Chapter 77
Silky smiled to herself as she carried the daily mail into the house.
Their postal carrier had knocked on their door as she needed a signature for a package being delivered.
When Silky had opened the door, the woman smiled and said, "Oh, hello! I just need a signature right here."
She handed Silky an electronic pad with a little window for her signature.
With a smile, Silky took the proffered stylus and scribbled briefly in the little box on the glowing screen.
Her neat signature appeared moments later and the woman smiled as she handed over the package with a cheery "Thanks! Have a good day." Silky bowed slightly to her as a sign of respect.
The woman paused a moment and said, "You must be new here, usually I see either Roger or that young giantess, Freya. I swear that girl has grown six more inches every time I see her!"
Silky could only smile in reply and the postal carrier said cheerfully, "Welp! Gotta go, mail to deliver!"
Moments later Silky was setting the package on the dining room table along with the rest of the mail carefully sorted out there.
She paused and briefly looked the mail over.
There was research papers for Roger to read.
Freya had her gaming and sports magazines and lately Anita had been getting mail sent to her while she was staying at the house.
Even Anastasia had mail coming to the house.
Then there was the junk mail which quickly found its way into the recycling bins behind the house.
Glancing at the calendar she saw that everyone would be back home in just a few more days.
Thinking of a welcome home meal she wanted to make, Silky looked through the pantry and saw nothing she wanted to work with, even the refrigerator led to disappointment as it too, was fairly empty now and would require a shopping trip to refill.
Silky realized she had no idea of how to go about it.
With a smile she thought of Ildico, their neighbor, she had been keeping Silky supplied with fresh cream everyday while they were gone.
Silky wrote out a list of what she thought she would need and with it in hand and Roger's credit card in her silken handbag, Silky locked up the house and walked down to Ildico's house.
Fortune smiled upon her as Ildico was home and she answered her door fairly quickly.
Ildico smiled at the pastel shaded, silk clad, house spirit standing at her door.
"Well, hello there Silky, don't often see you at my front door! Is there something you need?"
Silky handed her the shopping list and after Ildico looked it over for a few moments, she said, "This is quite a list, how soon do you need this?"
Silky held up Roger's credit card and held it out to her.
Ildico chuckled and said quietly, "I can't take that, it isn't mine."
Ildico smiled at Silky and said, "Why don't you come with me and we'll go shopping. I presume you've locked the house up?"
Silky's lavender eyes opened wide at her suggestion and she hesitated until Ildico said cheerfully, "C'mon, it'll be fun, I can take you to the market and we can get some coffee afterwards. You need to get out once in a while, it'll be good for you!"
Soon after that, Silky was experiencing her first ride in a car as Ildico drove her Subaru Forester down the hill to the market.
As always, Silky sat silently, her lavender eyes taking in the sights of the city.
The market parking lot was busy with shoppers jockeying for the closest parking space while dodging the pedestrians who seemed hell bent on personal destruction.
Ildico parked her car near the edge of the parking lot, saying, "I'd rather park out here, it's just easier for me."
The two of them made for an interesting sight as they entered the busy market.
Ildico with her six foot tall Nordic good looks, wearing her usual running shoes, leggings and a half zipped up hoodie walking alongside barely five foot tall Silky, all dressed from head to foot in delicately shaded lavender pastels in silk with a pale lavender silk bonnet covering her flaxen hair, only her face was exposed, quite properly dressed was Silky in her outfit, straight out of Victorian England.
As they entered the market, Ildico grabbed a cart and said, "Let's have a look at your list, shall we?"
Silky merely stood there blinking, her lavender colored eyes taking in the veritable cornucopia of food stuffs, all carefully arranged for the shopper's convenience.
Astonished at what she was seeing, Silky did not resist as Ildico gently teased the list out of her silk gloved hands.
Ildico glanced at the list and muttered, "Let's see, this would be on aisle four."
Taking off with both the cart and the list, Ildico led the way while Silky followed along behind, her face a study in wonder.
The mundane world was simply overwhelming to her, she quickly understood just why her kind, the fae avoided it.
She smiled at how her friend the spriggan, would react if he saw this wonderful place with food from all over the world.
Meanwhile Ildico speedily went down the list, seemingly immune to the wonders of the market.
There was a brief pause at the deli counter where a young woman was offering samples of the various cheeses on sale.
Silky hesitated until she saw Ildico pick up one of the tiny cheese cubes by its toothpick handle and pop it into her mouth.
Ildico grinned and said gaily, "Free samples, try a couple and see what you like!" Silky picked up one of tiny cubes and popped it into her mouth, the flavor was new to her and she liked it.
