Autumn-Painted Shawl

 

 

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Chapter (4): Autumn-Painted Shawl

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"Don't look back. And don't be afraid. I'll be watching over you…"

Amidst the nothingness shrouding me, gentle, baby-blue eyes flickered, interrupting my breathless sighs.

A distant voice called my name a few times before it lifted the heavy, bleak void off my eyes.

"Wake up."

The hazy, close picture of a face I knew well refined in my vision, and I could feel two, warm, wooly palms envelop my cheeks.

The dry, bitter wind hissed in my ears, stirring the visible curls of the dark brown hair tucked underneath his red bonnet.

Dujaun…? His eyebrows slightly uncrossed as my body responded. A pinch of fresh jasmine scent blended in the air surrounding him. Was he wearing some sort of cologne? I was glad he was here, but where exactly was here?

"Jad, esh sar (what happened)?"

I can't remember; I gazed into his genuinely concerned eyes, wanting to tell him that, but a mumble edged out of my throat instead.

The faint smell of fresh jasmine molded with an upsetting stench of blood.

Was I wounded?

"He's okay!" Dujaun declared with a relieved sigh as he turned his head around, still kneeling close to me, "Yalla, help me pull him up into the car."

Madam Shams' old shack stood firmly in my sight as he shifted aside. Ali approached from behind, his eyes squinting in semi-sympathetic unease at my left side.

"Dude," he said, "look at all the blood this dog poured out."

What…? My eyes trailed Ali's just to settle down on the weight of a comatose Husky dog leaning on my left thigh, his abdomen dyed in an insipid shade of blood that collected in a blotch on the pavement.

The quick, short inhale I took couldn't escape my chest as my body congealed at the flashes of the memory triggered.

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"I want to help." I called, hoping the drive in my voice would catch up with his proceeding paws towards the exit of the marble cavern.

"Help with what?"

"I don't know…" I shrugged, briefly motioning my hands in the air, "with anything."

"There is no change someone like you can make, except being a new addition to Madam Shams' disposable collection. Climb up the hill again, gather your belongings, and go home. Don't look back. And don't be afraid. I'll be watching over you. "

I slightly stiffened my grip around the bike handles sighing at his words back in the cave.

What was that connection we once shared that I could not remember?

I probably wouldn't see him again to ask him that, I thought.

In the end, I didn't have the energy to bother anymore. I was too drained, too informed about too many things that I failed to categorize…other than strange. And I just wanted to go back home and unhurriedly start linking all the unnatural events as I stare at my bedroom's ceiling.

I pulled up the satchel around my shoulders and mounted the bike saddle.

"It's okay, sweetie." A deep, male voice gently spoke.

"You're going to be better soon. The lady we're about to meet knows how to treat little girls."

A bulky man stood facing the black gate of Madam Shams' orchard, holding the small hand of a wilted looking female child with cropped, brown hair, and a lowered head.

"Baba, I don't want to see her… I'm scared." The girl anxiously said, looking up at the man with a pleading gaze. "She'll hurt me with a pointed needle."

I didn't completely believe the words I'd been told in that cave; Madam Shams might have still been the weird, but kind, old lady who liked to invite people for green tea and work in her own modest backyard of colored birds.

…but when something smells fishy, being precautious at the time would be more useful than weedy, I thought.

"Sir, what's going on?" I politely asked as I pulled away from my bike. The man turned his head at me. I didn't like the shadow in his eyes; it hinted a slight pace out of the frame of sanity.

"My little girl is ill," he said after a short gap of quiet," and I can't afford posh, money-sucking doctors back in town. I've been told the old lady in here heals children and animals for free."

"Uh, but you can't go in there. It's not safe." I said. The little girl's shoulders lightly quavered as she coughed.

"What's not safe…?" the man's eyes narrowed in bother, "Look, I don't have time for this, and the damned weather isn't making things any easier." He said, worriedly glancing down at his daughter. "I need to get her inside, quick."

"But the--"

"Go play somewhere else, boy."

The Husky's dimmed growl announced his presence, and the little girl gasped, clinging to her father's long, sleeve.

What the…Don't tell me he was going to use that brilliant, mime-chasing technique again…

"Walak what are you doing? You're scaring the kid." I said. The Husky didn't even look at me.

Was he not able to understand me anymore and vise versa?

"Now what?" the man snarled, recovering from a flinch, shielding his daughter's cheek with one hand, and slipping the other hand in the pocket of his trousers, "Is there some kind of conspiracy around here?"

"D-Don't worry!" I said, shaking my head and gesturing with my hands, "he's not gonna hurt you."

That stupid dog…

"This your pet, boy?" The man asked without moving his disgusted gaze away from the obstinate baby-blue eyes, his hand carefully pulling out from his pocket.

"Yes--I mean no, but--"

"I've been told mad scum like that would be roaming around this street. Stay away from my little girl!" the man's fingers swiftly pressed the metal hammer backwards, aiming straight at the growling Husky.

A gun!? I instantly dropped the satchel off my back and dashed forward. What the f**k was that lunatic doing? Didn't he know unlicensed hunting was illegal in this town?

The penetrating sound of a gunshot throbbed across the hill, driving away the peacefully settled birds from their nests and into the winter air in panicked flocks.

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Dujaun's winter jacket slacked down my back as the car moved, "I wanted to--the plan was to take him to the vet back in town, but my eyelids felt heavy and that tree where the Husky lay looked so cozy." I slightly tucked the warm jacket around my shoulders, my eyes sadly lowering at the limply inactive, wounded Husky, his upper half resting on my thighs.

