Page 55 of Fight
Deme’s smile turns sad, but she nods, “Of course, come on, we need to go to the greenhouse first to gather some plants.”
Following her back into the kitchen and out the back door, I ask, “Will we make them in the kitchen?”
She shakes her head, “No, it’s not a good idea to cook up poisons in the same room where you prepare food. That’s just asking for trouble, even with ones like these that aren’t too dangerous. It’s just best to keep things separate.”
“Yeah, that makes complete sense actually,” I reply, wanting to smack myself with the stupidity of the question in the first place.
“Here we are,” Demelza smiles as she pushes open the door to a massive greenhouse densely filled with plants.
The heat smacks me in the face as I say, “Whoa, it’s hot.”
“Yes, dear. Follow me.”
“So, some of the plants in here are highly poisonous. Should we be in here without some kind of face equipment to stop us from breathing it in?” I ask, hoping it’s not a stupid question.
“I have a separate room for the plants like that, and there is breathing equipment outside of it and full protective gear that you must put on before you enter. However, we won’t be going in there for a long time.”
“Okay, that makes sense, and you don’t need to worry. I have absolutely no desire to die a horrible death just to satiate my curiosity.”
She chuckles as she stops at a workbench and hands me a pair of gardening gloves, “Very wise. Until you know what every plant in this greenhouse is and how it can be used, I’m going to insist that you use gardening gloves when handling all the plants. Some of the ones out here can cause some pretty severe skin irritations, and that’s one of the least severe reactions they can cause if they come into contact with your skin.”
“Got it,” I reply, taking them off her and pulling them on. “What are we making today?”
Despite all the warnings and the amount of caution that we’re going to have to use, I’m really excited to learn about this. The different things you can do with plants have always fascinated me, although I’m not the best at keeping them alive. Hopefully, I’m going to get better at it though.
“I thought we’d start with a simple but incredibly effective poison that gives the recipient a seriously upset stomach. It’s handy if you need to make sure someone is out of the way while you do the job, whether that’s stealing something or making sure that the innocent aren’t harmed along with the target. It only lasts for twenty-four hours, and then it will be as if they weren’t poorly at all.” She explains.
I nod to show that I’m listening but also wishing that I had a notebook or something that I could write all of this down so much that I ask, “Do you have a notebook or something that I can write this down in.”
She glances over her shoulder as she leads me towards a plant that looks a bit like cherry tomatoes but not quite, “You won’t need one. I can give you the first book of poisons that we all receive, your own copy that you’ll be able to refer back to. It’s actually your father's old copy; I thought you might like to use it. However, if you would like your own copy, I’d be happy to get one for you.”
I shake my head rapidly, “No, I’d like his copy of it.”
“Good.” She smiles and then clears her throat as she points at the plant that looks like cherry tomatoes. “This is Solanum pseudocapsicum, it’s not deadly, but in a concentrated liquid form, it can bring on severe gastrointestinal problems and severe vomiting. It’s not very nice to experience at all.”
“Nope, it doesn’t sound nice.”
We gather some of the small berries in a small basket, and then I follow her as she moves even further into the greenhouse until we come to a small wooden door. Pushing through it, I almost gasp in shock at the room; it doesn’t look at all what I thought it would look like. It’s incredibly clean and sterile, with a strange mix of cooking equipment and science equipment. She heads straight over to the stove, grabbing a saucepan and putting a very specific amount of water in it, and then adding the berries as well.
She explains what she’s doing, and it’s pretty self-explanatory and easy enough to remember that I’m reasonably confident that I could do it without consulting the book.
As she stirs the bubbling pot, she says, “Your father was an amazing person, and I’m not just saying that as his mother. He saw the good in everyone and somehow managed to bring it out in them too, even Silas. He was kind and fair but incredibly strong, and once he set his mind on something nothing could stop him. He struggled with this life at times, not because he hated what we did. He was actually incredibly skilled, but because he struggled with the legality of it, sometimes even though he understood the reasoning behind it.”
I listen intently as she talks, not wanting to interrupt her and risk her not telling me anything else about my father. I’m absorbing it all, storing it so that I can come back to it later.
She continues, “We never met your mother, he used to leave town for months at a time and had no interest in running it, but one day he simply didn’t come back, and all communication stopped. We now think that he met your mother and had you, but when we started looking for him, we found no trace of him, and then later in our search, things that would indicate that he had died. Eventually, there were too many things to ignore. We had so many contacts, and we’d exhausted them all trying to find him. We had to admit to ourselves that he was dead. Our search, as you know, led to finding you. Of course, we needed to know for certain your mother has him listed as your father on your birth certificate, but that’s not necessarily proof. Fortunately, you’d had your blood taken at some point, and we were able to test a sample of it and confirm that you were indeed his child.”
“How?” I can’t help but ask, that’s not an easy thing to accomplish, and I can’t actually remember when I had my blood taken, although there’s a very good chance that it was after my kidnapping when I was far too hurt and out of it to really pay attention, D was with me, and I knew that he’d keep me safe. That would also explain how it wasn’t much longer after that; I got the call from the lawyers and ended up at my grandmother's house.
“As I said before, we are an extremely old family and, as such, have many connections. It was those that helped us determine who you really were and make the other arrangements from then. You know the story from that point and why I had to fake my death in that town, hoping that it would make it safe for you.”
I nod and ask something that’s been bothering me, “Did you know the guys were at the school? Is that what you meant in your letter?”
“Yes,” she replies with a mischievous smile, “I knew, and I’d hoped that you would all get along, and it would eventually lead you back here. I didn’t count on it leading you back so quickly, but I’m glad that it did.”
“Me too,” I reply, glad that I’ve actually had that confirmed. It was really bugging me.
“This is just about ready. Could you pass me the funnel, and then if you look in the cupboard over there, you’ll find some small vials. Can you grab those for me, and we’ll start filling them up? After that, they just need to chill, and they’re ready to go.” Demelza explains.