Chapter 6 #2
His lips twitch and he grabs the blanket to roll it up in a corner of the nest. He rests his back against it and pats beside him. “Come on.”
I position myself beside him, lifting an arm behind his back so my wings are out of the way, and he leans in closer and sets the DVD player on his lap. “Ready?”
“Play,” I say, looking toward the man in the red suit.
With a quick tap of his finger, music plays, and it’s like a whole world was shoved inside the device. I tap at the glass-like layer and he grabs my hand, moving his with mine.
“It’s a screen.”
Leaning back, I relax against him and watch the movie.
He’s right about it being funny. I’m left with a giant smile on my face by the end of it, with a good feeling floating inside me.
I think I’m going to like Christmas. Not only because giving and exchanging gifts looks fun, but there’s also the decorations, the food, and the happiness spreading between people.
“These are the credits.” He switches off the movie, stopping the white words from dropping down the screen. “It means the movie is over.”
“More,” I say a little too loudly.
Chuckling, he hits play after some brown animals show up on the screen. I think Nova called them deer once. We have monsters that look like a cross between them and humans. Sometimes it seems like our worlds aren’t so different, and at others it seems like they are.
“This is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I started watching it with my family when I was a kid. I like it as an adult too. It does have its issues because of the change of times, but overall it’s cute.”
“Cute.” He’s used that word on me before. I think I’ve heard Nova call his pets that a time or two, so it can’t mean a bad thing.
“It’s like adorable…um…like aww, so cute, I want to squeeze its cheeks.”
My forehead shifts.
He laughs, sighing. “Not every word is easy for me to explain. It’s like you…you look so cute and cuddly right now holding the Christmas tree to your chest.”
I look down and laugh, setting the tree down next to me outside the nest. “Lights.”
“We do need some, don’t we? I’ll bring them next time. I can only carry so much in two bags.”
“Candy canes.” I suck on my tongue, imagining how’d they taste. What’s mint like? Sweet? Sour? “Oh. Cookies,” I add.
“Gingerbread cookies.”
My tongue darts out. Now those look sweet, sprinkled with sugar like the candy Edgar had in the backpack he left behind when he was first here. “Snow globe.”
“You’re going to have this place looking like a Christmas store if you keep listing things for me to bring.”
“Want to go.” They looked so magical in the movie. So much like Santa’s workshop.
“I’ll figure out a way to take you someday. Next Christmas might be better. You’d have to wait a whole year, though. That’s a long time for us.”
A day is a long time for us out here. Especially for creatures who have no safe place to take shelter. I’ve been in this tree for as long as I can remember, and have been lucky to call it home for so long.
“I’ll bring a calendar too.” He speaks again and then starts the movie over, handing me a bag of yellow flowery looking things. I sniff one and then lick it, my stomach rumbling.
“Popcorn is a great snack for watching movies.”
I pop another in my mouth and then a handful more as I lean my head on his shoulder, smiling at the talking snowman. I doze off halfway through, so tired and worn out from gathering earlier in the day. I dream about snowmen, reindeer, and red glowing noses. Edgar nudges me awake, kissing my cheek.
“Someone’s very sleepy. We can finish this later.”
I yawn, my eyes heavy as I wait for him to lie down so I can curl into his side. He drags the blanket over us and kisses my nose. “Goodnight, my pretty birdy.”
I close my eyes, my breaths slowing as he wraps his arms tighter around me.
Edgar’s awake before me, hanging something shiny and silver above the Christmas tree. I rub my eyes, slowly making my way to where he is. His smile is bright and infectious.
“Morning.”
“Morning,” I say groggily, and he kisses my lips softly.
“No bad morning breath. How’s it feel to be so perfect all the time?”
My forehead dips. “Not perfect.”
“You are to me. Always looking like a million bucks no matter how disheveled you are.”
I rest my chin on his shoulder, tapping at the silver-looking string, and he lifts the other side up, securing it with a tiny round piece of metal.
“This is tinsel. More decorations. I have some ornaments too. One is an owl.” He plucks two figurines with string on their heads from his pocket. One is an owl and the other is a man who kind of resembles him.
I touch each one, rolling my fingers over each curve. “Ornama.”
“Ornaments.” He draws out each letter.
“Ornaments.” I take the owl fully in my hand. “Me?”
“Yeah. Closest thing I could find to you in such a short time frame. Nova had made me that mini Edgar a year ago. I’ll have to put in a request for a better Polly soon.”
“Fea—eath.” The word came out so much easier whenever Nova or Finian said it.
“Feathers,” he says, kissing my cheek. “They’re not anywhere near as pretty as yours, though.” He runs a hand through the layers on my wings, sending a chill through me.
“More movies?”
His lips bunch. “I have two more with me. But we’ll have to finish Rudolph first. Then we can move onto The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Grinch.”
“Like Christmas movies.”
“They’re fun and a good dose of happy.”
“Happy.” Finian says that one a lot.
“Happy.” Edgar traces my smile and then touches his own. “I feel it every time I’m here.”
“Me too.”
“And we have more days to share it with each other before I have to go back again.”
“Don’t want go back.”
“I know, baby. I wish I could leave everything behind and stay here with you forever.”
“Forever.” I wrap my fingers around his and place the Polly ornament with the mini Edgar.
“I’ll find a way to make it happen somehow. This is only the beginning of what’s growing between us. I’ve never wanted anyone this much. It’s funny cause…I got those flowers for someone else. Only, I never gave them to her. I didn’t need her thinking I was still interested.”
“Someone else?” My heart squeezes.
“Yeah. Before I met you, there was this girl I thought I liked. It was always me thinking and wanting to feel something for someone else. Then you came along and there was no second-guessing anything. I can tell there never will be either.”
“Not someone else anymore?”
“No.” His forehead leans on mine. “No one else. Only you now.”
Weird fluttery sensations take over my chest and I connect my smile to his.
I only want him too. There was all this talk about mates when my mom was alive, and she said I’d know when I found the right one for me.
I don’t think she expected him to be human, though.
Neither did I, but now that he’s here, I can’t imagine another being ever coming close to making me feel so much… so much happy.