Wings of Boden (14 page)

****

Almost a half hour later, now wearing my
knee-length nightgown, I walked bare feet across the upstairs
carpet, on my way to go join Vyn downstairs. Mom’s bedroom door was
open a crack as she called out, “Ellie, come in here. I’ll find
those jeans you wanted.”

And the mood just kept getting better. I
wheeled around, pushed the bedroom door open, strolled in and
hopped to perch on the edge of their vaulted bed. Enjoying the
softness of Mom’s down comforter, I drifted my gaze around the
room. My feet dangled above the carpet, hair draped down my chest
as I folded my hands on my lap.

Even as a clean night breeze touched the
delicate lace drapes of the open balcony door, drifting a fresh
smell into the room, scents of forest and flowers mixing, ideas for
my home were beginning to stir. Wooden hangers
clacked
together as Mom dug around in her walk-in closet. An occasional
comment, “Yes, those are nice.”

A shaded lamp on the nightstand brought a
soft golden ambiance to the room, lighting up a book on her
nightstand that appeared to be a novel from my favorite author,
Christopher Quintell. Mom’s room was always so nice and tidy, with
only a few wood-framed oil paintings on the walls. Above her
headboard hung a romantic painting of an angel couple in an
embracing kiss. Shoving my memory back to my bedroom, I lifted my
hand and touched a fingertip to my lips, trying to conjure up the
feeling of Vyn’s kiss again.

“These should fit you.”

Startled a bit, I dropped my hand and turned
as Mom walked toward me with a pair of designer jeans held up.

“I have a few more pair if you like
them.”

With a hop off the bed, I reached out and
took them from her, lifted and spun them around to investigate. I
couldn’t believe how nice they were. Now for the test, would they
fit?

One leg at a time they wriggled on under my
gown, like a second skin, perfect. Off you go, I said to myself as
I tossed the gown to the bed and stood there in my flowered bra and
new jeans. With a pirouette on my toes, I admired the fit.

“Oh, Ellie, those are perfect for you. I’ve
never seen you in jeans before. You remind me of me. When I was
your
age, that is.” She did a little headshake. “Just look
at those legs. I think I’m jealous now.”

Yeah, right, the goddess jealous of the girl.
It was nice, though. I gave her a smile. “You really think so?”

She tapped her lips with a fingertip, looking
at the jeans, and me, thinking.

“There’s just one thing missing.” She hiked
back into the closet. Hangars
clacked
again. Until she
stepped out with a white, girl-cut T-shirt, pulled it off the
hangar and tossed it to me. I snatched it out of the air and slid
it over my head, pulled my hair from the neck hole, buttoned the
wing-flap buttons and adjusted for comfort. Then folded my wings
back to rest.

Jeans and a T, I never would’ve guessed they
could be so perfect. I have a collection of cropped pants, but this
was different, I don’t know how, just, like … tougher, or
something. Whatever. I felt like I could go out and kick some tail,
like the jeans held some sort of karate power. For as long as I
could remember, my friend Jennifer from school had always tried to
get me to wear jeans. When she would bring it up, I’d just shrug it
off with a snort, saying something like, “I’m not wearing jeans,
Jen. So you might as well give up.”

Of course, my other silky friends in my
closet would have their time, but my closet was about to get a
little bigger. Where have these been all my life? I stepped to the
mirror, gave them my final approval with a light smack to my
butt.

The reflection of Mom in the mirror grinned
at me.

After a few minutes of studying this strange
new world of denim, I lowered into the vanity chair. Her dressing
table drew my attention. A cherry-wood jewelry box sat next to jars
of cream and bottles of perfume. I rotated around, placed my hands
on my new lap and looked up at her. “Mom, I’ve been thinking about
something and I wanted to get your opinion?”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“Do you think Dad would mind if we built the
house here, in Boden, I mean? I’d like to be closer to where
everything is, and you, of course.”

Mom’s face lit up. That was her answer right
there. “Oh, Ellie. That is. The best idea, ever.” She reached out
and took my hand, drew me up out of the chair to stand. “Let’s go
tell your father.”

