Wings

Chapter 3

SARAH

Kyle and I finished our conversation with Cherry, and excused ourselves from the table. We wanted to get to bed early, because part of Cherry's deal to let us stay here was that we had to help her out on the farm. I can tell that Kyle has something on his mind, but I don't want to risk talking to him right now, even though I trust Cherry. I shake my head a little and he quickly nods. We know each other well enough to understand each other's movements.

I pull my door closed and really look around the room for the first time. It is very cozy in here, there is flowered wallpaper and the dresser and nightstand are both a pale yellow. I have always liked yellow; it is the color of Spring. I notice a pile of neatly stacked clothes sitting at the edge of the bed. I look through the pile and find a pair of plaid pajama pants and a green camisole to match. I pick up the rest of the folded clothes and neatly stack them in the empty dresser.  I crawl under the floral patterned quilt that lies on top of the bed. I want to stay awake so that I can think about everything that happened today, but I and so tired that as soon as my head hits the pillow, I am already fast asleep.

I wake up to the sun shining right through my window and into my eyes. When I sat up, it took me a few seconds to figure out where I was and exactly why I was there. I quickly got up and grabbed a fresh pair of jeans and a cotton t-shirt. I headed toward the bathroom at the end of the hall to take a shower before I went downstairs. I washed my hair with homemade lavender soap. I could tell that it was homemade because almost everything in Cherry’s house is. I saw two toothbrushes sitting on the sink, along with two bottles of toothpaste. I figured Cherry had set them out for Kyle and I to use, so I brushed my teeth. I headed back to my temporary room to brush my hair and set my toothbrush and toothpaste on the dresser. I looked at myself in the mirror while brushing all of the knots out of my hair. I peeked out in the hall and saw that no one was there, and then locked the door. I stood in front of the mirror again and watch as my cursed wings erupted from my back. I couldn’t stand to look at them for even just a minute, so I quickly hid them. I decided I didn’t want to wear my classic hair style, so I French braided my hair.  After I was finished, I walked downstairs.

 Kyle was sitting at the table, drinking orange juice, and Cherry was making pancakes on the stove. I smiled at Kyle as I sat down. He returned my smile. “How did you sleep?” I asked him. “Better than last night.” he replied. Cherry set a big plate of pancakes in front of both of us. She got out the butter and syrup (homemade), made herself a plate of pancakes, and sat down beside me at the table. “After breakfast, you and Kyle can go take care of the horses and gather eggs from the chickens. I will milk the cows.” Cherry said, turning towards me.  “It’s a deal.” I said.

Kyle and I finished our pancakes and headed to the stable first. Cherry has only two horses; a spotted gray Orlov Trotter named Lily, and a black Pinto named Charles. I headed towards Lily’s stall, and Kyle headed towards Charles. As soon as I neared Lily’s stall, she whinnied and stepped back from me. Charles did the same to Kyle. “Well I guess they just chose who they want to take care of them.” I say laughing and taking a step back. Kyle’s shoulder brushed mine as we switched stalls. “I like your hair, by the way.” “Thanks.” I say and wonder why he commented on my hair. He has never done that before. I shrugged and pushed the thought out of my mind.

 I hesitantly walk towards Charles, but unlike Lily, he butted his head into my hand so that I could pet him. I looked over to see if Lily was giving Kyle a hard time, but she wasn’t. I turned back to Charles. I walked into his stall and began cleaning out his old hay, and getting him new stuff. I also poured fresh water into his trough, along with food on the other side. After I finished, I gave Charles an apple as a treat and walked out of the stall to where Kyle was waiting for me. We started toward the chicken coop.

I never thought of how hard it would to gather eggs until I had to do it myself. All of the chickens that I was gathering from would not stand up! They just sat there and looked at me. Once, I tried to move a chicken out of the way, let’s just say that I will have scars. Of course, all of Kyle’s chickens cooperated perfectly fine for him. Kyle sat outside the chicken coop once he was finished collecting his eggs. He just sat there and laughed at me the whole time. Finally, I collected the rest of the eggs, although it took me twice as long as it did Kyle. We carried our baskets of eggs into the kitchen, where Cherry sat waiting for us.

 Cherry told us that she usually sells her eggs and milk at the market, which is in the middle of this small town. She said that she would be back in about an hour, and that we could do whatever we want; we have the rest of the day off. Cherry put the eggs and milk in her cart, and started to the market.

There was an awkward silence, and we just stood there.  I could tell that he was thinking about the last time we saw each other, but I had other things on my mind. Suddenly it hit me. This is the closest town to the Angel training center, so that would mean that if this happened to anyone else, they probably would have come here first. Now our only problem is trying to figure out who to ask about it.

I quickly filled Kyle in on my idea. “We don’t know who to ask.” he said. “I thought about that too.” I sighed. “Well I guess we could go ride Charles and Lily. I saw saddles in their stalls.” Kyle always knows what to say. I nodded and we headed out towards the stable.

After I saddled Charles, I tried to get up onto him to ride him. I just couldn’t reach. I looked around for a stool or something, but Cherry was taller than me, so she probably doesn’t have one. I decided to try again. While I was struggling, I felt a pair of strong hands pick me up and set me on the saddle. “I saw you struggling, and I thought you might need some help.” Kyle said, shrugging his shoulders like it was nothing. He probably thought that I was so weak. “I could have done it by myself, you know.” I huffed, annoyed. He smirks at me. “Always feisty.” he says, and I had to smile at that.

We rode into the forest at the edge of Cherry’s property.  Kyle took the lead and Charles and I followed. We followed a small, hardly used trail that leads to a small meadow with a stream at the far end of it. Kyle jumped off Lily and then walked over to Charles to catch me when I jump. I tried to jump off on the other side of him, but he must have figured would do that because he caught me around the waist just as I was about to jump and carefully set me on the ground. He held on to me a minute longer than he had to, but I was too busy trying to be independent to care.

After he let me go, we walked Charles and Lily to the stream so that they could get a drink. Kyle lay down on the grass, and I lay down next to him. He turned his head to look at me and that is when I lost it. He gave up everything he has ever known, just to be there for me while I figured things out. I felt my body being pulled toward his and he hugged me while I cried on his shoulder. I have to pull it together. I thought. Even though I am right now, I still don’t want Kyle to think that I am weak. I wipe my eyes and stay in his arms only a minute longer before I pull away and sit up; wrapping my arms around my legs and looking down. “I’m sorry.” I tell him. “Don’t apologize.” he tells me gently. “Your whole world was torn up in a matter of seconds. It’s not your fault.” I look at him. “Yeah, and so was yours the moment you ran after me but you aren’t crying about it.” I stood up and shook myself off, signaling the end of the conversation. Kyle sighed like he had something to say, but got my hint and stood up silently. “We should be getting back.” I told him. “I’ll lead the way.” he says and I just nod.

I saddle up Charles and lead him to the edge of the forest. Kyle makes his way over to me to pick me up. I quickly shake my head. He was about to protest, but I already found a stump and was climbing onto Charles’s back. Kyle sighed and climbed up onto Lily.

We were halfway back to the field, when I started silently crying. That’s why I couldn’t see what spooked Charles. Whatever he saw made him throw me off his back and onto the ground. That was the last thing I knew before everything went black.