Chapter 11
Sunday Night, January 9th
Billie sat in her mommy’s lap on the front porch of their house. The front lawn was the green of late spring in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and the flower beds near the front of the house were teeming with tulips, daffodils and an assortment of wildflowers. The sun shone brightly and the air was cool, but pleasantly so. Her mind told her that this was a dream, but the way everything was so clear told her that it was going to be one of those dreams. It was the kind of dream that she would remember completely when she woke up, unlike the normal dreams that she could only half-remember in the morning. She hoped this one wouldn’t be scary.
Mommy raised a mug to her lips and Billie caught the delicious scent of coffee as mommy took a sip. She couldn’t understand why adults loved drinking coffee so much. She had tried it once when daddy had stepped away from the breakfast table and the taste had been so awful that she had nearly thrown up. She thought it was weird that something that could smell so good could taste so bad.
A cool breeze blew across the porch and mommy’s hair fluttered across her face, tickling her nose. The flowery scent of her shampoo made Billie smile as she scratched the tip of her nose. She knew the shampoo was her mommy’s favorite from some of her other dreams, since she had been too young when mommy had died to remember it from being awake. She loved the dreams where she got to spend time with her mommy, especially the ones like this where she was just sitting on the porch with her.
Mommy hummed a tune that Billie had heard a thousand times from her brothers, her sister, even her Uncle Harper. It was the first time she had heard her mommy hum the tune, but she had a feeling it was where her family had learned it. Billie loved the sound of her voice, even if it was just humming. She snuggled up against her as the porch rocker that they sat on swayed gently. Billie reached up and twirled her finger around a strand of her mommy’s hair and closed her eyes as the happiness of the moment lulled her into complete relaxation.
“Oh,” mommy said suddenly but quietly. “He’s here.”
Billie opened her eyes and saw a man walking up the driveway. He was too far away to see clearly, but Billie could see that he wore a suit like her daddy wore to work and dark sunglasses. As he walked toward the front porch, the sunlight began to fade, as if the sun was setting at ten times its normal speed. What was especially strange was that it seemed to Billie that the darkness came along behind the man as he walked. When he had finally reached the porch, it was completely dark outside, like nighttime when clouds covered the moon. The automatic porch lights turned on in response to the darkness and cast a warm glow across the entire porch.
The man stepped up on the porch and smiled and Billie could see now that his suit wasn’t quite like the kind that daddy wore. It was tighter on his body and reminded Billie of the movie stars that were on the shows that Dinah liked to watch. He was tall like Uncle Harper, but skinny like Cole, with dark hair and pale skin and perfect white teeth. Billie didn’t like him for some reason. There was something about him that made her angry, though she couldn’t say why. She wanted to tell him to go away, but her mommy seemed to be relaxed, so she kept quiet. The man took off his sunglasses as he walked up the steps to the edge of the porch. The way he did it reminded her of Uncle Harper for some reason. As he continued to smile at them, Billie could see his eyes for the first time. They were purple.
No, not purple, she corrected herself. She tried to remember the word that she had learned at school and then it hit her. Violet...his eyes were violet. When she looked at them, she felt herself starting to like him, thinking that he looked like he was a nice man. But when she looked away and up at her mommy, the feelings of dislike returned. She looked back at the man, but this time focused on his white teeth and was able to hang onto what she knew to be her true feelings.
“Hello, Arianna,” the man said as he looked at mommy. “It’s good to see you.”
“Hello,” Arianna answered politely. She didn’t address the man by name, but Billie got the sense that she knew the man somehow.
The man turned to her and smiled again, “Hello there. And what’s your name?” His voice was pleasant, like mommy and Uncle Harper. But Billie didn’t answer him.
“It’s okay, Billie,” Arianna told her. “You can say hello.”
Billie didn’t want to say anything to the man, but her daddy had always insisted that she answer when people spoke to her. He said it was rude to ignore someone and he wanted his children to be polite at all times.
“Hello,” she finally said quietly as she looked into his eyes again. “My name’s Billie.” She felt her dislike of him fade again as she looked into his eyes and realized that there was something about his eyes that was making her feel differently. She didn’t like the thought of someone changing her feelings about something, so she looked at his mouth again, instead. She felt the man’s eyes on her for a moment before he spoke again.
