Page 34 of Escape from the Green

"Yes," I countered. "I want to make sure you can get back."

"I can get back," he assured me, sending me a smile. "I can navigate The Green, honey. I think I can handle O-hi-o." He stretched the word out, a foreign sound on his lips. "I will see you off in... what was it?" he asked, eyes scrunching up, searching for the word.

"The bus," I reminded him.

"The big, metal car that sits dozens of humans."

"And now me," I declared, forcing a smile and a pep in my voice that I did not feel.

"I don't like it."

I nodded at that. "I don't like the idea of you going back into The Green to face some unknown fate either."

"I'll be fine. I always am."

"If it turns out that your kind... that..."

"That there are none left," he finished for me.

"Yeah. What will you do then?"

"Honestly? I don't know."

"Cece will take you in," I told him with certainty. "You helped save her and Jasper. The Light will protect you from harm."

"I don't know if a life of protection is what I want. It sounds a lot like another name for captivity to me."

With a nod, I shrugged at him. "Well, you can come find me in New York City if you want," I told him, knowing it was silly, but also knowing he didn't stand a chance if he fled The Green of being seen as anything other than a crazy person. "How about this, every Sunday, I will go to a place called The Museum of Natural History at noon. And stay there for two hours. Here, let me write this down," I said, rushing for the pad and pen I had purchased the night before. "You take this twenty-dollar bill to use as your donation to buy a ticket - if you need to live in the human realm that is, of course - and come meet me at the tyrannosaurus rex. That way, you have someone on the outside who understands you, that you can talk to about things like how a cell phone works or what the purpose of a Snuggie is," I told him, folding the money into the note. Along with another short message that I figured he would only read at some point much further down the road.

"Time passes so differently here than..."

"I will be there," I assured him. "Every first Sunday. If you ever need help in this realm, that is where you can find it. I mean... for as long as I am around," I added, shrugging off the idea of how easily the mortal coil was shrugged off in this realm. That was what I had chosen. A shorter life by my own terms instead of a much longer one controlled by others. It seemed like a fair trade.

"How much faster is the time here?"

"I haven't been able to peg it down completely, but it seems like for every week in The Green, it is several months in the human realm."

"By the time I even reach my ancestors' land, half a year could pass here."

Was it just my wishful thinking, or did his voice almost sound sad? It had to have just been me, and the unexpected longing I had to have him with me, to not have to do this all alone.

But all alone was what I would have to be.

It was something I was going to have to come to terms with.

"Still," I assured him, "if you get there, and there is nothing, make your way back. Maybe it would be a year, but I will still show up at that museum in case you need a friend in this world."

I knew I could likely use one.

"You're a good woman, Amy," he declared, voice firm, leaving no room for me to disbelieve him.

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked, reaching for another piece of paper.

"Anything."

"If you come across someone on their way to the Light court, could you have them deliver a message for me to Jasper? You can give them this," I told him, reaching in my bag to pull out a ring - a sapphire as big as my thumbnail that my father had given me on my birthday the year before.

"That is too much for that errand," he told me, eyes wide as he looked at the ring.