Bird Wings

Chapter 1

(Part 2)

The day before Wren's wedding had been rainy, and she'd spent the bulk of it moving fretfully from one window of her parents house to another, to watch what little of the sky could be seen from them. The rain itself was fretful too, pouring one minute and giving way to sun the next. Wren wrung her hands with growing anxiety; rain was bad luck for weddings, so much so that hers would certainly be postponed if this weather lasted. If only the sky would make up its mind! She'd have to wait a whole week if it really did not stop.

"Couldn't Doctor Patrew pick a runner up for our lucky day? A top three or something?" She hollered from her station at a front window at some point in the afternoon.

"What are you in such a hurry for? You've had just about the shortest betrothal I've ever seen, and there's the whole summer ahead of you." Her father answered, pausing in the doorway on his way through the house. "I remember one couple that waited so long to get engaged that they only had three chances left that season, and it rained every time! They had to wait until the next year. That was bad luck."

Wren danced in frustration. She knew she wouldn't relax until it was all over. This growing sickness in the pit of her stomach would only go away when she stepped off the bridal knoll tomorrow with Cobin, she was sure of it. It had been increasing steadily through all the past few week's many little preparations until she felt so uncomfortable she couldn't sleep.

"This could be a good sign, you know." Her mother called from the kitchen behind her. "It probably won't rain two days in a row. This is just ensuring that things will go well tomorrow. Why don't you leave the windows alone and come help me? Watching the rain isn't going to make it stop."

Wren sighed deeply and retreated to the kitchen, where her mother kept her busy the rest of the afternoon, preparing things for the wedding meal. Later, when the already gloomy day began to deepen, Anise came running in through the back door with a wooden box under one arm and a covered basket hooked onto the other.

"I'm soaked!" she exclaimed as she pressed her two first fingers momentarily onto the family's doorway charm. "Wren, can you grab the candles? It's so dark in here already!"

Anise was cheerful despite the water. It was an exciting night for the family, one that Wren had been looking forward to (when she had been able to see around her nerves). She took the box of candles from her sister and began unwrapping them from the cotton they had been stored in.

"We should start lighting these right away, right?" She asked, "Dreea might be late because of Star."

"Is that okay?" Anise's brow contracted.

"It's fine, we lit them without Wren before your wedding, remember? She was sick upstairs." Their mother waved a dismissive hand.

"Wren was in the house then, at least. Maybe we should wait."

Wren tuned out the rest of the discussion, Anise would win out in the end and she was busy with the candles. They were beautiful. New, white, and subtly glossy even in the fading light. Candles were always used instead of lamps on important occasions, but never with more solemnity than before a wedding. Marriage and family were the centre of life in the village, everything revolved around it. They would do everything they could to start Wren's life off well.

Dreea arrived before Anise and their mother could agree about the candles, she came in laughing and shaking water from her hair.

"It's so dark in here!" she exclaimed "Why didn't you light anything yet?"

"We were waiting for you." Anise stated, even though only she had been so particular. "Where's Dad now? Wren, can you grab him?"

"Oh, we're taking this very seriously." Dreeas' voice held a hint of teasing.

"Our baby sister's getting married! We have to be serious about it."

Wren found her father sitting in the growing dark of the front room and dared to waste more time by sinking into the space next to him on the sofa.

"How's my girl?"

"My stomach feels weird." She complained. "I can't tell if I feel full or if I'm starving."

He chuckled, and continued sitting quietly. One hand moved in a slow rhythm back and forth over his knee. Wren and her father never had much to say to each other, but that didn't make her want to leave his company and hurry back into the kitchen.

"We're going to light the candles." She said after a pause.

"I bet Anise is making a meal out of that. Should we go save your mother?"

Wren sat a second longer, savouring the blue darkness and the familiarity of that room. Everything, even the clamminess that grew in the corners when it rained this long was unbearably precious to her at that moment. Tomorrow evening she'd be in her new house; in an entirely new life. This was the last night.

"Okay."

The candles filled the house with a delicate yellow light and the smell of wax. They set them up mostly in the kitchen, where they'd be working together.

The tradition had started with simple necessity; weddings required a lot of food, and the bride's family would have to pitch in the night before to make all the things that couldn't be prepared ahead. Over time, a detailed ritual had developed - no one outside the original family unit was allowed, not even spouses and grandchildren. Candles were lit together, food prepared together until late in the night. Wren remembered her sisters' last nights fondly. To her, they held more nostalgia than any of the other days in her childhood.

It would have been more practical to have the sons-in-law, there was a mountain of dumplings to make and it would take them half the night. It also would have been more practical to gather sooner, or to have better light, but this was how it was done. Wren sat in the same chair at the family table that her sisters had occupied before her. That gave her an eerie feeling of going through their motions instead of her own; if she squinted in the candlelight she felt she could almost see the past laying over the kitchen like a misty blanket. The darkness outside heightened the impression that the only place that really existed just then was that kitchen, with its wooden shelves, worn floors, and memories.

When it was all finished, the dumplings laid out under clean dampened cloths and the dishes dried, the three sisters hugged goodbye at the door.

"Look, the rain stopped." Dreea smiled out at the night.

"How can you tell? Everything's still dripping." This was Anise, the cynic.

"It's only dripping a little. This isn't enough to count as rain; it's just what's left on the leaves. You'll have your day after all, Wren."

"She'd better, after all that. I'm exhausted."

"Aren't you tired too, Wren? You're not going to get much sleep before your wedding."

"She won't get much sleep after her wedding either."

They walked off giggling together and took the merry atmosphere with them. Wet nights were uncannily dark. Wren tried to watch them go and hang on to the fun, but the shadows swallowed them up before she was ready. She knew her parents were already slipping off to bed in the house behind her, and there was nothing left of her last night but for her to do the same. Nevertheless, she lingered on the doorstep. She felt somewhat disembodied, like the tradition had gotten in the way of the evening instead of accentuating it as it was meant to do. It had slipped by! And now there would be no more, this family would never have a last night again.

***

First flashback. This one makes me wish it was Christmas 😭

-Laura