Outside In by Sarah Ellis Read Free Book Online

the cottage.”
    â€œGot it. Solemn vow.” Lingerlands. This was moving quickly back into glurb territory.
    â€œWhat’s with the uniform?”
    â€œIt’s a citizen disguise.”
    â€œWhy not just wear pants and a hoodie or something?”
    â€œI used to. That’s what the boys wear. But Tron found this. All the parts — shirt, jacket, skirt, raincoat, even shoes. The whole thing was a throwaway and it’s so beautiful. It all goes together properly so that I can be invisible.”
    â€œBut why do you need to be in disguise?”
    â€œIt’s important that we’re not noticed.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWe’re not official.”
    Official? What did that mean? “Who’s we?”
    â€œOur family. We’re Fossick, my father, and Tron and Larch, my brothers.”
    Each answer opened out into more questions, like a flow chart.
    â€œWhat’s the deal about citizens? Are you, like, immigrants from some other country or something?”
    The explanation that followed was as zigzag as the path they were following. But as Blossom described living “off the grid” and a complicated life of “finds” and the rules and work and the garden, the truth hit Lynn.
    A secret location, gardening, making a living without a job?
    Of course. It was a marijuana grow-op.
    Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. This family with the weird names? They might be bad news. And weren’t those places full of toxic chemicals and, like, guns? What was that news story? Some grow-op in the interior had been guarding their marijuana fields with a grizzly bear.
    â€œâ€¦ Fossick says we come from under the ground like the strong grass and the lovely trees. Here we are. The Lingerlands.”
    It wasn’t a glurb world after all, but the familiar reservoir park. People in bright clothes played pitch and putt. A Chinese senior walked backwards up a gentle hill. There were some warning signs about coyotes but no mention of grizzlies.
    This would be the place to bail. This was so not making a good choice.
    But it was only going to be a visit. Like a field trip. And besides, Blossom seemed the opposite of dangerous.
    â€œHow much farther?”
    â€œWe’re close now. We came the long way round for security. We change our path often.”
    They walked along the running path for a few minutes and then Blossom, with a glance forward and back, slipped into the tangle of untended shrubs and ground cover that ringed the path. Lynn followed, sharp twigs grabbing for her hair, and vines tangling themselves around her feet. Down a gentle dip there was another path, narrow and rough like the path of animals, another concrete wall, another ring of the reservoir. Along that wall were things you would never notice because they were boring — metal screens, pipes, ducts, squares of metal.
    Blossom paused at one of the screens, pulled a key from her pocket and pulled it across the metal net, creating an eerie, shimmering sound.
    â€œThat lets Larch know we’re here,” she said.
    A few steps later, she pushed aside some hanging vines, revealing a square the size and shape of a door. She slid aside a thin metal strip at the top left of the door to reveal a keypad. She punched some keys and there was a soft but official click, and the door edged open.
    â€œThis is it?”
    Blossom nodded. “Don’t tarry. We like to get in and out neatly.”
    Lynn hesitated. Tarry? Who said tarry? Blossom grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over the threshold. “Come on .”
    The door clicked definitively shut behind them.
    Inside there was no dragon lair, no tapping of elvish miners, no stalagmite-encrusted cave. Lynn’s first impression was that it was like being inside a machine. It was warm and there was a low hum. Small lights glinted on the ceiling. Pipes snaked overhead. It was all hard-edged, metal, businesslike. It was very clean. It smelled