by E. D. Baker
Turning in the opposite direction from her home, she strode quickly down the sidewalk, listening to make sure that the little man was following her. Tamisin was thinking of cutting through some backyards to lose him when the raccoon man encountered a crow. He must have gone too close to the bird’s nest, because the crow began berating him in its raucous voice.
“Oh, be off with ya!” the goblin screeched. “I don’t want yer lousy, rotten, stinky eggs!”
Tamisin stopped to glance up in the tree as the bird squawked, pecking at the little man. This was her chance. While the goblin fought off the crow, Tamisin circled back the way she’d come, right past the house where Rex the Great Dane lived. His owners had a big fenced-in yard that Rex guarded day and night. When he wasn’t barking at passing students, Tamisin could usually see him lying in front of his doghouse in the back corner of the yard.
As Tamisin approached the fence, she saw Rex stretched out on his side, sound asleep. Checking behind her, she spotted the goblin following her once more, so she climbed the fence as quietly as she could. When the dog didn’t open his eyes, she dropped down to the other side, glanced at him once again, and tiptoed across the yard. Almost as if she’d called to him, the goblin scurried over the fence. He was skulking at the base of a big maple when Tamisin scrambled back to the other side. Before the raccoon man could follow, she picked up a stone and threw it at Rex’s doghouse. Rex was on his feet in an instant, barking angrily in his deep, resonant voice.
“Drat and blast it!” the goblin cried as he scurried up the tree. “Is that a dog, cur, mongrel, or mule? Get away from me, ya slobberin’ hound from …”
But Tamisin didn’t see what the little man did next. Snatching up her backpack, she ran as fast as she could away from Rex’s house, around the block and toward her own home, checking every shrub and tree for little men as she ran, until she finally slipped inside her front door, exhausted and hoping that she’d never see another creature like him again.
Chapter 4
It was the night of Tamisin’s first performance with the dance group, and the thought of so many people watching her made her stomach churn. Although the corridor was empty when she and her family arrived at the school, she could hear voices coming from the locker room where the girls were supposed to change.
“Your father and I will be seated with Petey in the center of the auditorium,” said her mother, who had insisted on walking her to the door. “Would you like us to wave?”
Tamisin looked horrified. “Please don’t! Do you know how embarrassing that would be? I’ve got to go. Don’t forget—I’ll meet you by the back door after the performance.”
“We’ll be there!” her mother called as Tamisin hurried down the hall.
The other girls were in the locker room, laughing nervously and talking in too-loud voices as they put on their costumes and the finishing touches to their makeup. The girls closest to the door glanced up and smiled when Tamisin came in. After a few weeks of waiting for her to mess up at the rehearsals and drop out, the other girls finally acknowledged that Tamisin was one of them.
“The costumes are on the rack by the back wall,” said a tall senior named Shareena.
The girls’ locker room always smelled of sweat and disinfectant, but tonight it also smelled of floral shampoo, talcum powder, hairspray, and deodorant along with the roses of the bouquets that some girls had already received. It was a good smell that only added to Tamisin’s excitement.
Inhaling deeply, she smiled as she hurried to the clothes rack. She had a solo, one of several to be performed by the best dancers, and she had worked so hard on it that she’d dreamed of it while she slept.
Tamisin wasn’t in any hurry to get dressed; her performance wasn’t until the end of the program and she still had plenty of time. The music for the first dance was just beginning when she slipped her costume over her head and felt the cool fabric glide over her skin like water on a hot day. The dress was a confection of pink, peach, and yellow that hugged her waist and swirled around her hips in irregular not-quite-tatters that rippled when she moved.
Tamisin was inspecting her reflection in the mirror when she felt a familiar pang. The moon had risen, sending its pale light through the windows set high on the locker room walls. With all her attention focused on the show, Tamisin had nearly forgotten that this was to be the night of another full moon. She took one step, then another, and was only just able to force herself to stop before the moon’s spell took hold.
She was standing in the middle of the room, shaking with the effort not to dance when the door opened and Shareena called, “Tamisin, you’re on next!”
Tamisin nodded. It was only through strength of will that she was able to walk normally down the hallway, through the door to the back of the stage, and onto the stage behind the closed curtain. As the curtain opened and the first strains of her music began, Tamisin glanced up. The faces of the audience swam in front of her, then seemed to fade away as she took the first steps of the dance she was supposed to perform. She tried to stay with the well-rehearsed movements, but with each step and gesture the urge to dance with the full moon grew in strength until it filled her mind and body. Her dance changed from the one she had been practicing for weeks into the one that her body was aching to do. Her movements became more fluid, her leaps higher, and her gestures more graceful. When the last strains of the music drew her back to the stage itself, the auditorium was deathly silent.
Although she hadn’t been able to control the dance, Tamisin was certain that the teacher would be furious—maybe even mad enough to kick her out of the dance group. But then the cheering started and she looked up from her final position, surprised.
“That was wonderful!” her friends told her as she walked behind the curtain.
“Brilliant!” said Shareena, giving her a quick hug.
