Wings

gran

“Gran?” Ren called out. “I know I just left, but someone just showed up. You might want to say hi to her.”

My grandmother was a formidable woman, and I shrank back a bit shyly as she walked into the room. She had hardly changed a bit, still with that iron-grey hair and twinkle to her eyes like she had just pulled a particularly funny prank. She turned in my direction, not recognizing me until I said shyly, “Gran?”

Her jaw dropped as she took in my tattoos, contacts, dyed hair, black clothes, and British accent. “Sarah?” she asked, seemingly dumbfounded.

I nodded, until Ren interjected.

“Not anymore. She legally changed her name to Melody Claudia Wing.”

Gran looked over to Ren and how she seemed to be defending me, then turned back and folded me into a gigantic hug.

“Melody Claudia Wing, how dare you fall off the map like that! No one in the whole family has heard from you since you turned sixteen! How old are you now, twenty-seven?”

I nodded. “I’ll give you the abridged version of the past eleven years. I moved in with Josh, he was old enough to legally have custody of me. I worked in his store until I had enough to buy the top floor of the building off him, and I opened my own art studio. It’s called Aspen Wing Art; I named it after you, Pop-Pop, and Ren, here. It’s been doing fairly well. Anyways, moving on. I got the tattoos, contacts, and hair dye to piss Mom and Dad off, and it appears to have worked pretty well considering you guys didn’t know about it.

“Something else I don’t think you know about me: I also have a girlfriend. We met at an art convention, she bought a picture of a kestrel, and it snowballed from there. Her name’s Kestrel, by the way. She helped me sketch out the design for my latest tattoo, which is on my back and is another reason I’m here. Long story short, I got a tattoo four days ago, things went crazy overnight, and I woke up with these.”

At this point I opened my wings to their full span, thinking, ‘ah, to Heller with it’. I guess I should have expected the reaction that I got, considering who I was with.

Gran smiled. The smile grew as she took in my wings.

“My granddaughter is a gay rebel who dropped out of school, ran away, and fell off the map. And now she’s back, and she has wings. I dare you to shock me now.” Gran had always been fairly accepting of me, no matter what. But this was a bit far, even for her. I decided to take it at face value and not question it.