The inside of the little house is dark, and I squint as I peer through the doorway. Harry lights a lamp inside, and it coughs to life. Then he lights another, until I can see the small entryway and kitchen beyond it.
“Come in, come in,” Harry calls out. “I’ll get the tea going.”
Oh,tea? I haven’t had tea since… well, since my mother was alive. It was her favorite, and Father banished it just like he banished every memory of her.
Lured by the promise of tea, I step through the doorway into the house. Inside it’s warm, as if a fire was lit only hours before in the hearth. I watch as Harry busies about his kitchen, getting his stove lit and his kettle filled.It’s so strangely normal, a normal I haven’t known for so long I forgot what it looked like.
“Sit down,” Harry says, gesturing to the table. “Get off those feet, and then I’ll see to them.”
I obey, taking a seat on one of his solid wooden chairs. As soon as the kettle is going, Harry’s off, rummaging through a back room. When he returns, he has a bag in one hand, which he opens on the table to reveal an assortment of medical supplies.
“We’ll take you to the doc tomorrow,” he says, “but for now, we should get these wounds cleaned up and bandaged.”
Maybe he really isn’t going to… well, do anything to me. Maybe he’s actually a good person who means to help.
“All right,” I finally say, and extend my feet toward him. “Thank you.”
He smiles up at me through his thick mustache.
“Just doing my duty.”
HAROLD
Wordlessly, I clean up Selene’s tiny, slender feet, noticing once again how frail she is. Her skin is unnaturally pale, her veins clearly visible through it. The wounds on her soles are bad, but not irreparable. She will have to stay off her feet for some time while they heal.
When I’ve finished cleaning them, I wrap a bandage around each one and caution her not to walk.
“I can carry you to bed after you’ve eaten,” I offer. “Then I have to go back on patrol and finish out the night.”
She bends her neck. “I’m sorry for interrupting your workday.”
“No, not at all. I’m glad I found you before you got even more hurt. I’ll take you to the doctor tomorrow when he opens.” I get to my feet and dust off my hands. “Is it all right if I pick you up again?”
Now I can see the color of her eyes, and they are strange but beautiful, yellow and amber and green all mixed up together in a starburst. Her hair is jet black, like the feathers of a crow.
Selene nods, and so I gently slide my arms under her back and knees, then hoist her up. I carry her into my bedroom, lamenting that it’s certainly where a single man sleeps with the bed unkempt.
“Is this your room?” she asks, brow creasing as I lay her down on the bed, then pull the blanket out from under her.
“Yes. But I have a cot, too, in the closet.” My mother used to visit me from time to time when she could, but now she’s old enough that I have to be the one to make the trek.
“I can’t make you sleep on a cot!” Selene sits up when I try to cover her with the blanket.
“You’re not making me do anything. I’m not using this bed tonight, so you should get some rest.”
Without waiting for further objections, I head out of the room to the front door.
“I’ll be back in the morning,” I call out. “See you then.”
“Goodbye,” a tiny voice answers. Then I head off into the night.
As I find my way back to my patrol path, I start wondering. What was she doing out there? Who is this father of hers who brought her food? I have so manyquestions to ask her. It’s probably a good thing I had to go back on patrol, because clearly she needs rest.
It’s many hours before my pocket watch tells me it’s time for my shift to end, and I’m dead on my feet. After grabbing my things and clocking out at headquarters, I trudge back home. When I get there, the lights inside my house are still on. I peek into the bedroom and find Selene there, fast asleep.
Good. In the back of the house, I open the closet as quietly as I can and pull out the cot. It’s nothing fancy, but it’ll do.
I fall asleep before my head has even hit the pillow.
