Miracle, Please.

A delightful quiver found its way through my spine once our eyes met.

 

 

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Chapter (6): Miracle, Please.

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Why was it freezing in here? My eyes opened to the clatter of wood logs and the tilted picture of my mother, kneeling before the ashes of the fireplace.

How long have I been asleep?

I moaned at the discomfort in the back of my neck, ungluing my eyelashes, difficultly shifting on the couch.

I licked my lower lip and winced at the mass of wooly blankets preventing me from sitting up straight.

I hissed as my toes touched the cold stone floorboards.

"Ah, you're awake." Ma threw a burning crumble of paper into the hearth and poked the fire, "Good morning." She said tunefully, her head half-turned freckled with the glow of the new flame, smiling past her right shoulder.

"Morning." I said in a sluggish, conked out voice, rubbing the puffy eyes beneath my catastrophic, blue-black hair.

"Your love for animals drew you into a fight yesterday." She stood up, motioning her left cheek.

"What fight?" my eyes cringed suspiciously as my fingers traced a patchy stroke on my left cheek.

A scrap of memory flashed through my head.

"Don't shoot! He's harmless!" I yelled as I jumped forward, pulling back his hand that held the gun.

"Get off!" he spun around, the back of his hand smacking my face.

I hurtled onto the pavement, the sensation of his grazing fingernails still in my skin.

"And why am I here again…?" I blinked a few times, looking around.

My memory would often lose track after a long sleep.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't remember just yet." She walked to the door, rasping the dust out of her palms. "Yalla wash up and help me set the breakfast table. Your father's starving."

"Pa?" I looked up at her with alert, brown eyes, "When did he come back?"

"Just last night."

For the next few seconds, I gaped into the crackling fire.

"And don't worry," she gave me a knowing smile before heading to the kitchen, "He said your injured Husky could stay for a while."

Ah, right! I internally gasped. Where was he anyway?

The sound of Nara's crispy giggle rang from the staircase in the hallway behind the partly open door. My hand pulled back the knob with a creak.

"Hey, loser." She looked up at me, kneeling close to the floorboard, her palm lightly resting between the Husky's ears.

The white and grey fur evenly downed his figure. Dr. Farfoor didn't leave any stitches or even a single tinge of dry blood. Amazing, I thought…So, magic isn't just in storybooks?

A delightful quiver found its way through my spine once my dull shade of brown met his neutral baby-blue, and a goofy smile broadened on my face. I missed those eyes…

If Dujaun were here with his camera-phone, he'd snap a shot of my expression right away. He'd look at the picture and laugh, then show it to me…and laugh again. Ugh…

"He's beautiful." Nara said in a pleased tone, standing up, "and his fur smells of jasmine." The longish, tended blue-black tresses of her hair brushed aside as she tilted her head, showing off her dimples.

I remembered the pinch of fresh jasmine that blended with the stench of blood-pool on the pavement. So, that's where the scent was coming from.

"Strangely similar to the dog you brought home last spring."

"Mh, yeah." I said nodding lightly, my eyes still locked with his blue gazing ones.

Ofcourse, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I just wasn't in the mood to listen to her: 'Seriously, Jad, you need to work on that poor memory of yours.."

"What's wrong with your hair?" she said glancing at me as she skirmished her dark, purple dress with the back of her fingers, "Have you been swept by a hurricane or something?"

"Uh…"

Nara was an egghead and a neat-freak. I don't recall I ever caught her in her 'just-awaken' look. She had been aware of the maltreatment people like she and I would receive at school because of our odd family background, but she never really gave a s**t, which I always envied her for. She had one companion of a nerdy girl next door and that's where she'd mostly be at after school and in weekends.

"He must be hungry," she said, "I'll go find him something to eat. Maybe yesterdays Kabse (1)."

I kneeled down before him, the corners of my lips curving in a genuine bliss. I was glad he didn't die in my lap yesterday. "It's alright," I said in low voice, "feel free to talk, she's gone for the moment."

He stared at me in brief silence…I couldn't hear him anymore. I bet he couldn't hear me either, but I kept talking anyway.

"It was pretty stupid, what you did by the black gate." I lectured him. "You can't just growl at people and expect them to flee like I did. Some are crazy. Like the man who shot you yester…" My eyes averted upwards in thoughts.

Wait…what time was it anyway? Ma said 'good morning' earlier but it was too dark to be morning, and besides... Nevermind.

"I'm glad you're not dead." I warmly said, my hand uncertainly reaching in between his ears, the Husky seemingly approving.

Awesome, I inwardly grinned, celebrating my breakage through his cold wall of insults.

