Wings of Boden (23 page)

“How do you know it would be a her?”

A sharp gasp, then my reply, “Don’t say that.
Don’t ever say that.”

Angie grinned. “We’ll, I guess we’ll just
have to see then.”

We’d been out on the balcony for about an
hour or so. The honeyed smell of Mom’s flowers from the flower
boxes on the side railings lingered on the air. Earlier this
morning, Angie and I were up and ready with the sun, dressed in our
jeans and long-sleeved cotton T’s to keep the chilly air out. Our
shooting was improving, most of the arrows hitting the bales, not
exactly perfect, but whatever.

Just after the donut truck arrived and made
its way back to the boys, male sounds filled the distant forest,
whooping laughter and bellows. So much excitement, over pastry? Dad
had once called it “the warriors’ breakfast.” Okay, I guess, males
are so weird. It’s not like it’s wedding cake, then I could
understand.

“How ya doin’ out here, girls?” Mom said from
behind us, drawing our attention as she stepped through the french
doorway in her blue-flowered dress. She swayed over to us with a
plate of pastries. “I thought you might need a snack. That nice
donut guy gave us some raspberry danishes.”

Oh, yummy
. “Thanks, Mom,” I said,
taking the plate from her. As Angie thanked Mom also, I leaned my
bow against the railing, and picked out a treasure.

Mom was eyeing my bow as the heavenly pastry
melted on my tongue. “That sure is a pretty bow, huh. Mind if I
try?” She crouched down, stood up with the bow in her hand. “How do
you do this?”

Angie let out a little snicker as she took
the plate from me. She picked out a pastry and bit into it, said
while chewing, “Well, Mom, you take the arrow, put it on the
string, pull back, aim and let go.”

“Hmm”—Mom tilted her head—“that sounds easy
enough.”

Yeah, okay Mom. This could be interesting. I
hoped the squirrels and chipmunks were ready. Mom, the swaying
angel goddess, shooting a bow … I stepped back.

Mom picked up the quiver. “This goes over my
shoulder, right?”

“Yep,” I replied, took another bite.

Angie did a little eye roll; I wasn’t sure
whether it was for the pastry, or Mom.

After slipping the quiver over her shoulder,
Mom eyed down off the balcony. “That’s the thing we have to hit,
right? Those bales down there?”

“Mm-hmm,” I hummed and nodded with a mouthful
of raspberry.

Mom raked some hair behind her ear, then
lifted the bow and nocked an arrow. With her fingers on the string,
she breathed in, pulled back and let it fly. Almost instantly, her
arm began to zip back rapid-fire, pulling arrows out of the quiver
so fast I couldn’t keep up while her long hair flipped with the
motions … The flurry of energy finally subsided, only because the
quiver was empty … I swallowed, and looked down at the target.

The flappin drek had arrow eyes and a
feathered smile!

“Oh, would you look at that,” said Mom,
leaning over the balcony with a squint. She tucked some hair behind
her ear and added, “The drek’s happy.”

When I looked at Angie, she seemed frozen in
mid-chew, wide eyes, pastry flakes and jelly all around her mouth.
Her tongue slipped out and hooked some in.

Mom spun around, graceful and calm. She set
the quiver down. Handed me the bow, picked the pastry out of my
hand and took a dainty nibble off a corner. Then said with a sly
little grin, “It’s all in the eyes, dear.” Pause. “Close your
mouth, Ellie, I can see your danish.” After giving back my pastry,
Mom lifted a delicate hand, looked at her fingers and clicked her
tongue. “Oh, shoot. I broke a nail. Well, I guess I should go fix
it. I wanted to try out that new raspberry color anyway.” Two
long-legged steps to the door before she stopped, and stood looking
through the thin lace drapes into her bedroom as she said over her
shoulder, “Well, have fun, girls.”
Giggle
. She parted the
drapes, stepped into the bedroom.

“Um, Angie, what just happened?”

“Well, I guess we just got schooled. Guess we
shouldn’t mess with Mom, huh?”

“Yeah, no kidding. I feel, so, so …”

“Yeah, me too. We should get back to
practice.”

****

With a knee down on the straw-covered ground,
I eased another arrow out of the smiley face. A squirrel hopped
onto a pine branch above, looked at us, and chirped some kind of
sound while flipping its furry tail,
chiek chiek.
I could’ve
sworn it scolded us. “That’s not nice,” I said to it … It chirped
again, scurried across the branch and up the tree.

