Black Wings Read online

“It’s almost dark out. Shouldn’t it be nesting for the night or something? Roosting?” Marian took a few cautious steps toward the door.

  “Maybe he thinks he lives here now,” Tommy said. “You know, like a homing pigeon or something. Awww, Mare, look. He wants to come inside.” Tommy’s tone had gone wheedling. He thought he was being charming.

  Marian frowned at him. “Terrific, but no. It’s not happening. Briella, close the door. C’mon, now.”

  “Mama says no, Onyx. You have to stay outside. But you can come play with me tomorrow, after school. Okay? I’ll be home in the afternoon. Okay? Did you understand me?”

  Marian looked around the girl at the oversize bird. “What’s it got in its beak?”

  As if it understood her, the raven tilted its head to look at her with that unblinking eye. It dropped whatever it had been holding in its beak onto the railing with a soft plop.

  Before Marian could warn her not to, Briella had grabbed it. “Oh! He brought me a present. How cool!”

  “Don’t touch that, it’s poison.” Marian moved fast, snagging the cluster of purple pokeweed berries out of Briella’s fist. “Go wash your hands.”

  “Give that back. It’s mine. He brought it for me. Ravens bring little gifts to people who help them—”

  Marian tossed the berries out into the yard. “Those are poison berries. Go wash your hands, Briella. Now. They’ll make you sick.”

  “Goodbye. Goodbye.” The bird croaked and flew off, becoming one with the darkness so quickly it was almost easy to pretend it hadn’t been there in the first place.

  “Goodbye,” Tommy imitated and flinched as though Marian was going to hit him, even though she hadn’t done so much as glance in his direction.

  “He brought them for me,” Briella said with a scowl.

  “They’ll make you very sick,” Marian snapped. “Do you want to get very sick?”

  “No, Mama.”

  “Anyway, it’s time for bed. School in the morning.”

  “The new school?”

  “No,” Marian said after a hesitation.

  The packet from the school had included every possible piece of information Marian could have needed. Instead of taking the bus, Briella would be getting a ride in the school van that would come right to the house to pick her up and drop her off. She’d be wearing a uniform. There’d been a voucher for the new clothes in the package of information Mrs. Cuddy had given them, and a list of local stores and online sites that would honor it. There was paperwork to fill out regarding the lunch program, the school-provided health insurance, the lease of a laptop. Briella was going to get a free ride, but before she could, a lot needed to be done.

  “Tomorrow you’ll go back to Southside to finish up the rest of the week,” Marian finished.

  “I thought I was going to the new school.” Briella crossed her arms, a storm brewing in her pale gray eyes.

  Marian knew that look, and she meant to cut off a tantrum before it could start. She kept her voice light, her smile bright. “You will be. Next week. This week, you get to finish up at Southside and say goodbye to all your friends there. Mrs. Cuddy said you could take in cupcakes. Have a little going-away party.”

  “I want to go to the new school tomorrow. I don’t want to go back to Southside. I don’t want to bring in cupcakes, I don’t care about any of those kids. None of them are my friends!” Briella’s voice rose, up and up, ending in a teakettle scream that cut off abruptly as she ran out of breath.

  Tommy shifted in his seat. He stared very pointedly at the floor, his mouth in a thin, grim line. When Briella stamped her foot, he shot Marian a hard look she ignored.

  Marian kept her voice calm. “I’m sorry, but you’re not set up to start there until next week. It takes time to get everything settled.”

  “Okay, Mama,” Briella said, her voice brightly brittle, plastic, but expression still stormy. “I’ll just stay home, then. With you.”

  For a second, Marian flashed to the conversation she’d had with Amy at the bus stop. She was not that kind of mother, the sort who put everything into her kid, and although a ripple of guilt tickled up and down her spine at the self-confession, she shook her head. “No, you won’t stay home. You’re going to school tomorrow the way you always do. Next week, you’ll go to the new school.”

  “Hey,” Tommy broke in, taking Briella’s attention, and for once Marian was grateful he was there to stop the showdown before it started instead of exacerbating it like he’d been known to do in the past. “Tell you what. You don’t give your mom a hard time about this, and I’ll tuck you in so you can tell me all about your bird. Okay?”

  Half an hour later – and that seemed early, considering how long Briella could be known to drag out bedtime – Tommy was back in the kitchen, where Marian had settled at the table with a mug of tea and a book of sudoku. She motioned to the empty chair opposite her. Tommy sat, shifting and looking awkward.

  Marian enjoyed his discomfort for a nice few minutes before finally saying, “What?”

  “So…she doesn’t do the…thing, anymore?”

  “She was a toddler, Tommy. She had tantrums. She’s older now. No. She doesn’t do ‘the thing’ anymore.”

  “You were right, earlier. About me not knowing her.”

  “I know I was,” Marian answered.

  Tommy didn’t rise to her snark, and that was a first. “I want to be better about it, Marian.”

  She put down her pen and closed the soft, pulpy book with a finger in the pages to mark her spot. “Why now?”

  “My mom,” he said after a second. “She’s got breast cancer.”

  There was no love lost between Marian and her former mother-in-law, but this was not something Marian could take joy in learning. “I’m so sorry. That’s rough.”

  Tommy shrugged. “It made me think about how, you know, we should pay attention to the time we have now. With the people who are important.”

  Marian wanted to make a joke about asking him if he was high or drunk, or where the class clown Tommy had gone, but his face was too serious for that. “So, what are you going to do about it?”

  “Try to spend more time with her, I guess. Get to know her better. If it’s okay with you.”

  “Of course it is. If you can promise me that you’ll actually follow through with it. You can’t just show up when you want to, Tommy. You’ve done that too often.”

  “And not just with the kid, huh?”

  She didn’t say anything at first. They’d never had a heart-to-heart, no kind of closure, no apologies. They’d both behaved badly in the past, and maybe she’d been mistaken in thinking she’d put it behind her, because now the idea that Tommy might be trying to say he was sorry closed Marian’s throat up so tight she couldn’t speak.

  Another set of raps came at the back door. Tommy looked past her. “I’ll be damned. It’s that bird. Who does he think lives here, Edgar Allan Poe?”

  “Don’t open the door,” Marian said at once, although Tommy was already getting to his feet.

  Tommy shot her a glance over his shoulder. “I’m just looking.”

  He flicked on the back porch light and bent close to the glass, shielding his eyes so he could see out. He jumped back with a startled, embarrassed laugh at another series of taps. Marian got to her feet, not moving toward the door, but straining to see.

  “Make it go away. It creeps me out,” she said. “What the hell is it doing here?”

  “You fed it. It’s going to keep coming back.” Tommy shrugged. “Like a bad ex-husband.”

  She rolled her eyes at that, but couldn’t help laughing. She wouldn’t trust his charms, she’d learned that lesson long ago, but it did feel much nicer not to be irritated with him. “Turn off the light. Maybe it will go away.”

  Tommy did, still looking out the door with his hand to his eyes.