...Parsley residents are on edge this morning after a momma swan and her babies were found butchered by a family going for their Sunday walk. Located not too far from the Sweets River shore, the cygnets and the mute swan, affectionately called Chuckles, were apparently killed with a blunt instrument. This is the third incident of animals being killed this year after two pigeons, and a pet yorkie were found skinned and displayed outside the Parsley Bee Newspaper—
Cassidy knocked the radio off the side-table in an attempt to shut the noise. She opened her eyes and the bedroom was dim. She could hear the clock ticking away the minutes as she rolled over onto something soft and immoveable; it was a shoe. She pulled it out from beneath the small of her back and sat up on one elbow. Looking around the room she realized she was in her old bedroom. How did she get here? She hadn’t been home in so long she barely remembered the layout. The bookshelves colour coded, stacked with biographies, travel guides and plenty of fictional tomes. Tucked between the larger books with various tchotchkes she’d collected since was a kid. There was an old doll that her father had given her when she was 10, dusty and staring blank-eyed, just above her head. It was one of the first black cabbage patch dolls and even had a dimple, like its owner. It came with its own name on the accompanying birth certificate but Cassidy renamed her Esmerelda in honour of a long dead, never met family relative, her paternal grandmother.
Her eyes became adjusted to the darkness of the room and traveled the length of the far wall which housed a closet, mirror and window which was protected by closed blinds. She felt like death. Her eyes wandered over to something dark on the floor that looked like a shirt or leggings. The harder she stared at it the less she was able to discern what it was from her bed. She sat up completely and realized she was still dressed in most of her clothing from the night before. The night before…hazy. She’d planned to stay an hour and then….She reached to the side table and flicked on the lamp to get a closer look at the resident on her floor. It was vomit. A lot of it. ‘Ohhhh!’ she groaned as she fell back on the bed. She remembered all the girls in high school who would drink too much, puke in the bushes, the back yard, the sewers and then, staggering home while pledging loudly to the sleeping town that they would never drink again. Yes, she thought, I will never touch another drop.
‘Liar Liar pants are on fire,’ she heard a voice say from the doorway. Cassidy looked up from her pity party and saw Judith holding two glasses of water. ‘My angel! My sweet sweet angel,’ she burbled as she took the glass and absorbed its contents like a sponge. Judith stood with one hip cocked, peering at her friend. ‘Welcome home! You are a hot mess and you’re talking about how you’re going to stop drinking? Please!’ Cassidy reached for the second glass. Judith pulled back. ‘How do you know I didn’t bring this for myself, drunkie?’ Bowie, Cassidy’s cat, hetrochromia eyes narrowed, slid into the room and sniffed the puke pool beside the bed. He recoiled from the stench as Judith flicked some water at him. ‘Begone demon, mommy’s not ready for you yet.’ The cat ran out of the room with a slow backwards look at his master, disappearing from view.
‘So, I guess you two aren’t besties yet, huh?’ Cassidy said drinking from the second glass of water.
‘Well, I didn’t kill him yet, did I? Somehow we managed to live together without injury. Besides, what kind of housewarming would that be if you came home to a dead cat?’ Judith sat on the bed gingerly. She threw a few things onto a side chair in the corner. Bowie ran back in, leapt onto the chair and settled on a cotton jumper. He eyed them both before cleaning himself.
‘He looks healthy. Better than me, I’m guessing. I don’t even remember getting home. I had the weirdest dream…’ Cassidy rubbed her neck and put her head between her knees. ‘You say that so much, it’s lost all meaning, Cass,’ Judith muttered while rubbing her back. She stared around the room with its alarm clock, wall clock and travel clock in various areas of the space. Tick tick tick. All analogue. For some inexplicable reason, her friend loves clocks and the house was full of them.
‘Is that your way of giving me permission to cull the timekeepers in this house?’
‘No,’ her voice muffled while hunched over, trying not to feel nauseated.
‘I think you need some grease in your system. Let’s go for breakfast. It’s on me. I can smell the sizzling meats already,’ Judith stood up and grabbed the glass from the floor.
‘I want sausages but the idea of them makes me feel sick,’ she raised her head, and looked at Judith.
‘That’s because you have puke in your hair. Hit the shower and I’ll meet you at our local in 30,’ she said, standing to leave. Cassidy craned her head slightly to peer at her best friend.
‘You look like a pretty grown-up, Judy-Boo, so put together with makeup and no vomit in your hair. How do you do it?’
‘It’s called responsibilities, Cassidy! Get up!’ Judith’s voice carried as she whisked down the stairs and out the front door.
Cassidy stood and looked in the mirror. There was sick on her chin. She opened the curtains to let in the light and moved closer to the mirror. Was that a bruise on her neck? A flash of a bearded man, then surly woman, popped into her head and evaporated. Well, at least she didn’t die in this dream. Was it a dream? She needed to eat something. As she spun around to leave her room for the shower she tripped over Bowie, who’d slipped in and was standing directly behind her. There was water dripping from his whiskers and his paws were wet. She tried to pick him up and he wriggled out of her grasp.
‘Fine! Fine…I guess I should be happy you’re not scratching my eyes out after leaving you for three years.’ The cat stared at her, tail moving very slowly.
‘I swear you understand me but that would make me a crazy cat lady and we don’t want to end up like mummy in the Institute, do we? What am I doing? I need to get out of here.’
She grabbed the closest things she could find on the floor (did she drunkenly unpack her suitcase last night?) and went to the shower. Bowie followed, perched on the toilet, and watched Cassidy wash away her past.