPEN JAWS TO DEVOUR HER OFFSPRING WOE TO THE CITY AND ALL WHO DWELL IN IT

It was unsettling, and entirely unlike anything Susan had ever written. He shivered, and sat back away from his desk, tapping a finger against his thin lips. No, this was definitely something for the higher-ups to take a look at.