Bella at 10-12
Through the subsequent four years, Bella spent many an afternoon with the creature. Her guide and sounding board he had become. There was an air of wisdom that she sensed. He was wise beyond his seemingly young years.
"How many years are you yonder?" Bella quizzed him once, strikingly suspicious on how he knew so much about almost any subject she desired to know about.
"My age is not of consequence. If I were to express my number, there is a possibility you would treat me as such, even though I am physically far from it."
She shared stories about her schooling. And on occasion, asked for help on homework. No, she wasn't cheating, but only receiving expert accounts of events.
She would rant about teachers who handed out assignments beyond easy for her, often begging and complaining to make an exception and have her complete work that was much harder. Teachers would give her credit for her eagerness, but students thought her a teacher's pet. An accelerated student already, how much more far ahead could she travel?
Her love for birds remained with her, standing by her when there was not much to comfort her.
"Are you aware that hummingbirds eat about every ten minutes? They have the ability to slurp down twice their body weight in an entire day. If I ever attempted that, I would surely explode."
The creature chuckled, deep and throaty. Clearly, he was amused by the charming curiosity of this little girl. "The amount of times their wings flap every second warrant the amount of energy they must digest."
Her innumerable successes and failures in her life were laid out on the proverbial table for him to take notice of. There were far too many tokens of wisdom he would love to say to her and lots he couldn't.
But, nothing garnered more attention from the creature than her tragedies.
When she was ten, Bella's father had a brief stint of town notoriety for killing two teenagers who attempted to rob a local convenience store and murder its owner.
The teenagers pointed their guns at Charlie, leaving him no other choice but to do the same to them. Minutes after Charlie had sealed their fate, he discovered the guns the teenagers possessed were fake, only carrying the image of its real counterparts. With any murder that occurs amongst a small conclave of people, be it justified or not, rumors spread like wildfire about the events that had happened that day.
Eye witnesses had sworn they had first hand, unmistakable accounts of the two teens purchasing real hand guns a few days prior. Police attempted to retrieve the in-store surveillance cameras from the gun shop, but the tape that would be of that specific hour had gone missing. There were no receipts of the transaction; the guns were purchased with cash, the gunmen lacking organizational skills to hold onto the flimsy paper. Every employee who punched hours in that store was questioned. No one could decipher how one piece of substantial evidence went missing without a trace.
Bella's father slipped into a depression, unable to cope nor come to a conclusion how those boys and their guns magically turned into fake pieces of plastic. He spent many sleepless nights in his lounging chair, contemplating the unlikely events that were associated with the crime. Renee could do nothing more but watch her husband stew in the state he had acquired. Many nights, she would sit on his lap, run her languid fingers through his thinning hair and let her presence ease the wounds of it all.
"I am worried about father." Bella iterated her concern to the creature. "He feels utterly hopeless and without power in a situation where he should have the upper hand. Mother says that tape holds the key to make him content again." Bella paced back and forth in front of the creature, desiring to achieve clarity amongst the blur. "Nothing has ever felt so wrong when it could easily be right."
"I am saddened with what has occurred with your father. My whole hearted condolences, Isabella." Bella couldn't ignore the creature's disposition had been genuine, but there was a lack of concern he portrayed. There were endless secrets that the creature cared not to share with her.
"Does your sadness run deep for me or is it a mask you deceive me with?"
The creature knelt down in front of her, Bella's blurry vision searching for the identifying features of his face; ruby red lips, wisps of autumn color hair, and amber eyes. "You should never question any feeling I ever portray for you."
"I am sorry if I can't help but doubt you. There are far too many recent instances in my life where real and fake are one and the same."
"I understand, dearest Isabella."
At age eleven, Bella broke her leg.
A play date was put together between Bella and Angela, a girl her age but in the proper grade. Angela's mother had been on a shopping excursion to the garden supply shop when she ran into Bella's mother. Renee graciously gave her advice and tips on weeding properly and the best time of the day to water her plants. The two mothers caught a glimpse of the two little girls talking amongst themselves, seeing it fit to allow them to explore a friendship together.
