The silence was powerful, the kind of quiet that settled over graveyards and the expansive wilderness of the west, certainly not a quiet that she ever imagined settling over any tenements of the lower east side. But it turned out there were quite a number of things Audrey Kai could never have imagined. Being on the rooftop of the Brooklyn Birds nest on Cherry Street in Lower Eastside Manhattan underneath the bewitching moon was such a wildly unimaginable moment that the girl wasn't quite sure she wasn't dreaming.
She stopped moving for a moment and the biting cold reminded her just how awake she truly was this evening. Audrey tugged at the carriage coachman's cloak she wore, tightening it around her torso as she inspected the rooftop. It looked like all the others had, for blocks and dozens of tenements. For the last three-quarters of an hour the young lady had sprinted along rooftops so close together they reminded Audrey of the elevated train tracks. Empty barrels, forgotten charity pamphlets, collections of laundry tins, scraps of trash and decay but this rooftop had the occasional fluff and feather. Glancing towards the street facing side of the building, Audrey debated climbing down the fire escape. But the silence warned her.
Spinning on her heel, Audrey Kai marched into the nest through the rooftop door and down the dark, narrow ladder into the building. She held her breath as she descended, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as the soles of her boots settled without creaking on the wooden floor. The darkness of the hallway was oppressive, a black without the cutting light of the moon or any glowing lamps. Audrey was sure if she moved before her eyes adjusted, she would stumble until falling down the nearest flight of stairs. Until light spilled around her from the left.
"Well," A heavy sigh and a violent shudder of the light. "You, I wasn't expecting."
Jasper leaned into the door frame, holding a small flickering candle out into the darkness. He was barefoot, wearing his pants barely over his hips and his suspenders hanging by his knees, either hastily dressed or barely undressed. He was studying the young lady a few feet in front of him, her pale face floating in the darkness. Her brown eyes danced with delight over a thick wool looking scarf covering her nose and mouth. She was taking him in, unexpected as young miss Audrey Kai being in the nest might have been, it was the careful patience that shocked the leader of the birds the most.
Her movements were deliberate, as her eyes never shifted from him, moving to unwrap the scarf and pull off her cap. Jasper felt the chill of the night drifting through the hall and rolling his eyes, he took a step back into his apartment inviting the girl in.
"Evening Jasper." Audrey whispered as she brushed past him.
"Morning Laces." Jasper nodded pulling the door shut behind her.
Audrey took in the one room quickly, noting the hanging blankets over the doorway to the front room and the neatly kept stove near the door. Her gaze lingered on the corner of the room, where chairs and planks had been cleverly put together to create a bed. A thin mattress, likely stuffed with weeks of newspaper, was covered in heavy quilts and stray pillows. But it was a mound of little limbs that caught her eye, a clear space around them for a grown man.
"Were you sleeping?' She held her scarf carefully over the chair as if she might not stay now that she had arrived.
"The twins have been troubled with dreams and drafts." Jasper yawned, as he crossed the room in two strides. He glanced at the young lady and longingly down at the makeshift bed, trying to decide what he was expected to do now.
"Casey Longfellow has given birth to a baby boy." Audrey blurted out, clumsily and excited. Jasper inhaled calmly, understanding washing over him as he settled back into bed. The twins gave tiny moans drawing themselves around the man's form once more, like kittens.
"Do they know where you are?" Jasper murmured curiously.
"Did you know I was missing?" Laces countered, perching with confidence on an upturned laundry tin.
"I do not ask for my tales often Laces, and I never answer questions first." Jasper warned, but the threat diminished as he tended to one of the children at his side. The leader of the birds gently pulled one of the boy's arms out from his own twisted torso, a tiny moan calmed as Jasper swept the hair away from the twin's ear. The other twin, as if sensing comfort was being given to his brother but not to him, crawled close enough to lay his head upon Jasper's thigh. The man let out an exasperated sigh as he reached down to pull the quilt around the second sleeping twin.
Laces watched the scene unfolded curiously observing how the leader of the Brooklyn Birds behaved as a father might. The young lady was struck, quite suddenly, by how she didn't know Jasper's age. They had all always seemed so young, perfectly poised to never grown old. But earlier in the evening, Audrey had seen the glint of gray hiding at Critter's temples. The question lingered on her lips as Jasper looked up with warning still blazing in his eyes.
