Evolution by Kate Wrath Page A

relief.  I look at
Valentine while I surreptitiously blink away tears.  The pig gazes up at
me and snorts.
    Matt grins, sets his book aside, and climbs to his
feet.  He gestures me into the dining room.  Clearly, we are not
talking about what happened this afternoon.
    This time, I recognize the sound before I see the creatures
that make it.
    I stop in the doorway.  "Pigeons?"
    Next to the cage, he turns and smiles at me.  "It
was the best I could do."
    "Really."
    He offers a shrug.  He's still smiling.
    "What am I supposed to do with them?" I ask, the
same as yesterday.
    "Whatever you want."  He unconsciously
glances toward the back door.
    I cross my arms and consider the two pigeons at
length.  One of them has creepy red eyes.  Finally, I sigh. 
"Alright," I say.  "Let's get Alayna to make them for
dinner."
    He nods approvingly.  "Merry Christmas."
     
    ***
     
    Late at night, Miranda brings me news of our friends 
She says she only had a moment to check in, but Apollon is home now, and both
he and Neveah are doing fine.  He’s not hurt, and he’s joking as
usual.  Both of our friends seem to be back to normal.  It’s like
they were never gone.
    Longing slithers over me, a snake constricting around my
heart.  I fight back the emotion and listen quietly to Miranda’s report,
nodding.  I can’t say anything because if I do it will come out with
buckets of tears.
    My lack of response leaves our conversation short. 
Miranda offers a little smile and slips away out the door.  I dowse the
aether lamp, collapse onto my pillow, and let myself cry out the loneliness.
     
    ***
     
    The next evening, it's chickens.
    "Chickens?"  Matt and I stand on the back
porch and look at the cage tucked against the wall.  Three fat
chickens.  Too much to bring inside.
    "Hens, really," Matt corrects, viewing them. 
He adds hopefully, "They'll lay eggs for you."
    I eye him, trying to figure out what this is all
about.  Is it one of his attempts to get me to eat more?  I suspect
not.  But what, then?  Is he trying to woo me with chickens? 
Really?
    "We should probably keep them in the coop with the
others," he says sensibly.
    "Yes."
    "They're all yours, though.”
    I nod.  "OK."
    He smiles warmly down at me.  "Merry
Christmas."
    I mumble something unintelligible, dragging my feet back
inside.
    As Alayna serves us dinner—venison steak with mashed
potatoes—I turn this weirdness over in my mind.  The best explanation I
can come up with is that Matt is trying to make me feel secure.  He's
giving me a small stock of animals I can eat from if things go bad.  Or
maybe he's lost it.
    "So what did you do today?" he asks between bites
of steak.
    "Turned a warehouse into a place for sick and hurt
people to get help."
    He looks up from sawing his meat.  "Really."
    "Yep."
    He considers for a moment.  "That's a good
idea," he finally says.  "You could make a lot of money."
    I chew on a bite of steak for a while.  I decide not to
tell him that everything will be free.
    "Is there anything you need help with?" he asks,
finally tired of waiting for a reply.
    "I've got it covered."  I don't want his
help, and certainly not his permission.
    "Of course."  Wisely, he drops it.
    After dinner, in the parlor, we sit in silence.  He
reads his books.  I wriggle restlessly in my half of the chair. 
Valentine snorts at me.
    "See, Christmas tree," Matt says at some point,
holding up a loose, faded page from a picture book.  It is literally
crumbling in his hands.
    I squint at it.  There are some funny-looking kids and
what I think is a dog laughing at another kid with a tiny tree.
    Matt points at the one kid.  "This guy got a
crappy tree," he says.  "He didn't know what Christmas was
about.  Bigger is better."
    "Guess you're in luck, then."
    He flashes me a sudden grin and winks.  "So are
you."
    I turn my face away as I color red.  "Did you
figure out what to put on it, yet?" I ask, trying to forge ahead, and
immediately