Male bellows were echoing through the forest,
birds darting through the pines. It sounded like the males were
playing football or something. Playing! That’s not fair. Then the
sounds turned to metal against metal clanging; wood against wood
clapping; and males grunting and growling through the woods. They
must be practicing. That’s better.

Most of the day was gone. Sore arms, tired
minds, we stepped off the dirt up onto the porch deck. Must’ve been
two hours before dusk, I guessed, five thirty maybe. After hanging
my bow on the bow rack Dad had mounted on the log house wall, I
flopped flat down into a deck chair, rested back on my wings and
slid into a slouch, then stretched my jeaned legs out before me.
Angie did the same. The thought of Mom and the previous lesson up
on the balcony came to mind. It was motivation, and it was sneaky.
But it worked. She knew how to motivate us, and our target practice
was honing razor sharp.

I filled my cheeks with air, blew it out.
“That was quite a day, huh, Ang?”

“Sheesh, I guess, yeah. I need a drink. And
not one of those iced teas either. I need to get into Dad’s
stash.”

“You don’t drink that stuff, do you? It’s
nasty, and that beer tastes like pine needles.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Males must have
different taste buds or something.”

At the sound of the door opening, I swiveled
my head to see Mom holding two tall glasses of tea, lemon slices
floating in ice. Was she psychic or something? She pranced over,
handed one to each of us. Angie and I sat up and drank, and drank,
and drank. After a gasp, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Thanks, Mom. I really needed that.”

“Yeah, thanks, Mom.”

“I know you did, girls, you’re welcome. You
girls had a hard day. Just relax now.”

“That’s what I’m planning,” I said.

“You should take a bubble bath tonight,
Ellie, and you too, Ang. I picked up this lovely cherry bubble bath
from Angel’s Closet.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” I said.

That idea vaulted to the top of my list of
evening self-pampering chores. Thoughts of the tub came to mind;
deep and roomy white porcelain. I could almost swim in the thing.
Yes, a damp rag over my eyes while I put the day behind, such a
yummy plan.

“Okay, I’ll leave you girls alone. Don’t be
out here too late, please.”

“We won’t. Thanks, Mom,” I said, and settled
back into my chair again as Mom went into the house. “That bath
sounded nice, huh, sis?”

“Yeah, if I have to I’ll fight you for it.”
She flattened out on the chair again, folded her hands on her
belly, and tilted chin to chest while her eyes slid shut.

My vision floated around. I sighed. The
wooden wind chimes hung still and silent. A fresh scent of flowers
lingered on the air. Mom must’ve watered the hanging flower
baskets—little blue flower petals and hanging vines with beads of
moisture, a drip to the porch deck now and then. An occasional bird
would send a few musical notes through the forest. Burly team
members were lifting off and flying away over the trees, off the
mountain toward the city.

“We’re gonna have to replace that bale
tomorrow,” I said. “It’s pretty tore up.”

Angie moaned in reply.

A sparrow winged from the forest and landed
on the edge of the barn roof.

“Dad was right about wearing jeans, huh?” I
asked.

“Mm-hmm.”

She was nodding off so I kept to myself. Long
thoughts pulled me into relaxation as I picked out shapes in the
clouds: A deer. A butterfly. My vision eventually wandered toward
the back forest … Something moved in the shadows of the tree
line.

“Ang?” I turned to look at her.

“Hmm.”

“I’m going to the backyard. You wanna go with
me?”

She groaned. “I’m not shooting again until
tomorrow.”

“I know. I just need to see something.” I
pushed from my chair, picked my bow off the bow rack, turned to
Angie.

She angled a sour look up at me. “Are you
serious?”

“You can stay here if you want.” I slipped
the quiver crossways over chest and shoulder.

“
Ugh
, fine.” She puffed a breath,
pushed from her chair. “But I’m not bringing my bow.

We made our way around the front of the
house. When we reached the back corner of the tall lilac hedges
that bordered the pool, I knelt to a knee, my gaze across the
weeded field and into the tree line. Echoes of distant male
laughter came from the left. With sharpened senses, I could hear
the bugs and the birds. Countless flying insects danced over and
through the tall weeds like darting specks. I inhaled the sweet
scent of lilacs.

