Hope is the Thing With Feathers

Chapter 13

The seasons blended one into another, as hot days became crisp fallen leaves until the grass grew brown and the first snow fell from the sky. Blathers sat on his bed, staring out the small circular window of the museum's attic. Gray clouds hung across the sky as snowflakes cascaded gently toward the ground, coating the earth in a thin layer of white.

It seemed to be a struggle for the owl to get out of bed on this cold, winter morning. He had been looking through old photographs of his university days, especially his multiple graduations, where he happily stood in his cap and gown next to his thrilled parents and sister. He was beginning to miss all of it--his parents, the city, the studies he had left behind to take up this new position.

Brewster and Celeste's arrival had been a blessing, but at the same time, it had grown quite stagnant in Animal Village. It was the same shallow routine every day. Blathers would get up early, drink a cup of coffee from Brewster, and stand at his post while villagers brought in specimen for him to examine, most of which had already been donated.

It did not help that lately Blathers had been dreaming about being out on excavations, digging up buried treasure and old fossils, just as he had done in his sandbox when he was a chick. He would wake from his dreams in a fright, trying to remember where he was, until the actual reality of his life eventually set in.

The clock hanging on his wall was steadily ticking. There was not much time to be messing around any longer. The museum would open soon, and he had to be ready, no matter how good of a mood he was in.

With a sigh, Blathers fastened his bowtie and descended down the steps to get a morning cup of coffee from Brewster. He was stopped, however, by Celeste, who was already hanging around the museum's entrance.

"Brewster wanted me to tell you he'll be back later. He wanted to go shopping this morning," Celeste said.

Blathers grumbled to himself. And here the cup of coffee had been his only promise of getting through the day. He let out a sigh and stood in his normal spot, though Celeste had not yet retreated upstairs to her observatory.

"Don't you have better things to do?" he asked.

"You're grumpy in the morning without a cup of coffee, aren't you?" Celeste teased. "And to answer your question, no, not really. The sky is too clouded over to see much of anything today."

"Where did Brewster go anyway?" Blathers asked, his wings crossed in annoyance.

"Nookway, I think? I wanted to come, but Brewster was afraid you'd wake up and panic when no one was here. It's too bad, too. I think Tom Nook is kind of cute," Celeste said. Her cheeks were growing in shades of red.

Tom Nook. Blathers never spoke much to the raccoon, but he'd heard his fair share of stories from Sable, in the days before Brewster and Celeste had come to the town. A once lovable young man whose heart grew cold in the time he had lived in the city. Blathers had never known Nook to be anything else than a conniving, greedy salesman. 

"I wouldn't pursue that if I were you," Blathers murmured. "I've heard some things..."

Celeste let out a hmph and began ascending the steps up to her observatory. "Well, you really are in a bad mood, then. I'll stick up here, then," she said, and with that, she was gone.

It seemed so many of his colleagues had harsh encounters with the city. Brewster's business has failed, Tom Nook had changed into a different person, Sable had lost her sister to the city's charm, and the tales went on. Yet, Blathers' heart still yearned for the place that had once been his home. He missed its dazzling lights and tight spaces. He missed the foot traffic, the plethora of shops, and the chaotic nature that made each day exciting. He missed the people most of all. His university friends, his parents and their quaint penthouse. All of it.