Courage (Don't You Dare Fail Me Now)
By Laura Schiller
Based on: Alfred J. Kwak
Copyright: Herman van Veen
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"Courage,
Don't you dare fail me now.
I need you to keep away the doubts.
I'm staring in the face of something new.
You're all I got to hold on to,
So courage,
Don't you dare fail me now."
- Celine Dion, "Courage"
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When the doorbell rang, Winnie jerked awake in her chair by Professor Ramses' basket. Her first instinct was to hold her wing against his forehead. He was still too hot, but at least no worse than yesterday.
"Coming," she muttered, shuffling down the corridor and rubbing her aching eyes.
Last night had been the worst one yet; her patient had been in and out of fever dreams, desperate to tell her something, but unable to communicate it in any way that made sense. She'd tried everything to bring his fever down – ice, blankets, enough cups of tea to fill a bathtub – but not only was it useless, he'd actually fought her in his delirium, shredding the blankets with his claws and knocking over the teacups. Her employer was the kindest, most even-tempered creature imaginable when he was well, but he was also a very large tomcat who didn't know his own strength. All she could do was pray, and so she had, until she'd finally fallen into something like sleep.
She opened the door.
The sun was rising over the campus rooftops, turning red bricks to bright orange and opening the crocuses on the lawn. It made Professor Paljas' fur so white, she could hardly look at it, and Alfred's feathers shone pure gold.
"Hallotrio," said Paljas, lifting his hat. Alfred smiled.
"Did you get the … " she stammered, hardly daring to hope.
"Of course, of course!" Alfred pulled something out of his carpetbag and held it up: a glittering golden pyramid statuette. "The medicine's in here. He'll be right as rain."
"Thank God!"
Winnie meant to stay calm, she really did, but after the week she had lived through, the relief was too much. She sobbed and threw her wings around Alfred's neck.
"Oh, Winnie … " She probably smelled like cat and disinfectant and who knew what else, but he held her close anyway. "You must have been so worried. We're here now. It's gonna be okay."
It felt so good to be held, she could almost forget that they weren't alone, but a soft noise reminded her. She wiped her eyes, pulled away awkwardly, and looked for the source of the sound.
A third animal had arrived with Paljas and Alfred, a tall slender cat who moved so quietly that Winnie hadn't noticed she was there. She had short lavender fur and wore an Egyptian dress. When Winnie's eyes met hers, she put her front paws together and bowed.
"Greetings," she said. "I am Queen Cleo Katz-Kammon. Are you the duck who has been looking after Professor Ramses?"
"Y-yes, Your Majesty." Winnie tried to mimic the gesture, feeling somewhat intimidated, especially after being seen at such an emotional moment. "Winnie Wana. Pleased to meet you."
"Thank you, Miss Wana, on behalf of our family." The cat's inscrutable dark eyes became very kind as she leaned down to hold Winnie's wingtips between her paws. "Ramses is my cousin twice removed. Your friends may have earned the medicine, but it was your courage that kept him alive."
"I … well, someone had to," said Winnie, not knowing where to look. "Uh … come in, won't you? He should still be asleep, but we can wait."
The four of them entered the house very quietly. It was stuffy inside, the window blinds drawn and the smell of sickness layered over the smells of old books and parchment, but to Winnie, the air already felt lighter. The drawings of pyramids, sphinxes and sarcophagi on the walls, which had looked like nothing but symbols of death, now reminded her of Professor Ramses' lifelong pride in his heritage and passion for teaching. He'd be in front of a blackboard again before she knew it.
Cleo entered the bedroom on velvet paws while the rest of them hung back. Ramses was waking up, stirring restlessly in his basket.
"Cousin?" Cleo asked softly, kneeling beside him. "Can you hear me?"
"Hmm?" He sniffed the air. "I know you, don't I?"
"It's Cleo. Grandfather sent me."
"Cleo?" Ramses let out a hoarse laugh. "But you were just a kitten when last I saw you."
"It's been too long," she agreed. "But I'm here now. Please let me look after you."
She nuzzled his cheek. A slow, rusty purr resonated across the room.
Alfred took this as his cue to come forward and leave the pyramid statuette on a chest of drawers. Cleo's ear twitched at the rattle of gold against wood and she looked over her shoulder, giving them all a regal nod of gratitude. There was a polite goodbye in it as well, however, and Winnie decided they had better leave. The only thing worse than one overworked caregiver would be too many getting in each other's way.
