On arrival, the adults had a big argument. It seems the uncle that left was in a car accident and since these wasn't any word about where the children were. These was a big fight about the smell of sick in the house and the half full bath tube. Things just left thrown about. These petty things got her aunt all mad. In the meantime away from this, the children went to the backyard. Singing nursery rhythm. Quiet soon there is a humming of a third voice following them. This makes it easier for the children to think up of a safe way to go about this. The undertaker stood by the side fence watching from safe distance, trying to see where the monster was. He can hear them singing and was making notes in that small pad again.
"Would you like a shiny thing?" She loudly offered a stone she found.
"I think someone else would like it." Her brother chimes in. Together they bring the bucket of stones over to the side the deck, "Would you like this bucket of pebbles?" He offers to the wood floor, "Shiny things for something interesting."
There isn't a lot of sound of moving about. So she looked for more stuff at the big trees in the far corner. She picks up some lost weapons from this spot. She drags them all they way to the side of the house and let them as a big pile. She stops as her brother seems to ran back from the house, he was really scared. She takes a big breath and she walks over to the tipped over bucket. There was little wiggles poking the content of stones. She softly hums and she took out that bottle she had. She offered it up. A tendril gingerly debating to take it. She noted she used her right hand. She thinks about why everyone is left handed, and change hands.
"I would like any books you have. You can have this bottle. Any pretty stones." It softly hooks around the bottle. She can now see a pair of big eyes staring narrow at her from in the dark of the decking. It has colour changing scales. Hard to say how thin or fat it is, "Your very pretty." She states. It suddenly purrs like a cat and she smiled tight lip, "You must have been living here before we moved in. I hope we are OK neighbour's." She talks at it in sing tone and it seems OK and able to hear her. It must have liked what it heard and knew what she was saying. It pushed a pile of books to her. It puts more metal in the stack she was making by the fence behind her.
"You are good girl. You a kindness. Rare to have kindness to thing like me or the thing up trees." A little scale claw pushed a stone out, "This mark freinds. We like you. You do this for others." She accepts this nice thing and nods agreeing with it.
"I guess even scary things have dreams and nightmares." She notes, "I am glad we can be friends." She mimics a purr noise and it pats her head gentle. It takes more stones from around and goes back underneath the decking. She picks up them books. She managed to stand properly and looks to the big trees. She moves these books to the fence and puts them there. She dusts off a little. Pockets the stone it gave her. She looks at the trees darkness looking for whatever lives there. She tilts in notice that the tree was leaning over the house in a broken way. It was watching the adults inside. She remembers that the tree thing likes it when she makes a stick nest. So it's what she goes to do. She fetched branches and twigs. She makes a small little nest. The darkness of the tree moves away from the house. It big single eye looks down on her. She makes it as neatly as possible. She decorations it with leaves. She softly presents with open hands. It leans looking at the structure. It has a fibrous membrane that reached and manages to pat her head.
"You are also my friend." She softly tells it. It blinks at her. She never been sure of communication with the tree thing. She uses sticks with making shapes. It makes shapes too with her. She giggles and the eye seems pleased that she is. It gives her another fancy feather. It puts this feather in her hair. It also puts a strange cord necklace around her, it has a silver pendant on it. She looks at it properly.
"Thank you friend." She softly hugs a membrane. The fibrous body thin sheet like the hug and pets her. It softly directed her back to the undertaker at the side yard, "OK." She giggles.
The undertaker stares lost in his thoughts, he stares at how the things go back to hiding. He jolts at her approach and she tilted in why he was afraid. She has nothing that she can tell had bad about her. She remembers that the metal pile of weapons was still to far, she moves softly turns in fetching these things to him. She gets them books like he worried about. In the greatest of care, shows them to him.
"You have some very scary freinds." He softly takes a book at a time, "You haven't tried to read these yet, have you?"
"I can't read anyway." She bluntly answered, "I am terrible at reading stuff. I always never good enough." He froze up at such words from her. She looks at the back door, her mom was clearly done arguing. Worried, "I wish I was better at reading and writing. I could had stayed in one school. Made friends my age." She shurgs that she knows that change doesn't happen over night with personal stuff like this,"I am good at numbers at least. Maybe I can work at the bank when I am older... or something." The last book taken away, she looks about in wonder where he put them. He doesn't seem to changed at all, "I think things will be good for you." She meant it too. He looked nice in the way the light shines on him and that a butterfly flew itself through him. This butterfly landed close by, peacocks wings of beautiful colours. She thinks about how those wings are like his eyes. How she likes colour shimmer about all these things. She has a soft sweet smile, to innocent for someone like him. He can't help but feel this was a bad bargain. That his been short handed. She so small and cute. Yet there was sharp wise and scary skills about her. She isn't educated yet in even the normal things, but she was already a deep reader.
"What am I to you?" He asked.
"You're another invisible friend but your the cool story book spy." She certainly struck some sort of fear as he jolts at such quick reply, "If angels are from heaven and demons are from hell below. I guess you undertakers walk the edge between both these things. I hope whatever kept you down is fixable." He all frozen up like a statue. She studies his neat uniform. She straightens a wrinkle off his clothes. She softly pats his arm that she can reach. She quickly heads back, walked over the decking with a pattern tap in her steps. She hops off and landed at the back door. Her mom opens the slide door and quickly get her daughter safe.