Ha! He couldn't talk right now. I bet he would have made a comment about me needing a severe bath or something.

But, if his eyes could even faintly smile it would be through the shimmer I just glimpsed in his baby-blue shade as my hand ruffled his soft fur, my breath inhaling the jasmine-stroked air around him.

"Now, now," I continued smugly, "You don't need to thank me. You just need to be careful. No more random jumping at people, mashi? God! It felt good to be in control this time.

The Husky's paws swiftly rose up, leaning on my chest, his weight tackling me down on my back, "Wha-what are you--"

I submitted to a chuckle as I felt his tongue clobber my left cheek, leaving a slight sting in my skin.

I drew my fingers to the peculiar glass-like spot where he licked. The rigid patch of injury was gone. Magically healed? I wouldn't be surprised.

"So, this is your 'thank you', ah? Nice." I smirked, my elbows supporting my slanted body on the floor.

The clang of the keys distracted him, and he turned around, heading to the door by the stairway, where Ma stood with a swollen, black, bag.

"Wait," I called, getting back up on my feet, "where are you going?"

"Smart dog, he knows this door leads outside." Ma laughed, "Jad, maybe you should take him out for a nice walk."

"Uh…alright, I guess." Good idea, I thought.

"And take this trash bag out with you, will you?"

"Fine."

"Oh, and make sure you dress warm enough."

"I know…" I dryly said, beginning to fret.

"Don't stroll too far; the weather might get worse and have you still--" D****t, Ma…I rolled my eyes as her safety rules CD-ROM played.

 

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Stepping down the couple of stone stairs on the front yard doorway was like entering a well-chilled freezer.

Snow again? I internally exclaimed, feeling a little sorry for the interrupted green spring, my eyes widening at the whole world frosted in chaste white; trees, houses, and inert parked cars. My eyes glanced at the shallow plant vessels to the left beside the wild thyme. None of the new snowdrops- my mother's favorite flower- dared to bloom yet.

The Husky's paws briefly roved around me and he barked once, in his eyes an expression I couldn't interpret. Was he leaving already?

"You can't leave yet." I didn't want him to…"I can help you." I scratched the back of my neck, my eyes adverting away, hoping he wouldn't see more through the lie.

"The same person who treated your wounds last night; he might know a way to turn you back into your human form."

Bingo!

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"Miracle, please!" I yelled out to Ma, stretching my favorite, dirty beige parka in her face.

"Not again, Jad." she sighed, tossing the clothes into the mouth of the machine, "I need that for emergency occasions."

Miracle was the name for an instant-cleansing potion Dr. Farfoor invented for sale. Ma would get a heap of those for free, yet she rarely let me borrow any. That cheap old hag…

Three drops of the Miracle potion, and you'd get a clean, sweet-smelling and well ironed piece of laundry in no time.

"Ah, c'mon!" I begged, my shoulders drooping and my head jerking back in disappointment.

"No."

The view of the Doctor's lane across the street made me shudder, but I wouldn't take my words back; we would go there and I'd ask for information about Human-Animal transformation.

All of this could have still been a dream I'd wake up from any minute, and in this dream of me walking to Dr. Farfoor's Labs I wanted to be clothed in my favorite parka.

Author's Note

*(1): Roasted Chicken with spiced long rice.

This chapter was short, smooth, and one of the easy ones to re-edit. I liked the warm, ordinary feel of home and family, and a new dog. Comments and constructive advice is always welcome. ^^ Enjoy.

Reviews

[Deviant Works]

Well, I have finished and now this means I have to wait for more. Grrr... Wonderful story so far. Very creative from the first chapter until now. I adore the magic which is already different from many other stories I have read. Love the Husky, a dog I find beautiful. Great work on character building. I have learned a little more in each chapter. Keep it up!

[Erin]

I think that you maintain The Balance nicely and that your style is very stable, in a sense, but instead of using parantheses when you translate words, you should use brackets, because the brackets indicate that the speaker of the foreign word(s) did not say the translation.
Other than that, I think that the chapter (and the book, so far) is wonderfully written.
PBP

[Havatara]

It's a really interesting story so far. I'm just kind of wondering where it's set. You never really explained that, I don't think. This is really good. Keep up the good work.

[tshigg]

I like it! Great description as usual! You slowed down the pace and that is fine but I would like more depth during the slow spots maybe give us a side story or more background on the doctor?

[Cafe Reader]

This is very good writing! I especially like the characterizations!

[Frantzuu]

Great chapter, I agree with the comment below me, you do a great job keeping the reader interested, keep writing. :D

[Geralyn Miller]

You still have me wanting more, that is good, it means you are keeping my interest, bodes well for your writing.