Thank you for the reviews! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Beatles or anything else you might recognize.
Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night
Chapter One: Girls from the Past and Knights in Shining Armour
Leah turned around in a circle and surveyed her new apartment.
It was only one room with a kitchenette and bathroom, absolutely, completely empty, except for a couple of dust bunnies lurking in the corners and a couple of worn traveling bags in the middle of the room. Leah sat down, cross-legged, on the not-too-clean floor, and took from the secret pouch in her backpack a photograph of Zanora Elva Hendrixon. A young girl with caramel skin and black hair looked back at her. She was maybe ten or twelve. A girl from the past. Leah remembered that girl. She would always be a part of her.
Then she looked at the next photograph, of a girl named Fayne Pattie Wilde. Fayne Pattie Wilde was an exact replica of Zanora Elva Hendrixon, aged by a few years: she was the girl that Elva had turned into. Fayne Pattie Wilde had chosen her name because she thought it was striking and fitted Fayne's character: bold and outgoing. Ready to take on the world. Her dark eyes looked out straight into the eyes of the camera. She, too, was a girl of the past.
Next was Aurora. Aurora's was a brief existence: her brown eyes sparkled and her face, a little older, a teenage girl matured, was the only one in all of Leah's photographs that smiled. That was till the source of Aurora's happiness faded, and Aurora was quickly replaced by Korra, another brief-lived character whose dark, brooding nature glimpsed out of the photograph. Korra wore her hair so that it fell over her face, almost hiding it, as though she wanted to block the world out. Leah felt a glint of sadness at Korra's sad face: Korra was never happy, nor did she make others happy: she stuck to herself and isolated herself with self-pity and depression.
And then came the character that Leah liked best: Stevie. Stevie was a struggling New Yorker who strip danced for a living. She didn't particularly like her job, but it earned her money and she liked to dance, even if she wasn't the best dancer. She braided coloured beads into her hair and had all the fun she could - that is, till her landlady threw her out for not paying rent.
And now she was Leah. Leah smiled at the last photo. Stevie was the first really mature person Zanora Elva Hendrixon had been - on the verge of her seventeenth year, she had finally managed to fend comfortable for herself, without occasionally depending on the few friends she made on her way. She had liked being Stevie - named after Stevie Nicks, of course - because she'd sometimes tried to sing Dreams like Stevie Nicks in the shower. Maybe someday she'd actually go see Woodstock. Leah reflexively reached to touch the wooden band on the index finger of her right hand. It was possible. Oh, she definitely planned to see Woodstock. For Leah Andrea Blaise had many, many plans.
The first was a ritual. Leah took out her father's vintage SLR and moved to the window of her new apartment. She placed the camera on the ledge, knelt in front of it and pointed the lens towards herself. She pressed the shutter button a couple of times. Leah sometimes wondered if she was schizophrenic - she reveled in inventing new characters for herself, but always took a photograph of that character, as a record.
Well, Leah was now officially recorded. Leah put away the camera and traipsed through the streets of Liverpool. When she returned to her apartment several hours later, she was struggling under the weight of a mattress and several bags. She shoved the up the stairs with some difficulty - no, a hell of a lot of difficulty. Slumping against the banister on the third landing, Leah cursed. Now would be a good time for my knight in shining armour to show up. Zanora Elva Hendrixon had had a bunch of knights in shining armour over the years, but she never got in close with any - only Aurora engaged in a serious relationship, that storybook thing called love, and look where that landed her. Leah was following Stevie's rule book, for the better part: date and sleep with as many guys as you want - she enjoyed that - but don't kid yourself into thinking anything is 'true love'. Like any teenage girl, she dreamed about it. But it looked pretty unlikely to her.
Zanora Elva Hendrixon was innocent still. She would learn soon enough.
