New Birds

Can't Quite Put A Finger On It Part 12

He loved the noises here. Especially when the trees started whispering through the soft shifting of branch, the brush of needle. Tilly said all she could hear was Louis's nerve-wracking storks. He believed the storks only added to the conversations. So did the bleating goats. A circuit of easy familiarity. It reminded him of his brothers. Especially on nights when one topic of conversation would lead to another until it grew into a strange harmony of laughter, chatter and speaking over one and other. He missed them. They would have loved it here.

The screen door opened behind him. He turned and smiled up at her. She smiled back. She had changed her sweater for a red plaid shirt and her hair was now piled on top of her head in a cluster of cascading curls.

"Can I get you anything else?" she asked.

He shook his head. "You have been very kind, Tilly Tucker. Thank you. I forgot what it felt like to feel this clean. I am very comfortable now." He hadn't realized just how uncomfortable he had been, but with his discomfort now gone entirely, he felt lifted. Weightless. Even his movements had a soft buoyancy about them.

"You'll have to thank Louis for the shirt. And my goats and my herbs for the soap." She sat down beside him on the step.

He ran a hand down the clean grey shirt he wore with its silver snap buttons, thinking again of Marshall E. The list of people and things he was thankful for since leaving the safe house was quite long now, but it started with Marshall E for making this journey with him. Next on his list was James, a can collector who let them sleep on a mattress one night in his back hallway. Tabitha, who gave Marshall E, a better pair of boots. Amy and Thomas who shared their meal with them one night under the stars, outside their camper van. And Heather, the midwife, along with her wife, who made room for them in the back of their truck, driving them for several hours before leaving them at a crossroads. Heather told them what road to take up into the mountains. They would have taken them further, but they had to get to Calgary before the light left. None of these people fit the description Carol had given them. She said people were fearful, opportunistic, or angry, any of which could cause trouble for the Marshalls if they were ever discovered. But no, there were many more who were kind. And thankfully, the ones that Carol had hoped to protect them from were usually easy to spot. They carried about a restlessness that seemed to want a reason. He and Marshall E had avoided these people or groups whenever they spotted them.

"Do you know where Carol is now?" Tilly asked.

He shook his head. He wanted to say dead, but that would have been an assumption.

"Or what her research was about?"

He again shook his head.

"And she had never mentioned Anson Genetics?"

He shook his head yet again.

"Bio Blanket?"

The questions went on for a while. Questions he didn't have answers for. The biggest question. The one which seemed to bother her the most was why her water had helped him. If he could repay her kindness with an answer of any kind, he would have. But he had left all the answers in Carol's office. He was now regretting that.

"I know this must be frustrating. So, let's try something different. Tell me anything at all about this safe house. Something I hadn't asked about."

He struggled for a few seconds to come up with something. "There was Aquaman," he said, searching her face to see if this might suffice.

"Okay." She nodded a slow nod. "Tell me about this Aquaman?"

"Marshall B found him under the floorboards in the upstairs closet soon after we arrived at the house. Fourteen thin books, all in separate clear pouches. They were full of graphics. They weren't like the other books Carol assigned us to read. They were our favourites. Maybe because we shared them. Aquaman protected the oceans. He had a pet octopus named Tobo. Tobo was smart. Smarter even than the birds here. They came from a place under the sea called Atlantis. We knew Aquaman was a fictional character - but we liked to pretend he existed, and that underwater cities and octopuses existed. It was fun to believe that. We didn't tell Carol about Aquaman. We weren't allowed to share reading material, and so we thought she might take the books away if we told her."