TNT: Ch. 63

John Begonia was nervous when he arrived at the forest rendezvous. John Begonia was not a dark alley deals sort of guy. He had sought a government job because the up-and-up was where he liked to be. Everything was neater there. Nothing about this spring deal was neat.
Take crazy people. John reckoned that crazy people should identify themselves as crazy, and after that should be summarily ignored unless found dangerous. What should never be done, he reasoned, was to legitimize their craziness - for instance by taking legal action over a couple of worthless springs. Anyway, he didn't suppose that this Eric guy was much better, but at least he seemed like he wanted to give John answers. And what John desperately wanted was for everything to make sense again. He turned the corner to find a small Asian man sitting on a log with a pile of ancient books. The man rose, walked up to John, and put his hand on his face.
"Mr. Begonia, I presume," he said.
"Who are you? Where is Eric?"
"Calm down. The answers you seek are not Eric's to give; he has another path to follow. You must walk with me," the man said, beckoning.
In spite of himself, John locked into step next to the man.
"Many call me Master Lin," the man said.
"What exactly are you a master of?" John asked.
The man looked flustered.
"...Toast ... er, fu. Toast Fu," he said unconvincingly. John shrugged.
"I was promised answers."
"There can be no answers without questions."
"I have lots of questions."
"But first you must have answers."
"What?"
"Ah ha."
This was as far from things making sense as John could imagine anything being.

Eric knocked on Mr. Brixton's door with a certain amount of hesitation. He wasn't exactly sure how things were supposed to go here. A woman answered the door. She was a small but proud-looking woman with a look full of years in her eyes. She looked oddly tired.
"Are you another lawyer?" she asked.
"No. I'm here to talk to James Bri-"
"Of course you are. Come on in, I'll make some tea." Her tone was not polite. It was more like making tea was something she was required to do as hostess, no matter how much she might hate it and even if she was in a hotel room and not her own house. "Have a seat," she continued in the same tone. "JAMES!"
James walked out of the bathroom.
"Yeah, honey?"
"Someone else is here to see you."
Mr. Brixton walked over to Eric and extended a hand.
"James Brixton."
"Eric Smellick," Eric replied. "I wanted to talk to you about the springs of life."
"Do you, uh, believe in that stuff?"
Eric was caught off guard by the question.
"I'm not sure how much to believe," he said.
"I'll tell you something," said James, moving over to one of the two chairs in the small hotel room. "When I said, 'Maybe these are DeLeon's Springs of Life,' I was making a joke."
"Were you?"
"Yep. But I can't deny there's something off about them. Eric, right?"
Eric nodded.
"You seem like a decent fellow, and you say you're not a lawyer?"
"No, I'm - "
"And you're not with the park service?"
"No." Eric had given up on getting a word in at the moment.
"Let me show you something." He stood up and motioned for Eric to follow him into the tiny hotel bathroom. Immediately Eric noticed the two potted plants sitting on either side of the sink, one barely struggling for life and the other blooming with beautiful flowers.
"I planted them four days ago, with no sunlight and hardly any water. Guess where the springs are?" he asked.
Eric pointed to the blooming flowers.
"Bingo. The two that I'm supposed to take care of, they're buried in the soil. You see, I think they exude life. I haven't begun to explore the possibilities, but its amazing to watch it work."
"I'll say," said Eric.
"I wish I could just show this to anybody who wanted to know, but I've been counseled to keep my mouth shut. I certianly shouldn't have showed you, only right before you came in I decided I was going to show everything to the next person who came through that door, cause I just couldn't keep it to myself anymore, y'know?"
Eric nodded.
"So, Eric, I know you've been wanting to say... What're you here for?"