Leah did not encounter a knight in shining armour on her struggling ascent. She did encounter a crabby old lady who was trying to let her cat out and found her doorway blocked by a solid mattress. 'Sorry, I'm sorry,' snapped Leah crossly, giving the old woman a death glare as she shoved the mattress up the stairs, letting the gingery cat out. She might as well have been cursing the woman from the tone of her voice, but that, Leah decided, was it: Leah Andrea Blaise did not take shit.
Okay, she could take a little shit, if it was worth it. But otherwise, no.
She the mattress fall with a flat thump against the floor and kicked it till it reached the wall. A quick dusting of the room - Leah hated dirt - and then she laid a couple of sheets on top of the mattress, with some cushions. Then she delved into her bag again and brought out her beloved scented candles - jasmine, vanilla, apple, lemon grass and aqua, all shapes and sizes - and put them all around the room, the only other furniture other than the mattress and a lamp. She hung up her clothes in the cupboard after giving the shelves a cursory wipe - reveling in the neatness and organized-ness of arranging her things in an orderly fashion - and put her few belongings around the room. Then she showered, lit all the candles, and lay back on her mattress.
This was pretty alright.
... till she encountered a cockroach on the wall.
Beginning. of. the. end.
Leah was petrified of cockroaches. She could be a pretty hardy character when she liked, but cockroaches she could not, not, not deal with. Nor could any of Zanora Elva Hendrixon's various characters.
Cursing her weakness, Leah tiptoed barefoot along the corridor of the apartment building, and cautiously rang the bell.
No answer.
The next floor was the crabby old lady's door and another apartment that looked uninhabited. Next floor. This one seemed alright: she could hear music pounding through the door. Leah pressed the doorbell, which made a pleasant ding-dong sound, and held her breath, praying that the cockroach hadn't disappeared someplace under her mattress or in her bags.
The door opened. A tall, gangly boy peered out from under a thick mop of hair. 'Yeah?' he said in a typical Liverpudlian accent.
'Um. I live upstairs, a couple of floors,' began Leah, feeling stupid. 'I just moved in.' He nodded patiently. 'And, um, there was kind of a cockroach on the well and ... uh ... I hate cockroaches, so, I was wondering if somebody could get rid of it for me.'
The boy - well, man, really - raised his bushy eyebrows. 'Sure thing.' He shut the door behind him and nodded for her to lead the way. Leah opened the door to her single-room apartment. He looked around it with open curiosity, though in such a frank way that Leah didn't mind, and then said, 'Where's the little devil?'
Leah pointed to the wall. The boy blanched. He shrugged a shoe off one foot. 'This oughta kill it,' he declared, and smacked the wall.
The bug leaped off the wall and he jumped backwards with a small yelp, brandishing the shoe and grabbing Leah's arm. 'Um, sorry,' he muttered, colouring. Leah giggled. He was just as terrified of it as she was.
'Oh my god, it's coming!' she squealed, pointing to the floor where the horrific thing was marching towards their feet. She dragged the man back and they jumped up onto the refuge of the slightly elevated mattress.
'That,' he pointed to a bowl next to the mattress, which Leah had just emptied of potato chips. 'Give me that.' Leah handed it to him, wide-eyed. Then, in what she saw as an act of pure heroism, he clapped the bowl on top of the cockroach, effectively trapping it. Her knight in shining armour had arrived! 'Yeah!' he yelled, and they high-fived. Then, the elation of victory fading, the boy looked suddenly shy. 'I'm Leah,' Leah offered, holding out one hand to shake. The boy shook it. 'George,' he introduced himself. 'George the noble cockroach-slayer.' He beamed proudly, then added, shyly, 'And guitar player for the Quarrymen.'
'Guitar?' said Leah, instantly interested.
'Yep.' George grinned proudly. 'Wanna hear?'
There was an ominous flapping sound from the bowl. 'Let's get someone to get rid of that first,' said Leah, shuddering.
George looked pale. 'Right. Get rid of the cockroach. Let's do this.'
Was it too cryptic? Zanora was the girl from the prologue, and she's basically the same girl taking different names in different parts of her life. PM me if you don't get it. Review and tell me what you think. Thanks for reading :) -Jen.