Now, I was as forgotten as those peach trees. At least the human could bring those back to life.
My orchard, small as it had become, was beginning to show the signs of a good harvest. My blessing on my produce wasn’t as powerful as the ones I gave in exchange for gifts and praise, but it wasn’t too shabby either. I had a lone peach tree, some cherries, and a lot of plums and nectarines, all gifts of the summer. The best time of the year, in my opinion. I’d pruned the branches back after the harvest the year before and now walked through the rows, speaking life into them once again.
I left bags of my fruit at the doors of others now. Families and those without a mate. People who needed cheering up.
This year, if the human came back, I would leave an abundance at his door, a small effort to make that smile return.
It had been the only thing to make my chest warm in a very long time.
I yearned to see it again. The way his full lips rose slowly, revealing white teeth and a dimple on his right cheek.
Moving between the trees, the necklace I wore for a decade or more carried my most prized trinkets. The shiniest ones. The rarest ones, made of pure gold and silver. I clasped the ground of them in my fist and looked over toward the farmhouse.
The human liked the shiny trinket before. Maybe I could part with one of my more valuable ones in exchange for that sign of happiness.
I gripped it tighter. Was I willing to relinquish one of my treasures for someone I’d only met once? Not met. Spied on. Watched. Observed. Yeah, that was the better word. I was no stalker.
With all the trees blessed with my words and hand, I went back to my porch and waited for the human to come back.
Waiting and patience had become one of my best attributes. Not my choice. They were thrust on me by time and abandonment.
But I’d waited one whole day for the human to come back, and so far, nothing. The sun had already set for the night and with it, my surety that the human would come back at the same time this day.
Perhaps it was time I went into town for a meal. It had been years. There was a chance the human could be there. Maybe he placed my trinket in his pocket and carried it around for good luck like the old days. He might be walking the streets of the town or shopping.
Or at the diner, perchance.
I put on clothes like a human. Usually, I wore only pants, as the cold winter didn’t affect me like it did other kinds. My feathers could cover my body and keep me warm. A fluttering of my wings rose my temperature almost instantly, no matter how chilly the winds.
In human skin, I had to have sweaters and socks and shoes when I chose to be around people or they chose to be around me. Pesky things.
Plus, there was one huge thing I had to change before going into the human world. My head stayed as a crow’s. Kind of. Bigger than a human head. I had a beak that was larger than my whole crow body. For most of my life, I could easily conjure a glimmer to keep a human head. It was as easy as a snap of the fingers but, as time grew long, the energy it took to raise the glimmer took a lot of the magic I held.
Tonight would be the first time in quite a while that I even tried. No humans came around my home. They assumed it abandoned. I didn’t repaint or fix up the shutters in the hopes that, since they would no longer worship or ask me to bless their lands, they would simply forget I existed and leave me alone.
It was working better than I’d planned.
With the glimmer in place and human clothes on my body, I walked into town. It was only a few miles. I didn’t have a car or a truck like others. If I needed to go somewhere, I let my wings carry me.
Whisper Grove had changed. There were shops galore and tiny street carts selling food and gifts. The neon lights of a diner I recognized flashed and I went in. The scent of grilled meats and a sweet pie caught my attention as soon as the bell rang above the door. Everyone inside turned to me.
“Welcome, stranger. Pick any booth you like. I’ll be with you in two shakes of a lamb’s tail,” a plump woman said from behind the counter. Her face seemed familiar, but I didn’t dare bring attention to it. Them thinking I was a stranger was fine with me. Less conversation. More looking for the human I wanted to see.
I sat in the booth in the darkest corner and picked up the menu to hide my face even though it would appear human to anyone in the diner.
Cheeseburgers and fries. Those I recognized. I had a wad of dollars in my pocket. I didn’t use them for anything other than grocery delivery, usually, but tonight, I would put them to good use. A juicy cheeseburger while I watched and waited for the human sounded fantastic.
I pushed away the feeling that I might never see him again.
Chapter Six
Joshua
The diner smelled incredible. The minute I walked inside, my mouth watered at the scents of burgers and fries, bacon—their sign out front bragged that breakfast was available all day—and other savory dishes. I was going to have a difficult time deciding what to have, especially after my very busy day. Such a huge change carried its own exhaustion and sense of discombobulation, which was only now settling in.
Not a single table appeared open, but I waited in the doorway in hopes of getting on the wait list for one. I was just too beat to seek out anywhere else. Also…the good smells. Listening to the clank of silverware against thick, diner plates and the lively buzz of conversation, my mind returned to the orchard. Of course, the house had a lot to be done, and that would be fine. A couple of weeks and I should have it livable, but the orchard…what it did to my heart to see the trees so long neglected. I had to hug them, to touch them, and tell them that their wait for someone to care for them was over. They wanted to be fed, watered, to blossom, and grow fruit.
“I’m afraid we don’t have any open tables, but it shouldn’t be more than a half hour or so…” I hadn’t even seen the matronly woman approach. “I hope you won’t leave.”