Ofcourse, I didn't include the crazy details as I told the story; you know, the magically colored birds, the fact that I could hear the Husky talking, the marble cavern. I wanted to go back home, not get dragged in a white coat to my new cell in a mental facility.

"So, you, uh, fell asleep by that tree…?" Dujaun said in a rickety tone,

Was he holding back a chuckle? See? Even when being careful about weird details, he actually found something to make fun of.

I looked up into his honey-brown eyes with a serious face.

"Yes, I got drowsy all of a sudden. I don't know why."

"You fell asleep? At a time and weather like that?"

Okay, he was holding back a chuckle.

"Dude, it's not funny." I squinted my eyes at him, turning my face away, "He's…badly hurt." I sighed, "I mean, you're right, what kind of an idiot I am, to fall asleep beside a pool of blood."

A silent moment passed before my head jerked forward as Dujaun slapped the back of my neck.,

"Hey! What the--"

"A worrywart like always, grandma." He said in a lively tone,

"If this guy doesn’t make it, the world still has tons of animals for you to rescue, right?"

Doesn't make it…? He tried to save my life today and I couldn't even stop his insides from bleeding.

I turned my head half-way to Dujaun's direction, my eyes lowering at the comatose Husky again.

It wasn't comforting, what Dujaun had just said. And I dearly hoped he wouldn't bring up the 'animal shelter of the future' joke.

Ofcourse, he wouldn't have found something better to say, since he really didn't know anything. He didn't know that behind those shut, baby-blue eyes, a detained human soul might have existed.

"Why'd you wait for me that long?" I asked, "I thought you and the guys had already started setting tents in the woods."

"Nah, I told you," Dujaun said in a comfortable tone, "We coul--I mean, I couldn't leave without you, blue head." He roughly messed up my hair and I winced, "Besides, have you not paid attention to the awfully fast change of weather? It's a f*****g snow blizzard on the way!" he exclaimed, glancing at the foggy car window. "Go on, look. We're only a few feet away from your house."

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I barged into the house, yelling out Ma's name, the mugs of coffee in both her and her friend's hands clanking hurriedly on the kitchen counters.

Her eyes opened wide in confusion and her clasped hands worriedly pressed her lips upon seeing my shabby state of hair and clothes, carrying a blood-stained dog and reeling half-eaten words.

She spent the first few minutes asking questions, scrupled between shooting me with lectures and dragging me from the hand to the nearest emergency clinic. I told her that if she really wanted me to be okay, she'd get me the best, craziest person she knew in the animal care field.

Anyone but Dr. Farfoor…that irritatingly supernatural, old geezer across the street, I mentioned when it was too late, internally grimacing at the sound of the doorbell.

Dr. Farfoor had been one of Ma's favorites, and a friend of the family, even before I was born. Infact, she'd sometimes remind me of the story when I almost died during birth, and he helped make the delivery easier with his potions made of…well, hell-knows-what.

Ugh…maybe that's the reason I grew up with complications.

I never really even tried to see him the way my mother, father, and Nara did. I'd run off with Dujaun and Ali as soon as I hear something about Dr. Farfoor coming over for feast eves and such occasions.

He didn't take too long down in our basement, so my heart slightly squeezed over the unpleasant possibility I assumed. After all, the dog did lose too much blood…

The basement door opened, and my cheek departed the staircase post, "He's a tough bag of fur and bones, this one!" Dr. Farfoor told me adjusting his small glasses, the wise smile spreading in the scrub of his long, white beard.

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Right across the malleable sofa I sat in, snuggled in late Grandma's autumn-painted shawl, the Husky was put to revive on the mat close to the fireplace.

The soft illumination of room, the crackling fire and the rare peace in the house with Nara's omitted presence at the moment magnetized my eyes, slowly drifting to sleep.

No! What was wrong with me today?

I actually starting doubting it might had been Madam Shams' green tea.

I shook my head, trying hard to glue my surrendering eyes open. I had to make sure I was there once he woke up.

The picture of the tranquilly asleep, blue-eyed Husky and the fireplace gradually minimized…and vanished into the shadows of my declining lids.

Author's Note

Dujaun is such a sweetheart, is he not? uh, Not much action here either, uh but probably a small bridge to the coming chapter. Editing here was mostly level-upping the plain vocabulary, cutting out a few ridiculous expressions, and imrpoving the mention and use of character names within paragraphs. I've read this twice, and even though I woke up at like 11:00 pm today, Jad's symptoms make me think about naps. lol Corrections and constructive advices are welcome. ^^

Reviews

[Havatara]

"and I could feel two, warm, wooly" You don't need the first comma.
You also had of course as one word a couple of times. I'm not sure if that was a typo or if you did it on purpose, but I think they were both towards the middle if you want to look for them.
It's getting really good! I love the plot. I just want to know who that young woman was from before.....

[Deviant Works]

The chapters just get better. As I read on I want to know more and more. I also sense something with Dujaun but I won't go there just yet. Love the magic of the story and how well you portray it. And his neighborhood is speckled with the supernatural.:)

[Cafe Reader]

Good writing, I can tell you put a lot of work and thought into this.

[Erin]

I didn't really like your word choice in this one, but your fluency was good in it. I liked the way you ended it, but I was kinda confused on the way you started it though. But your fluency was excellent. I can't get over that.
PBP

[momo]

man the more i read the more i want to read very nice! keep going with this book!

[tshigg]

Another great chapter. I like the flow. Keep up the good work!

[My Fair Lady]

I like this chapter as well. More please.

[Coyote Poetry]

You put a lot of effort into this chapter. A lot of events happen in in this chapter. You create good situation and I like the conversation. What will happen next? A very strong chapter.
Coyote