"I left the Longfellows before the child was born." Laces relayed instead.
"How do you know the child is a boy then?" Jasper stifled a yawn.
"I walked along Central Park a bit before catching a Hansom downtown where I jumped on the elevated trained that runs along the Bowery."
"The doctor arrived at the Longfellow home a quarter past 8 this evening." Jasper frowned.
"The baby seems to have inherited Casey's stubbornness." Laces paled at her own joke.
"You slipped out while they were too busy worrying."
"I could no longer stay." The girl said in a small embarrassed voice. Her eyes were downcast and her shoulders had hunched, defensively and frightened.
"I know." Jasper's voice was gravelly, soft, reaching out with comfort. Audrey rubbed the knuckles of her hand against the corner of one of her eyes. A thousand questions crossing her features, one which Jasper recognized easily as the space between her eyes creased ever so slightly to puzzle if this moment had been foreseen.
"You took the train to the lower east side?" Jasper prompted.
"After an hour of travel, I ducked into an alley to climb the fire escape to the rooftops." Audrey smiled proudly.
"Ah," Jasper nodded. "That's where you heard it then, that the child had been born?"
"Dressed in black, upon the rooftops, whistling back. No one suspected who I was in the distance."
"Who told you where the nest was?" Jasper leaned forward with the accusatory question.
Audrey shook her head, smiling so brightly that Jasper had to fight not to return the grin.
"I followed the feathers." She explained. "When we met back in November, it was on Bowery, not far from where I climbed the rooftops. I knew you would never venture far, and this is one of the oldest tenement buildings by the waterfront."
"Clever lass. He'll have your hide for it, be certain of that dear." Jasper silently chuckled.
"They do not know yet." Audrey insisted.
"But they will."
"I am to be a bird, I slipped into the night and found my way here without being spotted."
"You are a bird, Laces. But, darling. Someone saw you, probably in your Hansom along fifth avenue. Maybe Daisy." Jasper had a tired drawl to his words as his fingers twitched as if counting or missing a cigarette. "Or Matches might have caught a glimpse of you on the Elevated Train along the Bowery."
"But I didn't hear…"
"Oh they wouldn't have believed it either you see, because no one thought you would slip from the house under the watch of Critter O'Connell. No one but O'Connell himself."
"He knew?" Audrey demanded.
"He thought you might. He did not believe, or imagine, you would reach me here at this hour." Jasper yawned again.
"I should get back," Audrey stood. "Before he takes notice."
"No. I'd prefer not to give the man a reason to want my hide, as well as yours. You will stay, until dawn when the owls come home and I will send you out with one of the others." Jasper declared.
"We'll take her." One of Wild's eyes popped open to stare at her, as he volunteered. Jasper growled at how awake the boy sounded.
"She can sleep near me." West, the boy on Jasper's thigh, offered by reaching out a hand to her. Jasper growled a bit deeper, as he abruptly stood up from the bed. The little boys cried out, popping up to sit above the quilts.
"I will be sleeping until the sun rises, do you understand?" Jasper demanded, his voice loud for the first time since Audrey had arrived. He snapped his fingers at Laces, waving her to remove her coat and shoes.
"Yes, Jasper." The twins nodded solemnly, as they tumbled around to the bottom of the bed, allowing for there to be space for two adults.
"I could sleep elsewhere." Audrey offered quietly.
"It's colder in the other room, we've had to board up the windows…" West started to explain excitedly, quieting when Jasper snapped his fingers again.
"I shall be keeping an eye on you, Laces. I've learned from our experiences." He tilted his head inviting the girl to crawl onto his makeshift bed. She climbed toward the wall, curling around one of the quilts, immediately delighted by its warmth.
"I'm Wild." One of the twins whispered to her as he settled just below her chin.
"We've heard a lot about you." West whispered as Jasper stretched out along the outer edge of the bed. His body, a shield to the world, for the bed's inhabitants.
"Sleep." Jasper ordered as he blew out the only candle that had lit the room.