Wings of Boden (8 page)

Angie held a polite look, a hint of
uncomfortable while Mom studied her. Angie rolled her eyes up to
Jaydenn and lifted a sly little grin. “He’s keeping up with me,
Mom, so far.”

Mom clicked her tongue with a little scolding
sound as she narrowed her eyes and stood up. “
Angie
, I
know
what you’re talking about, young lady.”

“I’m sure you do, Celeste,” Dad
commented.

Mom swung her eyes on Dad. “Phillip!”

Jaydenn stayed out of it, but I could tell by
the forced look at the map, the way his hands floated over the
paper in no particular direction, that he knew. Angie looked up at
Mom with a clever smile, a confident batting of eyelashes, mission
accomplished.

Mom finally grinned down at Angie. “You just
think you’re so cute, don’t you?” She bent a kiss to Angie’s
forehead, drew back. “Well, you’re right.” She paused for a beat,
staring at Angie’s smile. Then spun around and stepped her long
legs across the floor like a runway model, heading to a shopping
bag near the door.

All that time and I hadn’t even noticed the
bag. Gazing at it, I began to realize it was from that new store.
Even the bag was delightful; purple flowered and pink with little
rope handles. The kind of bag that held the dreams that could cure
any nightmare.

Mom crouched, snatched it up, wheeled around
and clicked her way back to us while saying, “I knew you two would
be here this weekend so I picked up something for you girls from
that new store, Angel’s Closet.” She pulled out one garment,
stepped to Angie.

The suspense tugged at me.

She’d pulled out the cutest little
peach-colored bikini bottoms I’d ever seen. I hustled over to Mom,
reached out and touched it, rubbed the smooth fabric between two
fingers.

Angie politely took it and held it up with a
smile of gratitude. “Oh, that’s so cute, Mom. My favorite color.
Thank you.”

My eyes went to the bag, Mom, the bag,
Mom.

“Don’t worry, Ellie,” said Mom. She reached
into the bag, pulled out another. “I picked out your favorite color
too.”

Didn’t mean to, but I snatched it from
her.

Pink fabric glistened before my eyes. I
rubbed it into my cheek while saying, “Oh, Mom, thank you so much,”
then hugged her with bikini in hand.

“You’re welcome, honey.”

After the hug, I reached out and displayed my
new bikini with both hands, eyes on Vyn. “What do you think? Do you
like it?”

Standing before the table, Vyn sent a
sideways glance to Mom, back to me. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s
nice.”

Nice? I knew what he meant, though. His wings
twitched, face blushed. Yeah, he knew it was much more than nice,
and it was mine.

Mom said, “Would you girls like to try them
out. Let’s go for a swim.”

I tossed a look down to Angie. “Let’s go,
sis, please?”

Angie grinned, pushed from her chair.

“Don’t forget the matching top,” Mom
said.

Oh my Source.

Mom pulled out the tops. The pink one was in
my hot little hands in a tick of time and I streaked across the
room and out the door before anyone could say another word.

****

Crystal-clear pool water sparkled with
sunlight, my body immersed in the liquid show. I stood waist deep,
amazed at how a little piece of fabric could make me feel a few
years older. The previous awakening words of my Dad played a part
in this feeling. Even though I’d tried to put the nightmare out of
my mind, persistent images still floated through.

When I bent my knees, leaned back and lowered
my head under the surface, muffled silence came, then the voice.
Rough, unrecognizable. Avian vocals scratched at my mind. The raspy
sound sent jolts of panic through me. Then the sound dissolved as I
came up from the depths.

Mental note: Don’t go under water.

Belly on the surface, I pulled through the
liquid, making my way to the center of the pool, water sliding over
my tucked-back wings as my feet fluttered.

After reaching the center fountain, I stood
gazing up at the concrete angel. His widespread white wings, arms
outstretched, hands reaching to the sky and spraying water in a
looping shower. Sucking a drip of water off my lip, I palmed my wet
hair back, and remembered the fountain from childhood. It was
always there whenever I needed answers, just a kid thing. What
could I ask it now? The child was long gone so the concrete angel
wouldn’t have known the answer anyway. Didn’t matter.

The secret was out.

Another question did come to mind as I eyed
up at the angel: Does Vyn love me?