"Thank the gods your OK." Holds shoulders and gives check over.
"My friends are nice things. They are scary but so are we." Her mom makes a strange pout look, "We are good neighbors."
"Well, they have to stay here." Her mom sighed and lows to eye level, "We are moving house. It is just you and me. We leaving tonight." This was the result of the big fight. The sisters couldn't find a middle.
"Poor brother." Frowning at how his stuck here.
"He moving into a stay at school. He be there tomorrow." They can't afford such things. There something that her mom will not say. Can't trust her daughter to understand.
"If that's how it has to be, mom." They go together to pack. There wasn't much. They owned a lot. Her mom constantly blocked veiw. Shielding the daughter from the dark deep glare. Those seething cold burns of deep rooting resentment, "I hope that aunt and uncle are nice to the giant lizard that lives underneath this house." Worry of others than understand to worry about herself, "The big tree is going to be bored and lonely, now that I am not there to make stick nests and shaped together." Her mom drops things in such statements, "They been protecting this land before the house was here. The tree is really old. I hope they don't get rid of it. That the storms don't take it away."
Her mom is faster at grabbing more things. The most important stuff packed frist. Picture albums and jewelry. The stuffed toy cat is all that matters for the little girl. Strong and independent to carry her own bag of clothes. Sheos too. Made it to the car. The undertaker watched from a distance, staring with one hand constantly moving on his notepad. He peers to his side checking. Indeed there a little tendril gifting something his way. He takes them when the tendrils go away. Two Crows sit on the roof of the house, looking at the backyard. Making a girl frown. Not good news. She climbs into the car, she was in the way of things as her mom packed all she can. Looking to her brothers window, waving at him staring. She sniffles a little as he was sad too. He has his backpack on and climbs out the window. He waved one last time her way and was gone. His not going to that school like the adults said. There no telling when they will meet again.
"Here." The undertaker hand was through the glass, giving her mom some note, "You can head there for two nights. You will have to figure out what next. I am going to be busy with these books." He looks the daughter in the back booster seat, "I will keep tabs as she grows."
"Thanks." The look of seeing a sister slamming the front door locked. Big slams from within. There wasn't any coming back in for more stuff. Anything left behind is now lost. Maybe for now. Aching hearts and uncomfortable car silence. A woman sobs as she tries to focus driving. She can't drive far as daylight fells. It's dangerous to drive in the dark.
In letting thoughts cloud, a daughter can't help but make all this blame on herself. She was strange able to see. She can't keep secrets. Her invisible friends are gone. Her aunt hates her. She why they argued. She can't even stay in single school for double grade move. There was more hindsight the worse she left in these hurtful thoughts. She knows she wasn't clean enough for her aunt. No hugs. Never liked the free hand drawings. Always the stupid girl. Her clothes that her mom says are cute weren't acceptable in judgment of any other family members. The only saving grace is Grandpa. He turly is the glue but it's not setting or keeping them as family together. His not here to witness why we tear each other apart.
The road is bumpy, the sky darkens and they passing tbe swamps of hungry eyes. The headlights gleam back the dots of the reptile population. This isn't a road for running out of petrol or having a car break down. There is no speed bumps here, just the creatures that cross the road. A guaranteed way to mess up tires.
She looks at how there isn't just alligators and crocodiles. This road was a stretch of many dead... people in car accidents and pets never found. Sad faces and even some of black crystal tears. She things about why these people were unhappy. Did they fight with family too? Were they doing things because they weren't love to stop them?
Naive ideas from a young mind that doesn't know the adult world. Doesn't know what a job or responsibilities are.
She knows what is real was that she felt the pain they do. She reached for her colouring book and goes back to some her first pages, back to the frist time she draw symbols. That she had a sense of flavour in her mouth during moments of pain. It was clear that she can't taste her pain. She can taste the emotional energy of pain from others. So this very sweet taste she has, she can only guess was from her mom. Her mom sniffling at the driver wheel, all scared and focused in driving the best she can.
"Someday we will have our own backyard and animals to keep. I will have a cat. We go out there for our own BBQ party. I have freinds to show my stone collection to." Breaking the silence. It really muddled her mom, who felt even more hurt just hearing such dreams, "We don't have to be rich to be happy. We will make it work." The hope of opportunity. Her mother held back screaming at her daughter. Such things was even going to happen. No roof. No big pay job. No money saved up. Her daughter doesn't have friends, let alone goes to school. Clearly the words didn't work at making her mom feeling better. A girl isn't stupid. She may not fully understand why things are but there os a order about life. A pattern that wiggles up and down. They were on the down. Up was ahead.
"Just have a nap. We will find somewhere when I wake you up." Such a deep pit of a knot in the throat.
"I wish I could make things better instead of worse." Is the last thing the daughter said. Her mom sighed and has some rethinking. Both couldn't sleep, the road was full of danger and it was darker by the minute. No sight of human life for miles along thus stretch. There is clearly some sort of town here, of monster people. Spirit beings of scary things and the dead from this road. The spirit eyes linger on the long car as the eyes of hungry gators do. It's distant but there was music. Maybe from the radio but it could be the bustle of this spirit world. The spirit world seems just alive as the world of the living. Maybe more alive then that. But it's an invite to never accept.