Bluebirds Without Wings | Julie and the Phantoms

The Birdwatcher

A/N: Like most of my stories, this one starts off really slow but picks up after chapter 2 I believe. 

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It was another pink day in the castle. The banquet was happening all below, but Julie didn't plan to go anywhere near it. She was standing out on her balcony, staring out at the kingdom and at the birds. She wished she could trade spots with a blue jay- even if it was just for one day. The weight of a blue jay's wings is but a decimal of the weight of grief. A blue jay probably wouldn't know that their mom is dead. A blue jay would assume she's somewhere- out there- and they'll meet up for migration that Winter like they always have. Denial must be bliss she always thought.

But Winter and Spring had all left as well as the snow and the constellations Julie used to see in the sky. She only sees an entire universe that could swallow her whole, and she only knows peace when she shuts her eyes and dreams of singing with her mom for the people in the town square. She hoped they didn't think that she was gone, too.

She heard the door from inside her room open, but she didn't bother looking to see who it was. She was more interested in seeing which direction a trio of crows would take.

"To the square or to the graveyard?" Flynn asked, looking out with her. Julie pointed at the crows she had been watching as they flew in circles around each other.

"I think they're playing right now."

"Crows." Flynn scrunched up her face. One had dropped a little present for her on her head a few years ago at a public event, and she didn't seem to be too fond of the idea that it was a symbol good luck. "Probably the graveyard. They're going to take their little shovels and little graverobber pin buttons and start grave robbing." Julie watched Flynn pretend to be interested in her bird watching activities, peering closely at the birds who made her run out of the square in shame when she was eleven. Julie had chased after her to comfort her. Flynn was doing a lot of that in these past few months.

Although Flynn would never turn her in, Julie still had to ask, "Are they looking for me?"

"Not yet," she said. "Someone asked about you and your brother started talking about bugs or something to distract them." Carlos seemed to take attention better after their mother's death. Julie on the other hand, wasn't a fan. It worked out for the two of them. It's how they looked out for one another.

Julie saw the crows head off in the direction of the graveyard just like Flynn had predicted. She hoped they'd be able to find nourishment in something on her mom's altar. "The king's son wants to be an entomologist and his daughter is starting to resemble Icarus. I can't imagine what the people are saying."

Flynn put her hand over Julie's. "Your people don't care. They also miss her." Julie knew exactly who Flynn was talking about. The people in the smaller villages of the kingdom that seldom used electricity and provided most of the crops for the kingdom. Too many times had building a school in those areas been denied and her and her mom could never figure out why. They would go there almost every weekend to build relationships until her mom became bedridden for two years and later died. Julie was almost sure those people got the news last.

Julie looked up at the white clouds adorning the velvet pink skies. Their contrast made the world seem perfect for a moment. She was pulled back from impossibility when a tear fell down to her collarbone. "I hope they remember her."

"They always will."

After a few moments of spacing out and thinking about her mom showing newborn baby Carlos the clouds, Julie realized the crows were completely out of view. She imagined them perched on a headstone, cawing in joy. "Let's go in?" Julie asked Flynn.