A raven's secret

The wolf between the wallpaper

Saturday morning was a flurry of activity in our house. Dad had come home last night at who knows when, and was out the door at the crack of dawn. Mom left early too. She had to be at the gallery. Some of the artists that were putting their pieces on show were coming this morning to pick out a spot on the wall where they would hang their work. Mom had to choose a place for her own piece too.

I was busy eating toast when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" Scott yelled and ran down the stairs, almost tripping over the carpet in the hall in his haste. A quick look in the mirror assured him his hair was acceptably messy ( in my opinion it looked like Mortifer made a nest in it ) and opened the door with a big smile.

"Hallo Scott! Am I early?" Vallerie's voice travelled into the house.

"Not at all," Scott answered. "Please come in. Ella is in the kitchen; she's still eating."

I felt irritated by Scott's way of announcing my presence. Vallerie came into the kitchen wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans with a hole in it just below the knee. I warned her to wear old clothes to avoid getting her best clothes ruined, since glue was generally a messy business.

I myself was wearing an old T-shirt with a 'Save the Amazon' logo on it, but it was wrinkled and had an odd stain on it in the lower left corner.

Scott wore old cloths too, but somehow he made it work. Vallerie too, to mention it. I tugged on my shirt in shame. Even my hair was a mess. I had made a quick bun on top of my head, to insure none of my hair got glue in it.

"Ready for some hard work?" I asked Vallerie.

"You bet. Are your parents home?" Vallerie asked and looked out into the hallway.

"No, Dad's still searching for the missing girl, and Mom's at the gallery." Scott's mood seemed to fade a little at the mention of Mackenzie, but he quickly recovered himself. "We had moved all the stuff upstairs so we can just get started. But all the furniture is covered in white sheets. The place is a mess," Scott apologized.

"It's nothing," Vallerie said indifferently.

"Do you want something to drink?" Scott asked. "Or eat?" He eyed me sitting at the kitchen table, still munching on toast.

"Some orange juice would be nice." Vallerie indicated at the jug standing on the table.

"You'll need to take it to go," I said and took the final bite of toast. I carried my coffee cup upstairs with Scott and Vallerie trailing behind, Vallerie with a glass of juice in her hand.

I placed the cup on my desk, wich was now standing in the middle of my room. I only now realized how bad the place really looked. It looked like the first day we moved in.

Vallerie didn't seem to mind. We started pulling wallpaper off the walls. That was the fun part. We ran around the room, pulling off long strips of paper. Scott had set up his speaker, so music was pouring out of the house and was most likely being carried down the street to the neighbours. The Killer Kings were singing their hit song, We Came To Stay, and Scott was singing along in-between cutting the wallpaper.

Applying new wallpaper was harder than I originally thought. We had to be pretty sure of how the wallpaper would fit on the wall and cut it precisely.

The funniest moment was when Scott fell over a stack of my books that were on the floor and fell, while the tube of glue in his hand flew through the air and fell in my coffee cup. ( I had to throw away the remainder of my coffee to avoid my insides getting stuck together).

I was happy with the overall look of my room when we were done. I had chosen simple grey for three of the walls, while one wall was covered in cream wallpaper. I chose it because it had little Sherlock silhouettes on it, the wheel of London, The Big Ben, the royal crown, some of the royal guards...