But that’s not what held my focus.

Is that a black wolf in the shadows? That’s
not Jaeger is it? All through my childhood, I’d observe Jaeger
whenever I got the chance. He’d almost let me pet him once. His
beautiful pack—ten wolves of black and white and gray—live in the
forest around Conall Mountain. I always loved their presence here,
their enchanting bays in the night.

Wait, that’s too tall to be a wolf.

“What are you doing?” Angie asked behind me
in a somewhat irritated tone.

“Just, get down.”

“Ellie, I’m really not in the mood to play
right now. Let’s just go back to the house.”

Reaching back, I pulled on her shirt. “Get
down.”

She grunted a disagreement, but complied as I
heard her flop to sit, then say, “What are you gonna do, kill some
squirrel or something?”

Peering into the woods, I eased an arrow out
of the quiver, clicked it onto the string, pulled, aimed for a
beat, loosened my fingers and let it fly...

“I got it! I got it, Ang!” I bounded up, spun
to face her.

“What the flap are you talking about?” She
got to her feet. “You didn’t kill an animal, did you? You better
not have.”

“No, no, of course not. It was a drek, sis,
swear to Source. I just killed my first drek. That was
awesome.”

“Really? I don’t believe you. Show me.”

“I don’t know if there’s anything left, but
let’s go get my arrow and see.”

Before she could agree, I was bounding
through the weeds to the tree line.

My arrow had stuck in a pine tree, so I
rocked it back and forth, yanked it out, and looked at the tip.
Nothing.

Angie finally strolled up beside me. “Well, I
don’t see anything.”

“I know what I saw. I shot him right in the
head.”

“It’s getting late, maybe we should go back
in.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?” I slammed the
arrow back in my quiver,
slunk
.

“Yeah, yeah, I believe you. Now let’s go in.”
A little grin tugged at her mouth as she placed a big-sister hand
on my shoulder. “I’ll fill that bubble bath for ya.”

I jerked my shoulder back. “I don’t want no
flappin bubble bath. And stop looking at me like that. I shot him.
Right in the head. I saw his stupid black eyes right before he,
just, melted.”

With a glance at the ground behind Angie, I
noticed a thick pool of black on a bed of pine needles, a footprint
in the center of it.

“Ang, you should check your feet.”

“What?” She instinctively lifted and looked
at her right tread. “Oh, that’s just nasty. What is that?” Black
dripped like syrup off her shoe.

“Turn around.”

She turned. “That’s—” Eyes widened, then
swiveled to me. “You did, didn’t you?”

“I told you, right in the head.” I stepped
over to the stained ground, picked up a stick in my right hand, and
swirled the end around in the dark pool. “Eew. That is kinda gross,
isn’t it?”

“I can’t believe it, Ellie. You shot a drek.
You.” She tucked some hair behind her ear. “What was it like?”

I dropped the stick, turned. “It was weird. I
mean, something happened to me. I thought I saw Yeager, but when I
started to focus, the whole forest, turned like, white. I don’t
know. It was like all the trees were covered with snow, but it
wasn’t snow. It was more like fuzzy white light. I don’t know how
to explain it. And in the middle of the white there was this dark
spot, strolling along. And the next thing I knew my bow was up and
ready to shoot. I thought it might’ve been the fever so I just let
go of the string, like Dad said, you know. Then the drek looked at
me right before the arrow hit him between the eyes. And everything
went back to normal. I’m telling you, something happened. It
was—”

“Girls, time to come in now,” Mom called from
the house, a touch of panic in her tone.

“Wow, did you hear that?” Angie said. “Mom
does know we’re adults, right?”

“Yeah, it’s a little annoying. But I can
understand. I mean, if my daughters were out here I’d feel the
same.”

She paused to consider, her eyes saddened,
mouth curled down. “I never thought of it like that. Source. I’d be
terrified if it were my daughters. I should be nicer to her.” She
blew a breath, dropped her forehead into her hand. “
Ugh
, she
must think I’m such a bitch sometimes.”

“It’s all right, Ang. She understands. Now,
let’s go be nice to Mom. And don’t tell anyone about this, okay? We
weren’t supposed to be back here.”

Her eyes lifted to me. “Yeah. I won’t.” She
wrapped a hug. “I’m proud of you, sis.”