As soon as Winnie, Alfred and Paljas left the house, Paljas yawned massively as only a polar bear could do. "Goodness, I'm tired," he rumbled. "This adventure really took it out of me. Now I know Ramses is in such good paws, I feel really overdue for a nice long rest."
"Take care, Professor." Alfred shook paw-to-wing with him. "Don't forget to see a mechanic about that windmill, okay?"
"Oh, certainly. Always a pleasure to travel with you, my young friend." He lifted his hat to them both. "And, my dear Miss Wana, I've only just met you, but I'll say this: for a secretary, you've certainly gone beyond the call of duty. If you ever get bored of working for Ramses, give me a call."
Heavens, no, she thought, remembering some of Alfred's stories, but she smiled politely anyway as her wingtip disappeared into the bear's enormous paw. "Thank you, Professor."
"Alfred's a lucky duck." Paljas winked. "Goodbye, you two!"
And before either of them could protest that they weren't actually a couple, he was already lumbering away, tapping his walking stick against the sidewalk and whistling as he went.
Alfred laughed and shook his head. "Only Paljas," he said fondly. "Believe it or not, he's actually quite brilliant. When we were in the pyramid, I saw him hypnotize a poisonous snake until it was stiff as an iron rod."
"A snake?" Winnie shuddered. "Wild or talking?"
"Talking, but she wasn't in the mood to chat, if you know what I mean. We did give her a good scare, though, enough that she showed us the way out."
He sounded almost cheerful about it in retrospect, but her skin crawled at the mere idea of hostile snakes and dark stone tombs. She wrapped her wing around his. "I'm so glad you made it out of there."
"Me too," said Alfred, giving her his sweetest smile.
They left the campus housing area and headed for the nearest bus stop. The city was waking up, traffic starting to move along the streets and canals, newspapers and milk being delivered, and the occasional passerby smiled and nodded. To Winnie's exhausted eyes, everything was almost too bright and fresh compared to the house she had left, from the sunlight glittering on the canals to the smell of fresh-baked bread from the bakeries. She was grateful beyond words.
"Winnie?"
"Hmm?"
"I've been thinking." Alfred's voice was uncharacteristically subdued. "About what the Queen said just now. She said your courage kept Professor Ramses alive."
"I don't know … "
"No, she was right. You are brave." He turned to look at her with shining dark eyes. "I'm sorry I couldn't see it. I should never have agreed with the Professor that you weren't."
Such a compliment, coming from him of all creatures, nearly took her breath away. "It's true, though, what he said. I was the wrong person to go to Egypt. I could never do what you do, Alfred. Submarines and pyramids and, and snakes … "
"You could if you had to." He shrugged. "The adrenaline takes over, you know. It all happens so fast, sometimes I don't even have time to be scared. Doing what you did back there sounds a lot harder. If I had to sit by someone who was dying, and there wasn't a thing to do except wait … "
"You could if you had to," said Winnie quietly. "Professor Ramses has been kind to me."
Finding work as a black female refugee with no formal qualifications had been a nightmare. Great Waterland might be more egalitarian than Gooseland on paper, but the reality was another matter. She'd been close to giving up when she'd spotted the Professor's advertisement, but his Egyptian name had given her hope that, as a fellow foreigner, at least he might not dismiss her because of where she came from.
She'd known she was right from the moment the big gray tomcat had sheathed his claws to greet her. He hadn't cared that she'd never gone to college, only run her through some shorthand and typing tests and purred his approval when she passed. He let his tea grow cold, forgot his lecture notes and shed fur all over the office, but otherwise he was the best employer she could have hoped for.
Now thanks to Alfred, Paljas, Cleo and possibly even Winnie herself, she would get to work for him for a long time yet.
"So," said Alfred, "If the things that scare you are things that don't scare me, and vice versa … does that mean together we'd be unstoppable?"
"Maybe." She laughed. "But I wouldn't test that theory too far. At least not before breakfast."
"You're absolutely right." He glanced hopefully toward a window display nearby. "Raisin buns?"
"Yes, please."
There was another thing that scared her, though, and she couldn't even talk to him about. Their reflections in the shop window – their linked wings, his warm smile, the way she leaned on him in her fatigue – looked very much like a couple, and it scared her how much she wanted that to be true.
It had already half killed her when Alfred's submarine had gone missing. How much worse would it have been if they were lovers? She already had parents who risked their lives for their convictions, and a little brother who dreamed of doing the same someday. Could she give her heart to someone like that as well?
Still, he'd told her she was brave. Perhaps she was even brave enough for this.