The Parts of a Feather

Part One- The Hollow Shaft

All of my life, I've had wings on my back. I've also been able to see other peoples wings, and yet whenever I tell them that my wings ache or that I like the coloration of someone's wings they just look at me funny. My mother told me that when I was little I'd say that she had a pair of wings the color of deep, red roses.

And she did, and I thought that they were the most beautiful set of wings that I had ever seen. I remember saying to everyone at my old elementary school that my mother had the most beautiful wings that I had ever seen. It was to such an extent that everyone began to bully me and give me the nickname of "Wingy" since I was a delusional freak or something of that sort. They even tried to grab my wings and pull the feathers out, but they never did catch them. They were always tucked tight underneath my rain coat.

Then one day some kid finally did what I thought was the unthinkable when the end of junior high was just approaching. I was fourteen at the time.

I was alone in the hallway near the doors waiting for my parents to pick me up. I didn't want to go outside since it was raining and I had forgotten to bring my coat since it was dry as a desert for two days and had thought nothing of it.

"Oi, you! Wingy!"

I looked around and found someone leaning up against a wall with a smug smile on his face.

His wings were so ruffled and curly I thought that it was all black fur. They were enormous too; from bend to wing tip they exceeded his height by almost three whole inches. His eyes swam in a dingy green muck.

He let out a whoop of laughter and staggered over to me in a drunken glee. "How've your wings been Wingy? Been flying much lately?"

I ignored him by saying, "You been drinking?"

He scowled and showed his teeth. "Yeah, what you gonna do about it though Wingy? Fly over to the principal and sing a song about how I'm drunk?"

I pulled my phone out and avoided further eye contact. "Maybe, but then again it depends on what you drank and how you got it into the school."

"If you told I'd beat the living daylights out of you. But then again maybe I should just beat you up and then tell you so you couldn't fly on over to the principal. Vodka can change a man's thoughts you know."

I got up and was about to head out when he suddenly slammed me into the wall. I pulled my wings away just in time, but my head wasn't so lucky. "You going somewhere, Wingy?"

"Hell yeah I'm going somewhere, and that's home!"

He glared at me, wings slightly quivering as if in anticipation. "You know, I don't think you'll be heading home today. In fact I'm going to send you somewhere else, and it's going to be a first class trip."

Grabbing the collar of my shirt, he hoisted me up and slammed me against the wall again with twice the force as he had before. My head screamed in agony, or maybe it was just me. I can never remember exactly if the scream was in my head or from my mouth. All I know was that I was quickly thrown onto the ground away from the doors leading out of the building.

"Tell me something, Wingy," he said casually as he watched my earnest struggle to get back onto my feet. "Why do you lie all the time about having wings? Your mom must send you to a therapist at least twice a week, or is it seven times a week?"

I tried to stand; I really did try, but my head hurt so much that I collapsed face first onto the floor. My left wing flopped onto my outstretched arm, feathers ruffling ever so slightly.

He walked over, and then carefully put a foot onto my sprawled out wing. "You're a freak, you know that? An insane freak who thinks she has wings. You shut yourself up about it when folks like me started kicking and grabbing at you, but we all still remember and we all spread the word about it. High school will be hell for you Wingy, and I will be personally responsible for it being so. If you get any sympathy or even empathy from anyone, they'll get stomped out so hard and fast you won't be able to do anything. Here's a taste of what you'll get, just in case your bitty birdy brain can't understand me."