She started to guide me to the door, but with
a twitter of energy, I pulled away, hopped out the door and down
the hall to the stairs. In all my excitement, I tripped over the
last step, squealed and fell flat on my chest on the foyer floor.
Then performed my best impression of a bunny bounding to its feet.
“I’m okay,” I said to the bronze hawk with a chuckle. He didn’t
reply. So I lifted my leg and gave him a karate kick.
“
Ya!
”

Bub lay on the center-room rug in the living
room, chin on paws. He lifted his head as I skipped over and sat
next to Vyn on the couch. Dad was in his chair. Jaydenn on the
loveseat with both arms spread across the back.

“What’re you wearin’ there, Ellie?” Vyn
questioned with eyes down at my denim legs. He glided a hand over
my thigh.

“Just jeans it’s nothing, Dad?” I couldn’t
sit still. Energy buzzed through me as I scooched to the edge of
the couch, twisting my hands together and gnawing my bottom
lip.

“Hold on, Ellie, wait for me,” Mom called out
as she swayed her graceful self toward me. Could she sway a little
faster? I wished while waiting on the edge of the world. She
finally lowered down next to me. With perfect posture, she crossed
her legs and laced her fingers over her knee. Hair draped down her
chest. Eyes glittered. Super confident about something, she lifted
her chin, smiled at Dad and said, “Okay, tell him.”

My eyes snapped over to Dad and the words ran
out of my mouth, “I wanna build the house here in Boden. It’s close
to everything, training and stuff and you two of course, we’d be
closer to you and I could fly over for sch—” Dad stopped me:

“Okay, Elle.” He looked at Mom. “So you—”

“No, no. This was all her. I didn’t even
bring it up.”

“Uh-huh,” Dad said with narrowed eyes and a
wary grin.

“It was my idea, Dad. Why? Did you two have
some kinda deal or something?” I scrunched my face alternately at
both of them.

“Let’s just say I owe your mother some
earrings.”

Mom beamed satisfaction. With her wings
trapped against the couch, she couldn’t do what I suspected she
wanted to; a full-fledged stretch and feather flutter.

Whatever. I shook it off and looked at Dad.
“Well, does that mean we
can
then?”

“It’s already planned,” Dad said. “You know
the land a few miles up the road, where you used to play by the
creek. It belongs to you girls. We thought you might like to build
there. We also had a spot planned out near Vinger, but we wanted it
to be your decision. That was our agreement. I set up all the
utilities and water years ago, even poured the foundation just in
case.”

What was I hearing?

“Does Angie know?” I asked.

“No. That was part of the deal,” said Mom.
“Neither one of you could know. We didn’t want to influence your
decisions, so we waited. I was beginning to wonder if this would
ever happen. Your father had mentioned you would graduate and my
girls would move away. You always used to talk about travelling the
world. But I didn’t want to believe that, so we made a little bet.
I’m so happy, Ellie.” She floated a sly little grin to Dad. “And I
have a new set of earrings coming. And not those cheapo’s either,
we’re going to Angel’s Closet. I might pick up a few lacy things
while I’m at it.”

Dad didn’t seem to mind. He grinned, waggled
his bushy eyebrows up and down at Mom.

Okay, too much information. I chuckled, said,
“You know, you guys are really good at secrets.”
Smile
. “I’m
gonna go tell Ang.” I sprang up before I had to witness any
more.

****

Angie had cuddled up so nice in her down
comforter. I sat on the edge of her bed, tucked some hair behind my
ear, and watched her sleep for a minute. Sleeping had always been a
favorite pastime of hers, and she was good at it. She looked so
comfortable and peaceful, curled up in a ball with her head sunk
into the white pillow and the blanket pulled up to her chin. She
let out a little puff of air, a whisper snore. I couldn’t wake her,
but …

“Angie,” I whispered. A little more volume,
“Angie,” a light shake with my hand to her shoulder, “Sis, are you
sleeping?”

“Wha, hmm, cake,” she mumbled, balled up some
blanket in a fist, pulled it to her sleeping cheek, crinkled her
face and grinned as if she was in a wonderful dream.

A little more forceful shake as I said, “Sis,
wake up. I have some great news. Dad’s building our new house in
our spot by the creek. Ang, Ang, wake up.”

Her lids lifted. She rolled onto her back.
Pulled a strand of hair from the corner of her mouth, fisted the
sleep from her eyes like a child.

“What?” She croaked, cleared her throat.
“Really?”

“Yeah, sis, we’re gonna live here on the
mountain.”