Fountain sounds hissed and splashed through
the mist of chlorine air, as I thought of everyone, instances where
there might have been hints. One memory after another I began to
realize something. I’d been coddled and protected all my life. I’d
become a spoiled princess because of that treatment. Time to face
it. I cupped my hands to fill my palms, splashed the coolness to my
face. A sort of decision washed the youth down my skin, a liquid
cleansing from a fountain. Once more, I cupped my hands, another
splash, while I envisioned my childhood washing into the pool,
dispersing into the million gallon depths of adulthood.

Water blinked from my lashes over new eyes. I
turned and spread my wings under the fountain, liquid trickled off
as I flittered and fluffed the feathers, taking in the sights of
the back yard. A concrete deck bordered by lush grass and tall
lilac hedges that bloomed powder-purple flowers under the April
sun. Bees buzzed through the sweet air on their daily rounds. Blue
tiles edged the pool and chrome ladders climbed out. At the back of
the yard, a grape arbor covered a wooden bench swing. Bub was
sniffing through the lawn by the hedges. He started to squat, eew,
so I turned around to give him some privacy.

Mom and Angie were on the poolside lounge
chairs, wings tucked under, sunglasses on as they soaked in the
light-energy. In her powder blue bikini, Mom reached up, pushed her
dark glasses to her forehead and sent me a smile. “Whatcha doin’
over there, Ellie?” she called out.

“Nothing.”

“Do you like your new bikini?”

As my fingertips touched the little pink
heart sewn in the center of my top, I voiced out through the sounds
of the fountain spray, “I love it, Mom. It’s so nice.”

Angie—lounged to the right of Mom in her
peach-colored bikini—tilted her chin down, pushed her glasses up
with one finger, smiled at me, then pulled her shades back down
over her eyes and settled her head back.

She just thinks she’s so cool. Well, I guess
she kinda is. So I grinned at my sister.

Mom grabbed the glass off her towel on the
concrete, and lifted a sip. I jumped forward and swam, pulled
myself up the ladder and out of the water with a splash to the
deck. Crossing the sunbaked concrete, I palmed my hair back, wrung
it out with both hands. The heat of the deck burned underfoot so I
didn’t waste any time lowering down into my lounge chair.

After slipping my sunglasses on, and gulping
some tea, I settled back on my wings and let my lids slide shut in
the rays. When a light breeze drifted over the moisture on my skin,
a long sigh drained from my lungs. Poolside bliss. The smell of
flowers, chlorine, and the delicious aroma of coconut lotion mixed
in the air. Little happy birds chirped from the hedges. In my sense
envelopment, I smiled in agreement with them.

The flitter of little wings caught my
attention. Tilting my chin, I looked across the water to notice two
sparrows perched on the statue, ruffling their feathers in the
fountain spray. At that, I grinned, and settled back again, knowing
just how that feels.

“Mom,” I said, eyes closed, “I think it’s
time everyone stopped calling me Ellie.” It was a stupid idea, I
knew, maybe a little childish, but I had to start somewhere, right.
My eyes opened and I angled my head to view her.

She rotated on her lounge chair, placed her
feet to the towel spread on the concrete. “But, Ellie, why?” She
looked wounded.

Time for a talk, I decided, and sat up to
face her.

On the other side of Mom, Angie was smiling.
She got to her feet, pulled off her glasses and straightened her
bikini top with fingertips. “I need a swim,” she said, and tossed
me a sister grin. Then strode to the pool, bent her knees a tad,
folded her wings and dived in with a splash, sending the sparrows
to flitter away to the lilac hedges. Bub came running across the
yard and launched through the air, landing with a splash in front
of Angie as she squealed and giggled.

My focus went to Mom as I said, “All my life
everyone has tiptoed around me, coddling me, just to protect me
from some ridiculous nightmares. They call me a princess. Now I
know why. I don’t want to be that little girl anymore.”

“But you’ll always be my Ellie. Nothing can
change that.”

“Just please call me Elle from now on. Tell
everyone else too, please. For me.”