Angela resided in the town's only cul-de-sac and the most accident-free street one could travel on. Neither traffic violations nor parking tickets were on record for any section of the asphalt that covered Galadriel Court. No blinding curves onto the street, only unabashed open lawns that children freely played upon.
Bella and Angela lounged their summer day away on the front steps with popsicles they had purchased from an ice cream truck. A jolly old man extended his arms to delight them with a refreshing treat, beaming a megawatt smile to light any young customers face. Juices from their frozen fruit flavored snack dripped down their nimble fingers, not yet calloused or worked to the very bone.
The sky was especially clear that day, warming the sidewalk and accentuating the full crisp green of the grass. The atmosphere so clear, if any one of them were curious enough, they could delight in the smell the sun.
Angela's mothers budding tulip garden basked in the rarity of a sunny day in Forks. Her glove shrouded hands molded the earth around the red, pink and yellow flowers.
Forever really could be seen on this most pristine of days.
Bella stood from her spot to rid of the wooden stick she had devoured from. The trash can along the curb was in closer proximity than the receptacle inside the house in the kitchen.
Lifting the tin lid Bella tossed it in, the wood clattering inside the empty metal can. When she glanced up, she gasped with the figment that stood before her.
Annabelle had quietly approached her. Bella held her hand to her chest, calming the rapid fire pace it was beating. Annabelle had never appeared to Bella outside of her home.
"Bella! Look out!" Angela screamed from a distance Bella could not determine. By the time she sought out the direction of the warning, Bella landed on the hood of a car.
The car careened over the curb, heading straight into the brand new garage door of Angela's home. The white steel bent unnaturally by the force of the brown Chevy.
Bella remarkably suffered no other injury than the broken leg, but passed out from pain when the sirens of the ambulance were heard.
The identity of the driver, a one Felix Unger, was as innocuous as the once untainted tulips that were demolished in the accident. Hours prior, the man had traveled along a road nowhere near the vicinity, close to a three hour drive. The last event he remembered was a man assisting him with a tire that had gone flat on the highway, before waking up in a moving vehicle that was not that of his own. He expressed his deepest apologies and offered to make it up to Bella in some way.
Upon her arrival home from the hospital, Bella had not worried about the state of her leg, but when she would be able to visit the creature again. She had hoped that he would make an exception to his rules and alight her in her home as she recovered from her injury.
This would not come to be.
Instead, Annabelle was the one who came to see her everyday.
"Why had you scared me with your presence? If not for you, I would not have to endure this long stretch of absence from him." Bella's eyes pricked with tears the size of crocodiles.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder, haven't you heard?"
"But his absence is around me all my days. I can but only see him out there." Bella commanded to the window, the view of the path she walked to spend time with him everyday in her complete sight. The well worn dirt that was not as much of a trick to walk through as before. The glimpse of it that was of comfort regularly, would taunt her throughout her involuntary absence.
"Do you think he does not feel the same as you? He could most certainly hate to keep his distance."
"Your words lead me to believe you know more than I do about him. Which is not near possible as you are imaginary." He was too careful with her at times, never allowing as much as a fingertip to grace his skin or permission to let her eyes gaze upon him. Bella suspected that the creature was toying with her, but overly protecting her from an unknown danger.
"It is only but a hunch." Annabelle quickly spoke of her obliviousness. "My own leg endured injury once. Only, in my day it would be far more deadly than it is now. I too was forbidden to have visits from my friend. It was a most saddening affair that I wish never to think of again."
Tired simply from having no other place to be but her bed, Bella fell into a slumber. She awoke hours later to the loud warning chirp from the warbler.
She threw her covers off, studying the bird whose wings flapped fierce and flagrant. It's call close to deafening any human's eardrums.
"What is it?" She urgently whispered to the noisy bird. If it did not quiet down quickly, it will awaken her mother or father.