She scooched up to a seated position against
the pillowed headboard, tented her knees up and hugged them,
waking. “Really?” Her eyes showed a little more light. Schmutzing
her lips together, she appeared to have desert sand in her mouth,
so I reached over to the nightstand and gave her the glass of tea.
After she finished the entire glass, she wiped her mouth and said,
“I wanna talk about this. Let’s go downstairs.

****

Angie plopped down on the loveseat next to
Jaydenn. She’d changed into a pair of jeans from Mom’s closet. She
just loved mine and wanted a pair of her own. Denim sisters. I
lowered down between Vyn and Mom on the couch.

We sat discussing the news, the plans and the
future, sipping our drinks and laughing. We decided we needed to
get our stuff from our homes in Vinger, so Dad had given us the
choice to take the truck or the carriage. It wasn’t a difficult
choice for me; I chose the carriage, with our white horses, Lady
and Giselle. My horse is Lady, a beautiful friend that would always
listen to my childhood dreams. She’d nuzzle her head into my chest
and blow out little puffs of air from her vibrating muzzle. I
couldn’t wait to get her out of that stuffy barn again.

“Ellie,” Mom said, “why don’t you play us
something on the piano, honey?”

That was no surprise. It was like some sort
of ritual with Mom.

Angie sent me a questioning gaze. “You’re
gonna make me cry again, aren’t you?” She came to that conclusion
because every time I played certain pieces she would sob with joy.
I gave her a grin. Jaydenn lifted a knowing smile. He knew Angie
would soon lean her head to his chest while she drifted on the
sounds of tinkling ivory.

They all looked at me, waiting. My queue I
guessed. I lifted off the couch, stepped across the hardwood to the
far side of the room, where the polished baby-grand piano stood on
a marble platform. I lowered to the bench, did my finger stretches
… then cleared hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear, when
Mom said, “Play our favorite, Ellie.”

My hands hovered over the keys as I felt the
coolness of brass pedals under bare feet. Then I began the slow
tinkle of a piece I’d taught myself from old-world sheet music. A
light and lilting composition called
Redeemer
, composed near
the beginning of the twenty-first century by one of the great human
artists of that time, Paul Cardall.

The sounds sprinkled the room. Behind me,
Angie began to sob. I lifted a soft smile for her while my fingers
tickled out the melody….

With a hoof clopping prance, Lady and Giselle
flung their heads high, blowing air from their muzzles, obviously
overjoyed to be out of the barn as they pulled the hauling cart
across the concrete-paved road. We were on our way to Vinger in the
fresh, dew-infused air, not a cloud in sight on this Monday
morning. We could’ve taken the truck, it would’ve been faster, but
this was more fun, especially with the sounds of the horses and the
chattering of the carriage.

Angie and I rode on the rear bench seat in
our new jeans and T’s. Vyn and Jaydenn were up front, guiding the
reins, dressed in the same clothes they had worn all weekend,
slacks and a polo shirt, which Mom had washed for them each
evening. Even though we lived in Vinger, Angie and I always kept a
stock of clothes at the home on Conall Mountain, so we didn’t have
that problem.

Mountains settled down into a lush valley.
The Shone River looped south and away from the road, on its way to
Castle Cliff Canyon. Produce farms came into view on both sides of
the road. Farm worker angels were out in the fields, beginning
their harvesting day. Some on foot, others were climbing up into
expensive electric machinery—big yellow harvesting tractors and
trucks with “Heming Produce” painted on the doors. Every kind of
fruit and vegetable known to angelkind covered the fields with
color.

Just outside of Vinger, hundreds of
statuesque wind towers dotted the wheat fields. Wind-farm blades
were just beginning to move on the morning thermals. I’d considered
them an eyesore once, but much more pleasant than the alternative
of hazy air from fossil fuels that I’d seen in old-world pictures.
Even as the cart rolled along the road, horse hooves
clop
clopping
, I noticed a herd of antelope grazing in the distance,
and a red-tailed hawk soaring high above.

We made the rounds to our homes in Vinger,
and Vyn’s lab, loading up as much as we could for this trip. Then
we stopped at Luscious Berry Yogurt, followed by a little shopping.
The day went by in laughter and fun. The original plan was to stay
the night in Vinger, but we eventually decided to go back to the
mountain. With most of the day gone, it was a risk. But we
calculated the time it would take and came to the conclusion we’d
make it back with time to spare. If nothing went wrong.