Chapter 2 Lilian Baker
For some weird reason, this place didn't feel like home. The estate was too perfect to be true and the serenity… it seemed like something forced.
Like you have to mind your business. Stay out of people's drama. Pretend to ignore each other and similar things like that. It felt staged.
Martha had gone to the truck of the car, dragging out suitcases and boxes like we'd done a thousand times before.
“Grab the smaller suitcase,” she said over the lifted truck.
I went to meet her. She dragged one of the suitcases toward the porch while I lifted the other one from the trunk.
Suddenly, a loud thud came from the house next door.
Wow! ‘The perfect scene to ruin their staged serenity,’ I thought.
I glanced over, anticipation bubbles within me. I wasn't an anti-serenity. I just didn't get the vibe of forcing perfect peace when everyone could just live their lives the way they wanted.
The front door of the house next to ours swung open after the thud.
A woman, about Martha's age, ran out of the house.
She wasn’t wearing any shoes. Her bare feet slapped against the pavement as she stumbled into the front yard. Her pink blouse hung loosely off one shoulder like she had put it on in a hurry, and her hair… It looked like she had just woken up from a storm.
She looked messy and wild. The stark contrast of Martha. Martha dislikes women who are careless about themselves. “As a woman, you have to appear presentable all the time,” she always said.
Now I wonder what her opinion would be about this woman.
The woman began spinning slowly in the yard, her arms moving strangely as if she were dancing to music no one else could hear.
“Blue birds don’t belong to the cage. They belong to the sky,” she said in a singsong tone.
Her voice was loud and cheerful, but the words made absolutely no sense. At least, to me.
I stood there, watching her with a different kind of interest.
“Black birds fly higher and higher at the coming of age,” she continued, laughing softly to herself.
I glanced at Martha, thinking she saw the same thing. But she wasn't even looking. She was focused on getting the boxes out of the truck.
“Mom,” I called her attention.
“Lily,” she answered. “Don’t just stand there.” she said, her focus still remained on the luggages.
Too bad, I couldn’t look away from the free drama unfolding in front of me.
My interest spiked as the woman continued.
“I have to feed my birds. I can't just let them starve,” she sang.
“But where are my babies? I can't find them anywhere,” she continued, searching for her invisible birds.
As she kept moving around the yard, she turned towards our house. Then her eyes met mine.
I wanted to look away. To pretend I wasn't watching her. To act like I wasn't entertained by her unwanted performance. But it was too late to move my gaze.
“Hello, princess,” she waved at me.
Surprised, I turned my head to see if she was indeed talking to me. That's when I noticed Martha wasn't behind me anymore.
Seizing the opportunity of Martha's absence, I waved back with a smile.
“Hello,” I said. “I just moved in,” I added to reduce the awkwardness.
My introduction was useless because she didn't seem to understand.
“Have you seen my birds?” She asked me.
I knew within myself that she wasn't normal but I couldn't just ignore her.
“The black and the blue ones?” I asked, playing along.
She smiled brightly. “So you saw them, right? Did you feed them for me?” She asked, her voice becoming louder and cheerful.
“I’m sorry, I didn't get the chance to,” I said, flashing her a smile.
“Oh, my babies would starve,” she said, grabbing her chest in a dramatic way.
“They won't starve,” I replied.
Before she could respond, the sound of the door interrupted her.
Suddenly, two boys rushed out of the same house.
“Mom!” They sounded panicked.
The younger one, tall, messy hair, probably around my age, ran straight to her first.
“Mom, you can’t be out here like this,” he said gently, trying to hold her hands.
The older one followed close behind. Taller, broader shoulders, neatly trimmed hair. His face was tight with a frown.
“Come on, Mom,” he said firmly but softly. “Let’s go back inside.”
The woman giggled like they had just told her a joke.
“But the birds,” she insisted. “She said she saw them.”
She pointed towards me.
I froze.
They just glanced towards me before returning their attention back to her. Then the younger boy nodded like this was completely normal.
“Yeah,” he said patiently. “We’ll ask her where she kept the birds.”
I almost smiled at their understanding. At the care they showed the woman. Only love could make them stay with her despite her condition.
Love? The feeling sounded foreign to me but I could tell when I saw others feel it. Martha had claimed that she loved her husband's, but it never felt like it. Even when she told me she loved me, it sounded like a lie to me.
Pushing the thought behind my mind, I continued to enjoy the display of love in front of me.
The younger one wrapped an arm carefully around her shoulders and started guiding her back toward the house.
The older one stayed beside them, watching closely like he was ready to catch her if she tripped.
Just before they reached the door, the taller boy glanced up. His eyes landed directly on me this time.
I realized too late that I was still standing there, staring at them.
He stopped and his expression hardened immediately.
Slowly, he stepped away from the door while his brother helped their mother inside.
Then he turned fully toward me. If his eyes could fire bullets, I would have been shot with countless bullets in my head.
“What are you looking at?” he asked.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it was sharp enough to make the quiet street feel suddenly uncomfortable.
“Nothing,” I said as I tightened my grip on the suitcase handle.
He didn't even reply before he went back inside and slammed the door.
Isn't it great?
First day in the neighborhood… and I’d already been caught staring.
“Lily,” Martha called.
I jolted at the sound of my name.
“Who were you speaking with?” She asked.
“No one,” I said as I moved back to my business.
So nice of her coming back after the show had ended.
As the day went on, the woman and her two sons never left my mind.