A soft breeze tickled the back of Bella's floor length white eyelet nightgown. She turned to address the open window, which she was most certain had been locked, closed when she had fallen asleep hours before.
Shutting the window once more, she discovered a note had been taped to one of the square panes on her side. Gently lifting away from its original designated spot, she opened the single folded piece of parchment.
'It is my only wish that I was able to grace you with my presence during this unfortunate time. I will think of you when I watch the rain fall and glisten along your rock. I will listen to the Spinus tristis sing songs about you. And I will miss you every single minute of all my days without your company.'
For eight long weeks, Bella suffered the tedious tasks one must go through with an immobile leg. Her homework assignments were delivered to her daily by Michael, a student in most of her classes. She received help from her mother when time to wash up came around. Her father would carry her up the stairs when bed time approached.
Her curtains remained drawn open to allow the sun to shine and grace her with light she could not feel freely against her skin. For her to stare longingly at the well-worn path weaving into the trees. For her to both mourn and scorn at the two fir trees composing a fictitious gateway into the woods.
Dawn and dusk danced along her comforter, warming her when she did not want to be cozy. She saddled herself to the other side of the bed for the remainder of her quarantine.
There was not much for her to partake in but stick her nose in books or treat her ears to music. Bella immersed herself in her studies on birds; this prided and filled her with joy that this one aspect of her life had ceased to change. The warbler that had been gifted to her by the creature still sat in its glided cage. The tiny bird was her magnanimous link to the creature. She cherished it far more than she had before.
She had only one wish that the bird were strong enough to lift her safely in its beak and fly her into the woods.
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A mere two days after her twelfth birthday, Bella's cast came off.
Bella jetted like a racing horse out of the starting gate and into the woods to see the creature. Her dress, newly christened from her mothers hands and hair freshly trimmed, caressed the wind as her feet flew beneath her; oh how she wished she were a bird in that moment.
Dodging shallow puddles and potentially dangerous rocks, she regaled herself with previous memories of him. Their first encounter, the one occasion where her arm brushed against his long sleeve shirt. The day earlier than the horrific accident when she finally identified the scent of him (a pine woodsy musk that reminded her of the lumber her father set aside for the winter months). She couldn't stand to wait any longer without him. The weight of her dreadful two months away from him dissipated the closer she came to her destination.
Out of breath from her overexerted excitement, she placed herself on her rock. She knew him not too far behind her. She never knew a more gallant day or a time when she had not been happier to have her vision blur when he stepped into the clearing.
"Dearest Isabella, you are well." There was no denial from the beaming smile in his voice.
"Yes, above and beyond. I do not want to suffer like I have these past two months ever again."
"Suffering, oh I know that all too well." His anxiety emoted as bright as his happiness. Bella bared the weight of it all into her chest.
Bella breathed in the fresh rain soaked forest, reinvigorating her senses with the most beautiful scents in the world. She had been without it and the creature for so long. Bella wanted to reacquaint herself with everything she had come to acquire in her life.
She spent hours speaking her tale of lonely nights without him, her endless homework assignments, and a possible new admirer.
"Michael hand delivered every single one of my homework assignments to my house all the days I was barricaded. At first, he would simply place the books I was due to read or the papers I was expected to write in the hands of my mother. When I was finally able to walk around my house without assistance, I answered the door around three thirty everyday. I expected him to leave after he had dropped off the assignments, but he decided to plant himself on the couch and we'd spend afternoons completing our work together."
The creature typically joined Bella on her rock at some point in their conversation, but he had not done so this time. "Are there any other admirable qualities about this Michael?"
"Why yes. He is of a gentle nature, taking my hand whenever we see each other off at the end of our sessions. He is not unfortunate looking either, although I'm not sure this would be of interest you."
"It is all of my interest and concern, Isabella. He may have the manners to showcase for you, but that doth not show how he is underneath those actions."