“She’s lovely, Arianna,” he said to Billie’s mommy. “And she has your eyes. But she’s not the one, is she? There’s nothing special about her.” He said it with pity in his voice and it made Billie like him even less. Billie waited for mommy to say something to defend her, but she was silent. Billie looked up at mommy’s face and saw her staring at the man with an expression that Billie couldn’t figure out. If she had been a few years older, she would have known the expression to be guarded.
Billie looked back at the man and saw him looking past them at the house. She felt something coming from him as he stared. It was the same kind of thing that she felt from Cole sometimes. She called it the looking for something feeling in Cole and she knew that the man was looking for something too.
He looked back at mommy and asked her, “Which one is it then, Arianna?”
Arianna chuckled once before answering, “Come now, you don’t honestly expect me to tell you, do you?” She sounded like she was teasing the man. “You can’t expect me to do your work for you.”
Billie watched as a look of anger briefly crossed the man’s voice. She didn’t know what mommy had said that had upset the man, but she was proud of mommy for whatever it was.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” the man said. “But it won’t be long before I figure out which one it is, Arianna. And nothing you or Harper can do will stop that.” He was no longer smiling, but his voice sounded calm and reasonable.
Billie looked up at mommy and she looked sad. She shook her head as she answered the man, “You must know that we will stop the others, just as we have in the past. There are many protecting the one, and each of those protectors is powerful and will give their lives to ensure the one’s survival.” Though her voice sounded sad, Billie could hear the strength and determination in it.
Billie looked over at the man and saw him smile and shake his head. “It’s a shame that you were the one to bear the Solas, Arianna. I so looked forward to the day that we could have actually met.” He looked down at the ground for a minute before looking back at mommy. “I imagine that our meeting would have been amazing. You were always the strongest of them, you know. I could see that even from the distance from which I watched you all. Still, I enjoy our chats together. They are a pale shadow of what could have been had we met, but I enjoy them nevertheless.” He bowed to them then and smiled at Billie. “It was lovely to meet you, Billie. And Arianna, it is always a pleasure to see you.”
He turned around then and walked down the steps, but turned his head when he had reached the bottom. He looked over his shoulder at them as he said quietly, “Your faith in Harper is misplaced, by the way. He will fail.” Billie looked up at mommy and saw her mouth harden. The man spoke to her next as he said, “Your mother’s made a mistake, Billie - a mistake that will cost your family dearly.” He stood there, looking over his shoulder at them and Billie felt anger well up inside her.
“You get out of here!” Billie yelled at t
he man as she leaned forward in mommy’s lap. “Get out of here before I call the dogs outside to bite you!”
The man smiled and Billie could hear him chuckling as he put his sunglasses back on and walked away. Billie wanted to chase him and throw a rock at him, but she felt mommy pull her in closely and heard her make a shushing noise. Billie watched as the man walked down the driveway, and saw the darkness brighten as he walked away. By the time she could no longer see him, the afternoon sun shone brightly in place of the darkness that had been there just a moment before.
She felt sleepy suddenly, which she thought was odd, considering she had to already be asleep if she was dreaming. As she drifted off to sleep in her dream, she felt mommy kiss the top of her head and heard her whisper softly, “You are special, Billie, more special than you know. And I love you very much.”
Billie opened her eyes and felt something strange as she woke. It was something warm and furry pressed up against her. As her eyes focused, she realized that it was Aidan, curled up next to her in her bed. Aidan’s head was on Billie’s chest and she stared into Billie’s eyes with an expression of sadness. She looked so sad that Billie hugged her and kissed her snout and then heard her sigh in response. As she looked into Aidan’s eyes, she thought that there was something so familiar about them and wondered how she hadn’t noticed before. She wondered what caused the sense of familiarity, but was too tired to think about it for long.
She kissed Aidan’s snout one more time and then closed her eyes. The last thing she heard before she drifted off to sleep was the rhythmic breathing of Aidan that matched Billie’s breathing exactly.