"So," El Brujo continued, "our second goal--"
But I interrupted her. "Sorry, Bru, but we can't--"
"Can't??" Jefe slapped a wing against my pillow case.
"That's a word we don't use, 'Mano!"
I rolled my eyes at him. "Fine. But--"
"No 'buts,'" Honoria said. She'd settled onto the sleeping
bag at the end of the bed beside El Brujo, their respective
feathers and fur sleek and black against the dark green. "You
gotta think positive you wanna get this lady!"
"I know. I just--"
"No!" Seena leaped from the bedpost to land in my lap, her
little claws digging into my shirt front, her tail frizzing up
behind her head, her beady black eyes fixed on mine. "We will
not allow any unhappy thoughts to cloud your brain, Mr. Augie!
We will see you through to happiness no matter what forces
attempt to prevent it!"
The two crows and the cat all nodded emphatically at this,
and I tried mightily not to sigh. "And I'm grateful. Honestly.
I do have some important information, however, that I
need to share with you all, and I'd really, really appreciate it
if you didn't keep interrupting me while I tried to do it!"
Once again, I felt very happy that whatever process I use
to talk to animals is barely audible to regular human ears
'cause by the time I got to the end, there, I was as close to
yelling as I think I'd ever been since the same fibrous growths
that were slowly paralyzing me had also begun reshaping my
nervous system to make communicating with animals a lot easier
for me than talking to people.
The birds were staring at me, Serena peering up over the
edge of the bedstead. But El Brujo just gave me her half-lidded
look and said, "Really, August. Such outbursts are most
unseemly."
"And I'll be happy to talk about that," I told her.
"Somewhere other than here." I crooked a thumb at the closed
door behind me. "'Cause the guy who, more than anyone else,
gets to decide on whether I can continue living in this room or
not is gonna be knocking on that door in maybe five minutes and
asking if I've gotten rid of the squirrel yet."
Serena ducked down till just the tips of her ears were
visible. "He was a very scary man," she offered.
El Brujo's ears folded slightly. "Eric has a great deal
more simian in him than one likes in one's humans."
"Ah." Honoria clicked her beak a couple times.
"Territorial, huh?"
I scowled. "He's not--" I stopped, not sure why I felt
the need to defend him. "He has legitimate concerns," I finally
decided on. "And one of them is non-approved people--or
creatures--in the rooms of what's technically a medical
facility." I spread my hands. "So I'm just saying we oughtta
move this discussion somewhere--"
"Ramsay's place," Jefe said, leaping from my pillow to the
windowsill. "They're still outta town, and the way we're
getting down into the weeds of human nature here with all this
romance stuff, well, I don't know no one who knows humans
better'n Traveler." He tapped his talons against the wood.
"That dog's seen some things, lemme tell you!"
Her ears still at half-mast, El Brujo nonetheless nodded.
"Traveler is quite the gentlepooch, I'll allow. His input might
prove quite valuable." She gave me a stern look. "As long as
you don't accept any poetry advice from him!"
It all rolls merrily on from here, then, into 22!
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