Chapter 1-Calling All Angels
"Come on Jane, you know you want to," he said, trying to get me to agree to some race. I knew that he would win, and so did he. That was mostly why he was begging me for this.
"No Alec, I don't wanna race right now," I whined, grabbing his hand to start walking down the street.
He gripped mine back, making me wince in pain. Incoherent grumbling escaped from his throat as a frown fell onto his slight features. I hated it when he was sad. I could never have any fun that way. But there was a way to cheer him up. It always worked.
"Jane, why are you smiling like that?" he asked, watching my face as we trudged down the street.
"Oh, no reason," I responded, trying to wipe the smile off of my face. Then I started humming. It was a little song that Alec and I had made up a couple of years ago. One of us would hum while the other would have to make up the words. As soon as we had some sort of solid song, we would dance and play, or pretend we were in a play. It was the greatest!
I would always sing the high parts, so that's what I started with, letting each note ring out softly through the deserted alley.
I quickly looked over at his face, trying to see if he was catching on to my plan. He smiled brightly, and started singing along, humming in some parts and adding in some gobbledy gook here and there. But the main part of his lyrics was a little poem we had known for as long as we could remember.
"Add feather and song,
Flight and beak,
And a bird is what you will get,
Flying high,
Into the sky,
Ready, and wondrous, and set.
Mix water and scales,
Bubbles and fins,
And a fish will end up in your land,
Swimming steep,
Into the deep,
Graceful, and slick, and grand.
Stir thought and strength,
Love and hate,
Together and see what will come,
Walking, talking, singing, dancing.
Oh, People!
I see we have some.
We-"
I stopped walking; there was something bright at the end of the alley. It looked like a man with some sort of cloak. That was all normal for our small Italian town, but he was sparkling! Like a jewel! At the end of this alley, there was a large pile of baskets and cloth. The sun was streaming down from the exact center of the sky, hitting the man's fingers and nose. I could just make out his legs behind the cotton, but he was mostly in the shadows.
Alec was behind me, twirling in circles as he continued with our song, being oblivious like normal.
As soon as I turned back to look at the strange figure, he was gone. How was that possible?
"Jane," Alec sang, stretching out each letter of my name. "Let's go play at the fountain." I didn't respond. I mean, how could I? A man just disappeared out of a dead end! It wasn't possible!
"Jane?" he said, leaning his head down to rest on my shoulder. "What're you staring at?" His voice had a joking tone to it, but I knew my brother, impatience would soon become the only tone in his voice.
I heard a quick sigh. "You do know that it's just a dead end and a wall, right?" he asked, obviously questioning my sanity.
I wrenched my gaze away from the place and nodded. Alec grabbed my hand and half dragged me out of the street and towards the center of town.