Bella couldn't believe the way the creature was treating Michael. "How would you begin to know what his true nature is?" What made him the definitive say on what is true and false?
"I am aware of more than you think, Isabella. My surroundings may only consist of this." His hand extended to the trees and the miles it reached. "But that doth not mean I am blind to what takes place."
"No, that only makes me blind." Bella stubbornly folded her arms, the sting of her unfulfilled wish pressing like a knife into her. "I do not appreciate being mocked."
The creature couldn't express enough how much he wanted to grant her access to the sight of him. "I am sorry to have offended you. That was never my intention."
"Your 'sorry' may have been accepted before, but it can not this time." Bella couldn't comprehend why the creature continued to keep himself a mystery to her. How long could she continue to keep his company if he refused to let any of himself be shown? "I would accept it again, if you share a piece of yourself with me."
"Dearest Isabella, I can't show any of my being to you."
"Not physically show, but what lies beneath your outer appearance. My curiosity is too much to bear anymore."
The creature stood up quickly, planting himself against a redwood. The roots ran so deep and long, they brushed underneath Bella's feet a couple of yards away.
"When you were away for those months, I couldn't make it through days alone. I am a very docile lonely creature by nature, but nothing gripped and strangled me more than this absence. There was a simultaneous gaping hole and heaviness that my chest could not bear. There was one solid period of time that I faced a similar crisis, but none more overwhelming than this. Others tried their hand assisting me with what I was going through, but they couldn't possibly understand the depth of what I was feeling."
"Others?" She had not heard a word before of anyone in his life. Did the creature have friends?
The creature sighed out heavily, remaining silent prior to expressing his thoughts. "I do have a small group of those I consider like family."
Family? The creature had a family. This new information excited Bella and ridded her of sad images she had conjured up of the creature wandering the forest by himself.
"The only family member that was of comfort was one of two persons I considered a sister. She has a way of knowing the outcome of a situation. Her reassurance that I would see you again soon enough kept me sane through those long, arduous months. She had also experienced an enormous stretch of time without seeing the one she…" The creature paused to phrase his sentence correctly, always carefully. "…cared about and knew what I was trudging through."
"What do you mean by knowing? How can one know what will and won't take place?" Bella's knowledge on those who knew events beyond the present only encapsulated the memory of attending a fair. A plump, woman of a certain age sat inside a makeshift tent, beckoning attendees to see their future for five dollars. Bella found it skeptical and not right to charge such a nominal amount of money; wasn't a human's life worth more than that?
"My sister is gifted with the art of premonitions. They may or may not come true, based on what path a person chooses. They have the ability to change quicker than the flapping of a hummingbirds wings."
In the present moment, the current Bella's future had been decided.
What if she had skipped instead of ran to the creature today?
What if her leg had been severed instead of only broken in two places?
What if she had decided to not step into the woods in all of her existence?
Bella pondered every bit of minutia she had in her life. If this talent of his sisters were true, then she knew what could and could not be said around her. She would know what would happen if the creature shared information that needed to remain a secret. Her life could fall apart fast with the tiniest tip he should not have given.
"Is this why you won't reveal personal details with me? She knows what will happen if you do so?"
Faster than anyone could say 'jack rabbit', the creature was back at her side. "Yes." He firmly stated. "Oh, I am absolutely beyond grateful you understand my dilemma. Nothing would please me more than to divulge all of what I harbor. But there are far greater things at work with us and if we stray from them by of our own volition…" The creature let out a strangled choke that sounded like it would end a human's life, but only left him speechless for a brief increment. "…then all of this would be gone."
Bella heard the tears in his voice, but there were none glistening among the intense whites of his eyes. She couldn't spot the lovely amber color of his eyes either; the pupils couldn't be dilated that much, could they? But, this was a question which was of a personal matter, and she had an inkling in place from long ago that he was not of a human quality. And so, the question remained unasked.
"No, none of this shall be gone. I will not answer the calls of my peaked curiosity anymore."