But Miss Rigby wasn’t smiling when she took Tamisin aside later. “You changed your dance. That wasn’t anything like what you’ve been rehearsing.”
“I know. I don’t know how to explain it, but I had to dance it that way. I know I should have danced the way we planned, so I’ll understand if you don’t want me in the group anymore.”
“I should dismiss you from the group, but how can I when you just showed everyone that you’re the best dancer in the school? You danced beautifully. Even better than in rehearsals. Why didn’t you show me this before? Never mind—we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Run along to the dressing room. The janitorial staff is waiting to clean up.”
“Thanks, Miss Rigby!” Tamisin fairly flew to the locker room, so relieved that she was still in the group that she couldn’t stop smiling. Her hands were shaking as she changed her clothes, and her fumbling fingers had so much trouble with her buttons that she was one of the last to leave the building.
As she reached the door at the back of the school, she saw tiny lights darting just outside. It was the dance, Tamisin thought as she opened the door to greet the familiar lights. In an instant the little creatures had descended on her in a cloud so brilliant that she had to squint to see.
“Have you ever seen so many fireflies?” Heather asked from only a few feet away.
Tamisin turned to her friend and discovered that a crowd had gathered in the parking lot. Instead of leaving, many of the dancers and their families had stopped to watch the fireflies that had arrived while everyone was inside.
“I caught one!” shouted a boy holding a paper cup. A light glowed inside the cup, banging into the side like a ball in a pinball machine, but the boy kept his hand pressed firmly over the top.
“I want to catch one,” shouted another boy, but a moment later the cloud dispersed, darting off into the night sky like so many twinkling stars.
“May I see your firefly?” Tamisin asked, hurrying over to where the boy stood with his friends.
He shrugged. “Sure. Just don’t let it out.”
When Tamisin said, “I’ll be careful,” the boy moved his hand a fraction a
nd held up the cup so she could peer inside. “I can’t see anything,” she said. “Here, let me have it.” Snatching the cup from his hand, she held it out of the boy’s reach until the little creature had escaped.
“Hey!” he shouted. “That was mine!”
“It was just a firefly,” Tamisin said, handing the cup back to him.
While the boy complained to his friends, Tamisin returned to where Heather was still waiting to talk to her.
“I wanted to tell you that your dance was amazing. Here, these are for you,” Heather said, thrusting a bouquet of carnations into Tamisin’s hand. “You were fantastic. Everyone is saying that your dance was the best.”
“I never would have tried out if it hadn’t been for you,” Tamisin replied.
“That’s what friends are for—making you do something in spite of yourself.”
Tamisin laughed. “I’ll have to remember that.” She glanced around the parking lot. “Have you seen my parents?” She was tired and her back itched.
“I thought I saw them over by the trees,” said Heather.
“Thanks. I’d better go find them. Do you need a ride?”
Heather shook her head. “My parents are here. It looks like most of the school is, too. Did I tell you that I saw Jeremy? We even talked for a few minutes.”
“That’s great,” said Tamisin.
“Hey, there’s my dad,” said Heather. “I’ve got to go. See you in the morning.”
Tamisin worked her way through the crowd to the trees at the side of the parking lot. Suddenly she noticed that someone else had taken refuge there. The shadows were deep, and at first all she could see was a dark figure standing close to a tree.
“I can handle it!” the figure’s voice said. “I don’t know why he sent you.”
It was Jak, and whatever the other person had said had made him angry. He had his head down and his fists clenched when he turned away from the tree and began walking back to the school.
Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, Tamisin pretended that she had just walked up and tried to act as surprised to see him as he was to see her. “Jak, is that you?” she asked.
“Tamisin! I was hoping to catch you here. Your dance was great! It made me think of things I miss from my old home. It was very … eloquent.”
“Thank you,” she said. “That’s kind of you.”
“Oh, I’m not being kind. I mean it. For the first time I think I know what it means to be homesick.”
“I’m so sorry! I never intended to make anyone feel bad.”
“Don’t be sorry. I enjoyed your dance. You don’t have any plans now, do you? I mean, if you’d like to get something to eat, we could …”
“Tamisin!” her father called. “Your mother and I have been looking all over for you! We have to get Petey home.”
“I know, Dad. I’m coming. Thanks for the invitation,” she said, turning back to Jak. “Maybe some other time.”
“Yeah. About that—”
Tamisin started edging toward her parents’ car. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go.”
“Sure,” he said.
Jak was still watching her as she drove away with her family, looking so lonely that she almost asked her parents to stop the car—almost, but not quite. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him—he was good-looking and polite and seemed very nice. It was just that there was something about him that made her uncomfortable. Even worse, she had spotted who he had been talking to when she had walked up to him. Apparently she wasn’t the only person who could see the little raccoon man, which made her even more wary of Jak.
They were one block from the school when Tamisin saw more of the not-quite-humans. A sharp-faced woman with pointed ears and a tail like a fox ran down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. A pair of owl-eyed boys clung to a branch of the old maple on the corner, using their clawed toes to keep them upright while they gestured with their feathered hands. The rest of her family couldn’t see them, but Tamisin just pretended that she couldn’t, turning away each time she spotted one.