Mom sighed. “Okay.” Then reached out to me to
do her ritual hair tuck thing, but drew her hand back when she
caught my squinty-eyed look of warning. After rotating back into
her lounge chair, she reached down for the lotion, squirted a bit
into her hand and began to rub it into her legs. “Getting a nice
tan here, wouldn’t you say?”

With a glance at her long bronzing legs, I
replied, “Uh-huh,” then lounged back. “Mom, there’s something else
that’s bothering me.”

“Yes, what’s that?” She rubbed her
calves.

“If the drekavacs are what Dad said, why
doesn’t anyone else know? I mean. Why don’t they teach that in
history class?”

“No, it wouldn’t be taught, dear.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. If we let that news out it
would cause mass panic. No angel would ever go outside again. And
that’s not what we want. That’s no life. I’d tell you not to let
anyone else know, but by the end the summer it won’t matter
anyway.”

She had a point. I wouldn’t have gone outside
either. I’d have missed everything, would have become a recluse
behind walls, and so would’ve everyone else.

“Hmm,” I agreed, and settled back with that
concept.

The sound of Angie caught my attention while
she fluttered her wings under the fountain, giggling like a little
girl. So I tilted my chin down to watch her glimmer with youthful
excitement. Her wet hair looked different, a little darker, with
highlights. Maybe it was the water? No, she must’ve had the salon
put highlights in while on her shopping trip.

“Should I dye my hair, Mom?”

“What, Ellie, don’t you even think about
that. Don’t even tease.”

A grin, as I let my lids slide shut under my
glasses and angled my face to the sun. Even as I began to drift
off, Mom said, “Put some lotion on, Ellie.” I pretended I didn’t
hear her. A minute later, her hands were rubbing lotion into my
legs. A little coddling’s okay, I guess …

****

Dakarai showed up in the dimness of dream,
towering before me while I picked white daisies from a field. His
drekavac form threw a long shadow over my eight-year-old body. My
innocent eyes went up to him with a smile.

Hey, Dakarai
, I said in my dream, and
held up a bundle of daisies in my little hands.
Do you like
these?

Dakarai smirked, showing the tips of his
pointed teeth as he scratched out,
Those are nice, little one.
Let me smell.
He bent so far down from his height, slow, like
his drekavac head descended from the clouds. Bulging black eyes
locked on me as he sniffed the flowers. A hand came up and wrapped
around my wrist. The nightmare began as the little girl yelled,
Let go, you’re hurting me, let go of me!

Lava red filled Dakarai’s eyes. On the end of
a long neck, his wrinkled-skin head grew a hooked beak. A talon
clamped my wrist.

I screamed with all the air in my little
lungs.

He gurgled his last words as a drek;
Sorry, little one, you’re just too delicious to let go.

With one powerful thrust of his black vulture
wings, we lifted off the ground and the flowers fell to the earth.
Light dissolved. My mind wilted. Darkness devoured my sanity. I
slipped into oblivion.

With my hands clamping the rails of the
poolside lounge chair, I began to realize; the dream didn’t end on
a snap of terror. Like a painting left out in the rain, dark hues
melted away to reveal the light, and I awoke slowly to the
sprinkled sounds of laughter and the pool fountain.

Yet, something akin to volcanic magma boiled
at the core of my being. Dakarai, my friend, had tried to take away
my innocent life. I bit down hard on the word NO … He would pay.
With that thought, I sat up straight.

The lounge chairs were empty, Mom and Angie
in the pool. Someone had filled my tea glass for me so I snatched
it up for a long swallow … Then wiped my mouth with the back of my
hand and swept my gaze around. How long was I out?

Calm energy filled the yard. Flower-scented
air hung still. Bub lay in the shade of the hedges on the opposite
side of the pool. Even the birds seemed to have lowered the volume
of their chirping. On the flagstone patio at the house, a table
umbrella sheltered the boys as male laughter echoed across the
yard. I angled out of my chair, padded to the pool. With the slant
of the late afternoon sunrays, the water looked flat, no sparkles,
just gentle waves lapping the blue-tiled edges, and the fountain
hissing out a spray. Mom stood waste deep on the far side, her back
to me while she talked and giggled with Angie.

“Mom,” I said. She didn’t hear me. “Mom!”

She turned. “Yes, what is it?” She sipped
some water off her lip.

“I need to talk to you.”