“Goodness, you’re a jumpy one. Charlie’ll be just fine. He left about fifteen minutes ago, he should be back any moment. It’snot exactly a big town. Besides, you don’t have much to worry about in Virgo Bay.”
“Oh?” Nora dug Charlie’s file out from where it had slipped between the chair cushions and frantically searched for cause of death. The ink was still glitching. She slammed the file shut and looked back at her aunt. “Because everyone we asked for directions to this town seemed freaked out just by its name. If it’s so safe, why did people get so weird every time we mentioned it?” She was already at the door pulling her coat from its hook and shrugging into it before she’d finished her sentence. Just as she reached for the handle, the door swung open and Charlie stepped through, a box of croutons under his arm, Jessica on his shoulder.
Nora stumbled back for long enough to absorb a wave of relief before charging forward and punching Charlie’s shoulder.
“Ow, what the hell?”
“I told you to stay safe,” Nora said. “What the hell do you call this?”
“Croutons,” Charlie responded.
“No, I mean gallivanting around a strange town alone.”
“ ‘Gallivanting’? Sorry, my liege, I never meant to dishonor thee.”
“Are you kids in some kind of trouble?” Patty chimed in, joining them in the little doorway.
“No,” said Nora.
“Yeah,” said Charlie, at the same time.
“I see,” said Patty. “Well, whichever it is, I promise you couldn’t be in a better place. A lot of people fear what they don’t understand. We keep to ourselves here. We like our little community, our slow way of life. Those folks you asked directions from just don’t quite get that. But if you are in trouble, you couldn’t besafer than in Virgo Bay. And if you’re not, well, the same still applies. We always say there’s no better place for a Bird than this old forgotten town.”
“That explains why Jessica likes it so much here,” Charlie said. “She’s a bird in every sense of the word, and I haven’t heard a peep out of her since we got here.”
Patty smiled, but Nora thought she caught something strangely cold in it, as though it didn’t venture deeper than her lips. “I’d keep her caged while you’re here all the same. Not everyone is quite so pet friendly around here.” She took the crouton box from under Charlie’s arm. “Let me just add these to the salad and we can get going for lunch. You came on the perfect day—Mom always makes her gourmet mac and cheese on Fridays, and I guarantee you won’t taste anything better in all of the East Coast.”
* * *
Nora and Charlie’s grandparents lived a ten-minute walk from Patty’s place. In truth, Nora was shocked to find that anything in the tiny town of Virgo Bay could be a ten-minute walk away from anything else. But the heads of the Bird family lived on the beach, separating them from the town proper by a stroll that was barely long enough to be considered leisurely.
The chill of the morning had subsided a bit, and the afternoon sun gave off just enough warmth to earn its keep. Despite the more palatable temperatures, Charlie had opted to wear the heavy coat gifted by Juliette from the café in order to hide the bloodstains on his white pajama top. Apparently packing a change of clothes was also not considered essential by Charlie Bird, but at least he’d had the good sense to leave gore out of thefirst lunch with his long-lost family. He also, inexplicably, carried his duffel bag over his shoulder, which Nora decided not to question for the sake of her own wavering mental stability.
They turned off the main road and down a narrow path that cut through the grass towards the coast, where a small, wooden house painted fire-engine red sat just in from the rocks and sand. The trim on the windows was freshly painted white, and smoke puffed like dragon’s breath from the stone chimney. It looked at once like something out of a half-remembered folktale, and something as familiar as Nora’s own reflection.
Patty led the way through the front door, the house alive with the sound of chatter and clanging cutlery.
“I told them you were coming, but patience is a bit too much to ask from these animals when it comes to feeding time, apparently,” Patty said over her shoulder. “Make yourselves at home. I’ll just drop the salad in the kitchen and then I’ll be back to make all the introductions.”
She slipped into the next room, leaving Nora and Charlie alone in a front hall of yellow panels that somehow felt both dated and modern, the fresh, buttery brightness of the paint combining with the retro warmth of the wood boards beneath. Just beyond this sat a living room with wooden ceiling beams and antique furniture, the fireplace glowing with a full belly of flame. But the most warmth Nora felt came from the voices and laughter that reached out like fingers searching for a hand to hold.
“This thing weighs a ton,” Charlie whined, slinging the duffel bag off his shoulder.
“Then why did you bring it? Worried about a 7 Up shortage in Virgo Bay?”
“Nah, I leave the worrying to you,” said Charlie. He unzipped the bag a crack and Jessica’s head popped out. “I didn’t want to leave her all alone.”
“Charlie,” Nora hissed. “Patty said not to. Not everyone is into bird mites and avian flu.”
“Hey now, my pretty princess isn’t carrying avian anything. She’s perfectly healthy. I think once they get to know her and see how special she is, everyone will love her.”
Nora opened her mouth, an extensive list of additional bird-carrying ailments primed on her tongue for rebuttal, when a shadow fell over them from the living room. Nora turned. A few feet away stood a man in his midfifties with a shortish, compact stature. He was thicker around the middle and had less hair than the last time she saw him, but Nora immediately recognized his smile from the photo Charlie had given her; it was a perfect replica of her own, with something of her father in there around his eyes.
“You’re Charles!” she said.
“Not ‘Uncle Charles,’ eh? Guess I’ll have to earn that.” He took a step towards them, and the sudden movement sent Jessica fidgeting in the bag before her little gray head disappeared altogether. The motion caught Charles’s attention. He looked from the bag to the twins. “What a fun little friend. You might not want to have her here, though. Mom and Dad aren’t big animal people.”
Charlie sighed but relented, zipping the bag back up and slinging it over his shoulder.