When she was looking to try another sample, the young woman said, "That's an amazing outfit, did you make it yourself?"
Silky became flustered she could not, dared not reply, her voice could injure someone so she pointed at her mouth and shook her head sadly.
The girl looked a bit confused until Ildico remarked, "She doesn't talk and I have no idea of who made it for her. She always dresses like this and rarely leaves the house, this is her first time here!"
The girl smiled and said cheerfully, "Welcome to our store then, I hope you'll enjoy the experience!"
Silky smiled at the girl and pointed at one of the tiny cheese cubes, then she pointed at the display case.
The girl grinned and said, "That is our Camembert cheese, would you like some?"
At Silky's affirmative nod, she smiled and said, "Ask Tony to help you, he'll fix you right up!"
A few minutes later, Silky had her half pound of freshly cut Camembert cheese safely put into the cart being pushed by Ildico.
Going through the checkout stand was a minor adventure as the cashier looked at Roger's credit card then glanced at Silky and said, "You don't look like a Roger...do you have any I.D.?"
Silky flushed and shook her head slightly.
The cashier was about to say something else when Ildico said quietly, " I can vouch for her, she works for him and he's up in Canada right now, out of reach of any cell phone, I might add."
The cashier grinned at her and said, "Okay, I'll let it go then, but only because I know you. Your friend might wanna get some sort of an I.D. Not that I care, but someone else might."
Completing the transaction, they left the store and trundled the cart out to Ildico's Subaru Forester.
Approaching the car, they saw some man fiddling around with the door handle. Moments later, he had popped the door open and was hastily rummaging around in her car.
Instinctively, Ildico cried out, "Hey! What're you doing? That's my car!"
Dashing towards her car, she saw the man jumping out of her car with a knife in his hand.
"Fuck you bitch! I'm outta here!" He snarled while waving his knife around.
Ildico stopped short and quickly went into a defensive posture as he dashed towards her with his knife held low for a murderous upward thrust, "Stupid bitch!" he spat as he lunged towards her.
There was a rustling of pastel silks as Silky darted forward and suddenly screamed right in his face.
The sheer force of the unearthly wail seemed to stun him and he dropped to the pavement, his hands covering his poor, battered ears.
Silky stood over him, quite prepared to scream again when Ildico gently touched her shoulder and said softly," It's okay, I don't think he's going anywhere."
There was a pattering of feet as the store security officer and the manager trotted up to them.
"What happened and what was that screaming?" Cried the manager.
Ildico said grimly, "He was breaking into my car and when I surprised him, he came after me with a knife. My friend here screamed in his face and it stopped him cold."
The store security officer looked the man over and said, "We probably have all of this on video, he looks familiar, probably a repeat offender."
The manager said quietly, "I'd like to get a statement from you two, if that's okay?"
When Ildico glanced at the momentarily abandoned shopping cart, the manager grinned and said cheerfully, "I'll have one of my people put that into the cooler while we deal with the paperwork and don't worry about the bill, I've got it covered!"
Soon, a young clerk came trotting out and he cheerfully began wheeling the cart back inside the store.
The manager smiled at them and said, "Let me see the receipt and your credit card."
Silky dutifully handed the items over to him and he said pleasantly, "If you ladies will come with me, we'll get this over as quickly as possible!"
They followed the manager into his office and wrote out their statements describing the attack.
A few minutes later, the store security officer came into the office and said, "Welp! He's in the hands of Portland's finest now!"
He grinned and said, "I don't know what you hit him with, but it must've been amazing. We heard it inside the store and saw the incident on our video feed."
The manager as promised, took the credit card and the receipt and returned the money to the card.
Afterwards, Ildico and Silky loaded her purchases into her car and after a brief stop for coffee with lots of cream as Silky prefers it, they returned home.
After unloading the car and carrying the grocery bags into the house, Ildico grinned at Silky and said,"Well! We had ourselves quite the little adventure and I learned why you never talk, your voice is incredible, like a banshee's wail!"
They hugged briefly and Ildico left for home.
Silky spent an hour or so just putting away the groceries she had bought and reflecting on her day.
She had not uttered a sound since becoming a silky and sometimes wondered if she still had the power of her voice.
That evening she penned two letters, one was to Roger and it told the tale of her adventures while out grocery shopping.
The other was to her friend the spriggan, and it was accompanied by a small block of the cheese she had bought that day.
She placed the letters and small package on her window sill and tapped it twelve times with a hazel wand. It would be gone by morning.