FWOK: 12 Stealing The Wheel
Verd heard the sharp tap of her talons on the kitchen tile as she stepped into the cozy kitchen lit by the first rays of dawn. The great bay window of the breakfast nook overlooked a picturesque garden in late autumn. She didn’t recognize any of the flowers that filled the frame. Their petals and vines covered every space except where stones from a wall peeked out. The gradient of their colors matched the season it was. A sturdy wooden bench stood empty at the end of a stone path sheltered by a lattice arch. A place she’d get to enjoy now that she was home.
Faustus lowered the lab door and slid the handle into the locked position. The flower garden was quite pretty in the sun’s early light. He opened a cabinet above the sink and retrieved a short glass tumbler that he filled with cold water from the tap. He handed it to Verd, who drained it in a few gulps. She marveled as the glass refilled itself once emptied. Faustus smiled at the wonder on her face and said, “Richard hated having to refill glasses. Anything he felt was a waste of time he found a shortcut for. The house is full of those kinds of fixes.” He walked to the icebox on the left of the sink and pulled the silver handle to open the door. The shelves were empty, except for four glass bottles of soda on the shelf in the door. He grabbed two sodas out, flicking the lids off with the nail of his thumb. He handed Verd one, “cheers to making it home alive,” he said.
Verd grinned as she clinked her bottle to his, “cheers,” she said.
“Now we just have to find out what happened to those kind parents of yours,” Faustus said between gulps. “We need something to eat, and the safest place I know to go is your grandparents, Amos and Evelyn. I know they’ll have food to share. Hopefully, they know something about Richard and Jenie. What do you think about a bath and clean clothes while I go see what Grampa and Granny know?” He finished the rest of his soda and set the bottle on the counter by the sink.
“That sounds lovely,” she replied.
“I’m sure there’s something suitable amongst your mama’s things,” Faustus said as he walked through the doorless doorway and into the living room.
Verd looked out the back windows, hoping she’d have the chance to explore outside soon. Faustus turned right into the hallway with four doors on either side. He passed all of them before stopping at the door at the end and turning a delicate gold handle. Pushing the door open, he walked inside the master bedroom. Orb lights came on above and rotated slowly below a still ceiling fan. He walked around a wooden four-post king bed with a chiffon canopy and through a dark doorway that lit after he stepped through.
A nightstand stood between the bed and the doorway Faustus had just walked through. On its surface was a framed picture of a couple with their cheeks pressed against one another. Smiling from ear to ear, holding each other close. Verd stopped and picked up the picture, “Is this, are these my parents?” she stuttered. She heard the water running before Faustus’ shadow hovered in front of her.
“Yes, that’s Richard and Jenie,” Faustus said. He leaned around the doorway, looking up at the wall above the nightstand, and reached for a framed picture on the wall that he placed in Verd’s other hand. He tapped the smiling young man’s face, “this is papa when he was 16,” he said. Then pointed to the barn owl perched on the young man’s shoulder and said, “and that’s your mama, Jenie, before she became part-human.”
“Whoa, wait a minute, you’re serious. My dad fucked a bird? What!” Verd looked up at Faustus in revulsion.
“Well, that’s what your papa’s enemies say, sure. I can guarantee you the transformation was spontaneous, nothing your mama had control over. Definitely not a choice Richard made for her. Jenie was his companion from the moment she landed on his outstretched finger. His affection for her was noticeable. Especially since he didn’t have any lovers. It was used as an insult against him, but Richard isn’t the type to give a fuck about what other people say. These two are absolutely inseparable, and that didn’t change even after she was no longer a bird,” Faustus smiled.
“How’d she go from being a regular owl to evolving into being part-human?” Verd asked.
Faustus took the picture frame back from Verd and hung it on its hook. Verd sat the other picture frame back on the nightstand. “Richard suspected she’d eaten tainted meat on the night of her last hunt as an owl. He had no way to prove it, but it wasn’t long after they moved into this house. One morning your mama wasn’t in her nest box,” Faustus pointed to a wooden nest box affixed on the wall near the window on the left side of the room. “Instead, she was asleep face down on the shag rug, her naked fanny in the air and her feathered legs splayed out. Right over there in the floor, in front of where Richard slept.” Faustus laughed as he turned and walked back to the bath to shut off the water.
The bath was waist-high. Faustus picked her up and set her on the ledge before helping her down into the hot water. She sighed as the water reached her lower back. There was a wide bench on the opposite side from where she stood. As she sat down, the water covered her up to her neck, and she groaned in pleasure.
Faustus chuckled and handed her a washcloth and a bottle. He said, “Here’s soap and a cloth to wash with. I’m going to find you something to wear, and then I’ll be out the front door, ok?” He turned and walked into the bedroom.
Verd tensed. “You’re goin’ to leave me alone?” she asked.
