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Mr. Blackbourne shook his head. “You can’t do that to her, North.”
&n
bsp; “I can if she tells me I can.”
“She’s not some toy you can play with.”
“I know she’s not a fucking toy.”
Mr. Blackbourne pulled onto a dark driveway to an estate house on the southern side of Charleston. Mr. Blackbourne stopped the car short of the wide front steps. The ill-lit front porch with two dim outdoor lights around the doors, provided the only light. Inside, the whole upstairs portion was blacked out. The only light inside appeared far away. If it had been any other house, North would have assumed they had the wrong address. With an Academy residence, anything was possible.
The moment Mr. Blackbourne stopped the car, North opened the door, leaping out. He slammed the door closed again.
Mr. Blackbourne wedged himself out of the car, slamming the door shut in response. “I mean you can’t do things like that to her and expect her to be okay with it. She shouldn’t have to be okay with this. You need to back off.”
“I can’t do that,” North said, staring off at the house. He was looking at the house, but he wasn’t really paying attention to it.
“Why not?”
North heard Mr. Blackbourne’s words asking him, but for a moment, he was tempted to ignore it. Mr. Blackbourne wouldn’t like his answer.
He was still distracted, like he’d been for weeks. He was seeing Sang’s face behind his eyes at every turn. He saw those gorgeous eyes and those sweet, delicate lips whenever she wasn't around lately. Ever since kissing her fingers in the back of Silas’s car. Ever since the first time he held her to his chest the night she had that awful nightmare and she’d cried because she was afraid he was mad. Ever since the first time she rode on the back of his bike and she told him about her wobbly legs.
Ever since he caught her yanking at that damn curtain in the diner’s kitchen and she fell back into his arms.
“Because I think I love her,” he said, surprising himself with his frankness. He’d had a couple of girlfriends before, one he dated for several months, but he never once said those words. They were special and he was positive, for the longest time, he never would. Never until he meant it.
Mr. Blackbourne’s face twisted with confusion at him. “What do you mean you love her? Last week you were telling me we should expunge the adoption because you thought she hated you. You wanted her gone.”
North turned on him, pointing at Mr. Blackbourne from over the car’s roof. “Do you think I’m fucking around?”
“You tell me, North. You say you think you love her. Last week you thought she hated you. I don't know if I should take you seriously.”
“I’m not bullshitting here. She’s ... Sang ...”
“You better not tell her until you know for sure. In fact, I don’t think you should tell her at all. Not now.”
“Why not? Why can’t I tell her?”
Mr. Blackbourne’s steel eyes narrowed. “We don’t know what’s going to happen to her yet.”
“I tell you what’s going to happen,” North bellowed. He couldn’t believe he called him in the middle of the night to disappear on Sang, again, when he thought he finally broke through to her. The only thing that got him moving was that Mr. Blackbourne promised this might be the solution to getting the Academy to fully accept Sang as theirs and not come after her. “We’re going in this stupid place and finding out what we need to know. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just tell them all to fuck off because she wants to stay with us and they can’t do anything about it.”
“We don’t know if she wants that.”
“She says she does.”
Mr. Blackbourne heaved a sigh. “She doesn’t know she has options.”
North frowned. He hated that part of the Academy. It was never a concern to him before, because his brother and Silas had rooted him to their group, and now he’d never leave. Sang was still vulnerable. They’d saved her, but they were so busy that he barely got any time with her. Half of the time he ended up yelling at her. It wasn’t the way to win her over so she’d stay forever. “Let’s go inside.”
Mr. Blackbourne led the way up the wide front porch steps. There was a dim overhead light on above the door and it barely shed enough of a glow to reveal a tiny black button encased in a bronze plate to the right. Mr. Blackbourne pushed at it a few dozen times at random intervals. Random was Academy code. That’s how they worked best.
They waited in the half dark. North’s fingers massaged the side of his phone, twitching to check on her.
The sound of footsteps drew his attention to the door. The handle rattled and the door creaked as it swung open. In the doorway was a man about North’s height, with broader shoulders and a two day unshaven mess on top of his square jaw. Part of the hairs on his chin were turning gray, along with the combed back hair at his temples. The rest of his hair was a dark mass, slick as if he’d just stepped from a shower.
The man squinted out at them. “When you called, I suspected an older group. Not a couple of kids.”