While her father carried a sleeping Petey upstairs, her mother took one look at Tamisin, told her how fantastic her dance had been, and then sent her off to bed as well.
Sleep was a long time coming. When it finally did, Tamisin had one of her bad dreams. Tamisin’s nightmares were always the same; she knew this because every time she had one, she remembered it the next morning.
It always began in a place so dark that she couldn’t see a thing. She was wrapped tightly in something soft and warm. She was moving, too, jiggling and bouncing as if something or someone was carrying her. The moon came out from behind the clouds and Tamisin saw the old woman who was holding her. Long, frizzy hair stuck out around the woman’s head like a halo. Her little eyes glittered when she looked down at Tamisin, but it was the rest of her face that was frightening. Instead of a nose and mouth, the woman had a beak, as pointed and sharp as that of a bird.
“It’s awake,” said the bird woman, shaking Tamisin as if to make sure it was so. Her voice was harsh, and her beak clacked each time it closed.
“Good,” said another voice. Tamisin turned her head, the only part of her that she could move, and saw another woman, smaller than the first with a pointed face and hair so short it could almost be called fur. “’Tain’t much time. They’ll be coming for it soon. Give it to me.”
Tamisin could hear herself whimpering as she was passed from one woman to the other. “Remember this,” said the sharp-faced woman, holding her face so close to Tamisin’s that she could feel hot breath on her cheek. Moving her head toward Tamisin’s arm, the woman opened her mouth and bit down, then sprinkled the wound with a dull, gray powder. Tamisin felt a sharp pain on her wrist followed by a throbbing that wouldn’t go away. She wailed at the shock of it as much as from the ache. When the woman spoke, she sounded so fierce that Tamisin would have cried out if she hadn’t been crying already. “You should never have been born, not to her. She’s sending you away, which is the smartest thing she’s done in a tortoise’s age. You stay away and don’t come back, for you’re not wanted here!”
“That’s enough,” said a new voice and a pair of hands tucked the soft covering closer. Although she couldn’t see the person’s face, Tamisin did see the long, slender fingers and the white fur on the back of the gentle hands.
Tamisin woke with a start and looked around the room, making sure that she really was in her own bed in her own home. She rubbed the scar on her wrist until it stopped aching, just like she always did after her nightmare. When she was younger, she thought the dream might have been real, but when she grew older and had looked in every book she could find and seen that there were no bird people or rat people, she’d convinced herself that it couldn’t have been possible—at least until that hateful Halloween night. Lately, the nightmare no longer frightened her the way it once had; now it just made her angry to know that the woman was going to hurt her and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
Chapter 5
As if her world wasn’t getting weird enough, Tamisin’s back itched so much the next morning that it woke her before her alarm clock went off. What had begun as a mild irritation the night before had turned into a major problem. To make matters worse, it was Wednesday, her least favorite day of the week because she had swimming class during the last period.
After enduring an increasingly itchy back all day, Tamisin couldn’t wait for school to end. All she had to do now was get through swim class. For the first few minutes, the swimming teacher, Mrs. Cosgrove, stood at the edge of the pool dressed in her shorts and T-shirt, blowing her whistle and shrieking, “No running, girls!” while the students hopped around with their arms crossed in front of their chests, wishing the period was over. By the time the girls began taking turns diving in and racing across the pool, Tamisin had to pinch her arms till they were sore just so she wouldn’t reach around for a good scratch.
She was trying to pay attention to the teacher’s dir
ections when Tiffany said in a loud voice, “Ooh, look at that!” Like everyone else still shivering on the slimy tiles, Tamisin turned around to see what she was talking about. To her dismay, Tiffany was pointing at her. “Mrs. Cosgrove, something’s wrong with Tamisin’s back. It looks like she has some kind of disease.”
“Gross!” declared Kendra, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “I bet it’s contagious.”
“I’m not going in the water with that!” another girl said as the rest backed away.
Tamisin tried to look over her shoulder to see what they were talking about, but as far as she could tell it was just a little pink.
Heather gave the other girls an exasperated look. “Cut it out,” she said as she leaned over to see Tamisin’s back. “There’s nothing wrong with … Oh, gee … I bet that hurts. Tam, you might want to look in a mirror.”
“Step aside, ladies,” said Mrs. Cosgrove. “Tamisin, let me look.” Tamisin could see the teacher’s face when her lips drew back and her nose crinkled. “You’d better go to the school nurse. Kendra was right; it might be contagious.”
“That’s so disgusting,” said Tiffany. “I bet she doesn’t wash properly.”
“She probably doesn’t wash at all,” said Kendra.
“Leave her alone,” Heather said. “Can’t you ever take a break from being nasty?”
The other girls were still snickering when Mrs. Cosgrove sent Tamisin to the locker room to get dressed.
The nurse wasn’t much help. “I’ll give you a note for your mother,” she said after taking Tamisin’s temperature and making her uncover her back. “You need to see your doctor right away. You won’t be allowed in school until your back clears up.”