His voice sounded muffled as he walked into the closet. “I’m leaving the front door ajar so I can hear you if you need me. I’m not going further than grampa and granny’s living room.” He found three dresses that might work, brought them out, and laid them on the bed. “If you sit on either of the sofas by the front door, you’ll probably be able to hear my voice,” he said, looking at her through the doorway. “I’ll be right back, little bird. You’re in the safest place. I won’t be far,” he said to her reassuringly.
She smiled at his sincerity, “Ok, ok, I’ll be fine. I’ll sit and wait for you in the living room,” she replied. Watching him walk through the bedroom door and turn left toward the living room before he disappeared from her line of sight. She sat back against the warm stone and raised her talons above the water. Flicking water across the surface until she was bored enough to wash up.
She stood and reached for a towel hanging from a rack to the right after she was done. She used the step under the water to sit on the ledge before swinging down. She tapped across to the bed to choose from what Faustus had laid out for her to wear.
The blue peasant dress with the half sleeves had varying gradients and gathered layers in the skirt. Verd slipped it over her head and her arms in the sleeves. She stood in front of the full-length mirror in the corner near the closet. The skirt swished with her every movement, and she could help but twirl. She giggled at the woman in the mirror with bird legs. Happiness wasn’t a feeling she’d thought she’d feel again, and it felt good. She tested her gait as she made her way down the hall, she managed to stop fast enough not to hit the wall, but it was close.
Turning into the living room, she stared out the back window again before turning to the wall of books. Names and titles she’d never heard of lined four wall-length shelves. She ran her fingers along the spines of the books lining the middle shelf. Stopping in front of the guitar on its stand, she strummed her finger across strings that were in perfect tune. Curious, she lifted the lid on the piano keys and ran the C scale. The piano was in pristine condition as well. Looking back down the shelves, she realized she’d passed a stereo with impressive speakers. A light was blinking in the center of a button that looked to power it on.
She pressed it, and the stereo came to life, “Stuck in the Middle with You by Stealers Wheel '' blared through the speakers, startling her. She winced as she located the volume knob, turning it down. Laughing at herself, she bobbed her head to the song and danced in a circle.
As she turned, her eyes stopped on the snow globe sitting at the center of the mantle above the hearth. There were a couple of figurines on either side, but that was all. Verd stepped back up on the raised pathway, skipped a step, and hopped down in front of the unlit hearth.
“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you,” Stealers Wheel sang as she reached the shelf. She giggled at the song’s lyrical coincidence with the creepy porcelain figures flanking the globe. A purple and black checkered jester wearing a fool’s cap with dangling gold bells stood in an over-exaggerated “shushing” gesture. The clown wore a shiny, baggy white jumpsuit with rainbow pom-poms down the front and oversized red shoes. His white-gloved hands framed his open mouth in a silent scream.
She had to flex her talons to lift herself high enough to see the snowglobe at eye level. Inside the dome was a single bearded figure sitting on a stump. A barn owl was perched on his shoulder. Her fingertips traced his features through the glass. His bushy eyebrows were familiar, as was the shape of the eyes and mouth of the bearded figure. Her eyes shifted to the owl, she didn’t know for sure, but she’d bet that if she compared the owl in this globe to the one in the picture, they’d look the same too. She stared hard, glancing between the two trying to understand why the man sitting on the stump looked like an older version of the boy with the owl from the picture.
Verd wrapped both her hands around the base, and a pale rosy light began to glow from her right wrist. Recoiling, she stumbled back from the mantle. Her brows furrowed in astonishment as she rubbed at the rosy raised hook. Warmth emanated from it as the light glowed. The surface felt smooth and hard as a gemstone. The surrounding skin was the same as it always had been. The light and heat increased in the hook until it became a hot brilliant beam. She waved it over herself, and it did nothing, wrapping her left hand around her wrist. The light glowed through her palm like she was holding a flashlight.
She caught movement from the corner of her eye and flinched. Two pairs of glowing red eyes stared at her from the mantle. The jester and clown animated, jerking their limbs loose from their statuesque positions. No longer figurines, they jumped from their pedestals to the shelf. When their tiny feet landed on either side of the snowglobe, a tone sounded, and they grew to double their size. A consecutively higher-pitched tone rang in her ears, and daggers slid from under the cuffs of their sleeves into their open palms. The final tone was a ringing gong that echoed as the two leering faces grew once more, hovering above her. Their heads turned toward her in unison, their jaws dropped open, and a blood-curdling cackle filled the room.
Verd let out a screech of terror. Her talons slipped on the hardwood floor in her hurry to flee. She felt twin knife tips graze her back as she jumped onto the back of the sofa and leapt across the pathway between them. She landed in front of the bookshelves and turned in time to see the front door bang open.