He squawked.
She wished she knew what he meant by that, but for now she’d just elaborate on what she said and perhaps that would give her more of a clue.
“If we want to stay with the fire service and each other, one of us will have to start completely over. I was thinking, since you’re already a lieutenant, and I just took the lieutenant’s exam in New York…”
She didn’t have a chance to finish her thought. Jayce took off and squawked, squawked, squawked as he flew around the room.
“Are you upset because I took the lieutenant’s exam? Or that I think I should be the one to make the sacrifice?”
He must’ve been totally frustrated and distracted because she hadn’t really given him a way to answer both questions at once. He flew into the wall.
Kristine gasped and jumped up. By the time she reached him, he was already on his feet.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t phrase that correctly. Are you upset because I took the lieutenant’s exam in case I stay in New York?”
He took off again and squawked as he circled the room and then slammed into a different wall.
“Jayce! Are you doing this on purpose? Or do you just not know where the walls are?”
He righted himself and turned his head to stare at her with his right eye. She slapped herself upside the head. “Oh crap. I did it again. We need to come up with a code. How about if you look at me with your right eye for yes and your left eye for no? I’ll try to remember to ask one question at a time.”
Jayce just stood there, not looking left or right. Sheesh. What did that mean?
“This isn’t going very well, is it?”
He looked at her with his right eye.
“Okay. Maybe we can do this. First, I should tell you everything that’s been going on. Then we can make some decisions, if you feel you’re ready to do that.”
She waited for him to look left or right. He took the neutral position, facing her head-on. Well, she hadn’t really asked a question.
“Okay, here goes. First off, my mother is engaged to a dragon she met here in Boston. She’ll be living with him in the apartment building next door to the B and B. If she were returning to New York, I wouldn’t be able to leave her. It’s hard enough to trust this man she just met—correction, thisdragonshe just met. So, that means I would either live alone in New York and visit you periodically, or—”
Again, he didn’t give her a chance to finish her thought. He squawked his head off and flew around the room, this time smashing into a window.
“Damn it, Jayce! Knock it off.” She thought about what she just said, and before he knocked his head off, she quickly amended, “I mean, stop it! Sheesh!”If a teenage human brain hasn’t fully developed, a teenage birdbrain must really be a problem!
He took off again, but she was having none of it. She grabbed the afghan off the couch and tossed it over him like a fisherman tossing his net, trapping him and letting gravity take him to the ground. He squawked once as if surprised.
What now? She couldn’t just leave him there. But it was for his own good. Before he knocked himself out or did some serious damage. “I did this because I can’t let you hurt yourself.”
He just resumed squawking and thrashed under the afghan.
How could she make him more comfortable and yet not let him out completely? She wondered if she crawled under there with him whether he would welcome her presence or peck her eyes out. “Jayce would never hurt me,” she muttered. With that hope, she crawled under the afghan, making sure she didn’t create any spaces big enough for him to get out.
When she finally managed to wiggle her whole body under it, she sat up and let her head be a tent pole. Jayce stepped toward her and opened his wings once, as if stretching his arms. Then he waited quietly.
Kristine was afraid to say anything at all. At least anything that might set him off. He must’ve been a rough teenager. She wondered if he had smashed his fist into a wall when he was really pissed.
“Are you all right?”
He looked at her with his right eye.
“I imagine a normal—I mean,ordinarybird could have broken a bone or suffered head trauma…or worse.”
He just sat there in the neutral position.
“You scared me.”
