“The Girls”
My face was burning. I still absolutely cannot believe that that little shit…well, things were just going to have to change. No more peeping Sid. He had to stop at the threshold of the back door, but I stepped out onto the porch. I left the screen open so he could be heard. Two big black birds perched on the backs of the two wicker chairs on the porch. One of the cawed at me.
“Uh, hey guys,” I murmured at them, wondering for the millionth time if I was insane. My backyard looked the same as always. It was a compact rectangle, with the Western half dominated by the porch and a square of grass with a willow tree in the middle. I pretty much LOVE that tree. When it storms, the whippy branches blow around like leafy tentacles. It’s awesome, and dramatic, and if you stand in the right place, IT WILL WHOMP YOU. No joke.
The other half of the yard has a small entertaining pool, which right now was a pretty shade of aqua. In the northeast corner there is a lace bark elm, and next to that is a white gazebo. It is one of my dearest ambitions to string it up with Christmas lights and have an uber romantic kiss underneath it. Preferably with a boy. The whole yard is bordered by a slender band of garden, except for the side that abuts the house with is thickly shrubbed.
I stalked out into the yard. “So where are these ‘girls’?” I asked, making finger quotes. I leaned against the willow tree and raised my eyebrows at him.
“Get off!” screeched the tree.
“AHHH!” I screamed back.
“She screams a lot,” observed Sid.
As I watched, the outline of a figure appeared in the tree’s bark. The striations in the wood compacted into strands of hair and smoothed out into ethereally gorgeous features. It looked to be a teenage girl, tall and well…willowy. She looked nutbrown all over, until her eyelids flew open to reveal eyes the exact color of the silver green leaves of her tree. They were luminous, enchanting, and scornful. As she stepped away from the tree, her skin suddenly appeared white and pearlescent, with a glow like moonlight, even though it was 11am. The whole process took about three seconds. She wore a draped white dress that should have looked ancient, but instead was unspeakably chic.
“So, she sees now.” The tree-girl said. Sid mumbled something in the affirmative. I rubbed my eyes.
“Okay, more weirdness.” My eyes were bleary and she looked forbidding, but I smiled and introduced myself.
“Of course I know who you are,” She tossed her moon-colored hair. “I’ve been watching you. You talk to yourself a lot. Who exactly is Tyler?”
I flushed angrily. “Jesus Christ! Have I not had one private moment since I moved here?”
“Sorry, no,” said someone behind me. I whirled to see a short, curvy girl of maybe 20 or so. She had brown tanned skin, tangled brown hair, and brown eyes of unusual depth and clarity. She was just..cute. she had round rosy cheeks, a button nose and a rosebud mouth. She smiled sympathetically. “You’ve been closely watched since your first blood. That’s when she could sense you. I’m Lacey, by the way.”
The willow-girl snorted elegantly. A look passed between them that I didn’t understand.
My mouth hung open. “This is getting to be too much, if it wasn’t already.” I said with a hint of a sob in my voice. I threw myself into one of the wicker chairs, startling one of the raven/crows and taking a wing to the face. I looked at Lacey. “Hi, I’m Katie. Who is ‘she’? The vampire queen of Louisiana?” I got blank looks, except from Sid who grinned. Of course on him it looked like a grimace.
“She’s referring to your esteemed patron, of course,” sneered the willow girl.
“It would be best if you didn’t know who ‘she’ is,” said Lacey. Her voice was rich and earthy, hearing it was like sinking your fingers into an unplanted flowerbed.
“Ignorance is bliss?” I asked sardonically. I had addressed it to the willow but Lacey answered.
“Perhaps she wants you to figure it out for yourself.” I chewed on this for a minute. What information was I supposed to go on here? I didn’t know what universe I was dealing with here. The nymphs seemed to suggest that I was dealing with greek legends, but the Rusalka was technically some kind of fairy, I thought. I mean, was this just…anything goes? Were there fairies and greek gods and vampires, oh frickin’ my?
“Where’s Melly?” Sid broke into my thoughts.
“She’s being shy,” said Lacey.
“There’s another one?” I asked.
“Yes,” snapped tall, blond, and bitchy. Lacey narrowed her eyes and glared at the other nymph.
“Don’t be unkind, Arianne,” she said firmly. I looked around for ‘Arianne’ but then I figured it must be the willow girl. I had just been calling her “Willow” in my head.
Arianne crossed her arms like slender white branches. “I’m not convinced she’s really a Thinker,” she lifted her chin. “She seems like an idiot to me.” Lacey must have seen me start to retort and jumped in.
“I’ve heard her talking too,” she looked at me, “You are not an idiot.” I nodded my thanks. “There is no question of her being a Thinker or not.” The authoritative glare she gave Arianne sat oddly on her round features. Arianne tossed her hair again and walked across the porch like it was a damn runway.
“She certainly looks like a Thinker,” Arianne tossed in my direction. She folded herself into a chair that faced mine. She leaned forward and said in a condescending stage whisper “You’re ugly.” I sat back like I’d been pushed.
“You’re rude!” I snapped at her.
“It’s not that,” Lacey said, “It’s your coloring.”
“How so?” I asked.
“You have an ‘ish’ look to you.” I had no idea what that meant.
“I have no idea what that means.”
“You have reddish hair, greenish eyes, paleish skin. Ish. It’s the look of a Thinker.”
“Guys,” I said with a sigh. “My hair is dyed, I have no idea what color it really is that this point.”
“Probably something ish,” offered Arianne unhelpfully. I tried my best to block her out.
“What exactly are you two?” I asked Lacey. She gave me a kind look.
“I am sure you have many questions,” she said. “shall we go somewhere we can speak in private?”
“Okay, sure” I replied. Lacey walked around the yard to the Elm in the corner and motioned for me to follow. I walked over and stood in front of it, but she kept walking and seemed to just melt into the trunk.
“Lacey?” I asked. As if in answer, the tree started to move. The branches were rearranging and shifting. The whole tree seemed to bend forward. I yelped as a branch started to twine around my middle.
“Just go with it!” Sid yelled from the back door. The branches continued to twist around my arms and legs and torso, tuning me into a woody mummy. All of a sudden the thick main branches came at me and clamped around my middle, more all the world like a giant pair of tongs, taking me up and into the tree. I whimpered, but successfully held in the scream that was building in my chest. For a few seconds all I could see was wood, the solid trunk and whippy branches, and leaves, abrading my face and arms. It felt like I was being pulled through a tunnel made of slender branches. Then just as suddenly as I’d been bourn upwards, the branches arched out to create a weird wooden womb. It felt like being inside of an egg made out of twigs.
There were two wooden stools, making it look like the world’s sketchiest tree house. Seeing as that the branches that made up the dramatically concave floor were no bigger than my pinky finger, I somewhat doubted it’s structural integrity. The stool seemed to be the most substantial surface in the place so I tucked my feet up underneath me and sat on it. Lacey was sitting on the other stool, looking perfectly at ease with her surroundings.
“Now,” she said, “Where were we?”
