Walter

 

“I am in love with Walter.”

There. She had said it. She looked out on the dew-sprinkled lawn. Interestingly enough, the ground did not seem to be cracking open to engulf her. Wellsprings of magma weren’t erupting from her neighbors’ well-manicured front yards. The heavens were not crashing down to earth. Her voice didn’t even tremble. The sun continued to rise, lazily, across the orange-tinted sky. Not a breeze stirred the leaves up above in their dark canopy across the lawn. The world kept turning, and she remained seated in the middle of her backyard, facing the trees with her back to the house. She leaned back, spreading her hands across the damp lawn. Lucifer, the cat, slunk around the brick wall of the house and disappeared into the sparse grove of trees that broke up the stretch of suburbia.

She took a bite of her blueberry bagel and chewed thoughtfully. She wondered if this was how love always felt. It was her first experience with the curious emotion. She was quite sure that it was, indeed, love. The word covered the sides of her yellow-walled mind. She’d seen it plastered about since she was a little girl - in magazines and on television and on posters and flyers at her Catholic school.

Walter attended the boys’ Catholic school which was the sister school to hers. She first met him when she was working on a project with his sister, a rather unpleasant girl in her grade named Denise. She had been over at their house and she watched Walter come down the stairs, fumbling to put on a bright red sweater. As he finally yanked it over his head she was affronted with brilliant green eyes behind round wire framed glasses. Walter liked music and model airplanes and every time he caught her gaze with his fiercely green eyes she felt that oh-so-recognizable feeling of love bubbling in her stomach.

She took another bite of the bagel and smoothed the crumbs from her pious plaid skirt, red (to symbolize Christ’s blood) and navy (which also had a profound symbolic meaning, but she forgot what it was). The sun, by this time, had laboriously climbed a few rungs across the sky, taken a break to wipe off its brow, and sent a stray ray of light into her eye. She blinked as the sunlight hit her pupil and shifted her weight to her left, oblivious to the cosmic toil above her. Lucifer reappeared from behind a tree and bounded up the lawn toward her. She sent a hand down the back of the black and white cat before it haughtily side-stepped her and went toward the house. She finished one half of her bagel and swatted away a mosquito. Sunlight now lit up most of the yard with a cool yellow glow.

The sun had reached the trees, and a brilliant burst of violent red was illuminated there. The crimson caught her eye, and she looked up sharply to catch another flash of color, this time green. The source of these colors turned out to be a small jewel-bright bird. As it flitted from branch to branch, its feathers shifted from a deep red to a shining green. She was mesmerized by the little bird. It perched on a slender branch and puffed up, fanning its tail-feathers. She sat motionless as the bird cocked its head at her, watching her with one dark piercing eye. It hopped to a lower branch. She held her breath. It looked at her. It bounced closer. She was still. The bird was suddenly on the grass at the edge of the lawn. It held her gaze, bobbing its head and shifting curiously. It paused for a moment and fluttered a little closer to her. She felt herself trembling from the effort of keeping still. The bird chirped charmingly at her. She was stunned. Watching with disbelief, she sat frozen as the gorgeous little bird stepped within two feet of her, one foot, 6 inches, she felt the tiny delicate feet on her leg as the bird stood on her lap and -

- stole the other half of her bagel. In a flash, it was across the yard again, cawing jarringly in a mocking way, laughing at her. She was shocked, and suddenly very angry. The bird stood on the grass beside the trees and ate her bagel, no longer meeting her gaze. She was about to jump up and stalk off when Lucifer pounced.

The little bird was gone in one bite.

“Nice, Luce,” she said.

She crossed the yard and picked up the half eaten bagel and threw it away when she got inside. It was nearly time for school. She smoothed her damp skirt, ran a hand through her hair, and scurried off as her brother yelled at her to get in the car. Tires squealed as they pulled out of the driveway, and by the time they passed the streetlamp at the end of the street, she had decided she wasn’t in love with Walter after all.

Author's Note

any criticism would be greatly appreciated!

Reviews

[Ember Quinn]

I like how there are darker things throughout the story. If this is okay I'd like to say I could totally see a whole story with this chick becoming like a satanic killer or something xD I also love how the cat's name is Lucifer

[sarah]

hey ur talented. (that's all)