North parted his lips to retort but Mr. Blackbourne spoke up before he could utter a curse. “Mr. Henry Anderson? I’m Owen Blackbourne. This is Mr. North Taylor. We’ve come to ask you ...”
“About a bird,” Henry interrupted. He nodded his head, the shadows from his unshaven face deepening with each nod. “I told you that you probably weren’t going to like this.”
“We need to know.”
He sighed, opening the door further and stepping aside.
North followed Mr. Blackbourne inside the shadowy foyer. The floor was cluttered along the walls with a collection of antique furniture. Useless pieces. There were petite chairs and uncomfortable looking benches, along with tiny tables that were barely wide enough to hold a vase of flowers. The stairway was more impressive. The rail was old fashioned, like the house, sturdy and not like the rails built into newer homes.
He wondered if Silas and he had time to build a better rail for the stairs at Sang’s house.
North filed the thought off to the back of his mind as he followed Henry through a set of side doors. The room was a library, with a wide marble fireplace, currently lit up with a gentle fire. The room was still oddly cool, and North suspected leaks bringing in the night air.
“Have a seat,” Henry said, motioning to one of the sofas sitting in front of the fireplace.
North waited for Mr. Blackbourne to sit first. North planted himself next to him, sitting back, his fingers itching over his phone in his pocket.
“Not right now,” Mr. Blackbourne muttered his order under his breath.
North resisted the urge to check on Sang. It was a stupid order. What did Henry care what he did with his phone? He would have assumed North was looking at Academy business. Still, North obeyed. He trusted Mr. Blackbourne enough to listen to him without asking why, even if he allowed himself to commiserate about it.
“I’d offer you boys a drink,” Henry said, sitting down on the sofa opposite of them. “But I think all we’ve got in the house is bourbon.”
“That’s not necessary,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “We’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind.”
Henry waved his hand in the air. “Ask. I still don’t think you’ll like the answer. No one does.”
North flinched. This wasn’t boding well. “Others have come to you about this?” he asked, not meaning to intervene. He was here to listen, because two people recalling details fared better than one going alone. This was important enough, they should have probably brought Kota as well.
“Do you think you’re the first pair of dogs I’ve seen coming to ask me about a bird?” Henry grinned, showing brilliant white teeth. “Of course you think you’ve found a bird you want to adopt.”
“We mean to try for a closed adoption,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
Henry nodded. “Yup. You’ve told her this much and it didn’t scare her off. Now you want to keep her. Maybe set her up for training, possibly letting her join sometime in the future. A bird in an all dog squad. How in the world is it done?”
“You’ve done it,” North said, not liking Henry’s tone as if he knew their group already. He didn’t often meet other Academy members in this way. Usually they were introduced formally by groups they were in partnership with. Not all personalities get along, so it wasn’t a good idea to get clashing groups to work together.
“Yes, we’ve done it.” Henry frowned. “We’ve done it and I don’t regret it, but I know for sure every other group who has come to me and asked for this secret has always failed.”
“Why does it fail?” Mr. Blackbourne asked before North could retort.
“Because it isn’t natural. Normal. Well no, I shouldn’t say that. We’re not normal, after all.” He flashed another smile. “Most of the time they’re young, like you. They don’t know shit about birds. Most of the time the bird flies the coop. The rest ... well ... it’s a dog that runs off with the bird. They opt to join a couple team. And you know how much the Academy loves couple teams.”
Couple teams were rare, too. It was also one of the only other boy/girl team options available. If everyone in a dog group had a bird pair, it was often the birds that didn’t get along. Trust still became an issue.
“Why don’t you just tell us what we’re looking at?” North asked, tired of the games. He’d promised Sang he’d be back soon, and this was taking way longer than he expected. He wanted to keep his promise to sleep.
“What you’re looking at,” Henry said, tensing his back in a stretch, “is something you won’t like and I’m worried you won’t believe me. Or possibly hit me for suggesting it. It’s hard to tell. Especially with the religious groups. They hated it.”
“Mr. Anderson,” Mr. Blackbourne said, using a hint of command to refocus the conversation. “How did your group succeed in allowing the Academy to grant your bird into an all dog team on a closed adoption and further, as an official member?”
Henry grinned again, baring his teeth. “Which one of you loves her?”
