Minor Bird; Michael Langdon

chapter two,

chapter two. easy, enough

winter

IT'S THEIR FIRST DAY IN THE YELLOW HOUSE.

     Ariel holds Eve tightly from her hand the entire time, something that had never happened before –not once in the whole fifteen years she has been with him. She briefly smiles, only for the gesture to be replaced by a blank one every time Ariel catches a sight of it.

     She is not supposed to be happy, she remembers herself, but she can't avoid the smile that pushes constantly in her face.

     It's easy to smile now that it's only her and Ariel.

     Eve won't certainly miss the dark halls of the convent where she was raised, neither the long lectures with Sister Valerie or the strange looks she received from the fellow nuns or their persistent voices speaking in her back as if she couldn't listen to each of them... If only, Eve will feel nostalgia for her old room, where she was forced to leave all those old drawings she made for Ariel when she was younger.

     He always liked them, each of them, no matter how terrible were at the beginning.

     In fact, he always liked everything she did. Such a spoiled girl was Eve, as Sister Linette will mutter when she saw the way Eve would follow Ariel around the place, not wanting to lose the smallest instant with her guardian.

     "What are you doing, Eve?" Sister Linette would ask with annoyance. "You were supposed to be at the classroom at twelve. Do you know what hour is it now, missy?"

     "A quarter pass twelve" she had answered, hiding between Ariel's legs. Sister Linette represented the worst nightmare for the nine-years-old Eve.

     "Let her be" Ariel had spoken with severity. "She's work enough today."

     "Enough? She has just taken breakfast and spent the morning reading with you."

     "She's tired" he insisted. "It's been a hard week. Ask Father Roman if you wish."

     The woman snorted. "I don't see it."

     "What's so hard to understand?"

     "Why is she so important if she can't do anything out of the ordinary."

      Eve is able to see clearly the image in her head if she focuses enough in remembering it; Ariel giving a steep to the front, his shadow covering Eve and the temperature suddenly becoming cooler and cooler until she shivered.

     Sister Linette was shivering too when she faced her guardian. She never bothered her again after that, though Eve could still hear her calling her an insufferable spoiled girl when Ariel was not around until the day of her death during a winter storm.