by Tia Wilson
4
Twin Rock
The faded and peeling sign read ‘Twin Rock’ and directly under it was printed ‘All are Welcome’ in a curling cursive font. They drove through the main street and Grace saw a toy shop with a sun faded window display, a bar with a poster in the window for a local band and Tom pulled the car to a stop outside a hardware shop with a wooden sign with an image of a man chopping down a tree.
The main street looked like it could have been from one of a thousand small towns around the country. Some small business’ were boarded up and the town had a faded charm to it that Grace liked. Across from where the had stopped was a diner with a neon light above the door, ‘Gail’s Place’, it said in curving glass. The place looked like it could seat twenty or so patrons and Grace could see it was half full. A few of the people inside turned to look out at the car across from them, some pointing and smiling in her direction. She waved across at them self consciously and two older men waved back at her.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Tom said getting out of the car and going into the hardware store. A bell over the door rang as he entered. The streets of the town were empty and Grace could see at the end of the street a wooden pagoda in a well tended park. She looked in at Tom and she could see him talking to the man behind the counter.
Grace got out of the car to stretch her legs and she walked down towards the park at the end of the street. She passed by a general store with ads stuck in the window on small cards. Most seemed to be advertising forestry jobs in the local area. As she got close to the pagoda she could see a young woman with a baby in her arms sitting down and leaning against the wooden railings. Grace sat on the wooden steps and looked across at the wooded area at the back of town. She could make out a clearing were people had built cabins.
“Beautiful day out,” Grace said to the woman.
The baby gurgled in the woman’s arms and she said, “Sure is. Are you new to town?” the woman asked as the baby twisted and turned in her arms.
“I got here a few minutes ago. I came here with Tom. Do you know him?” grace asked.
The woman’s eyes went wide and she stared at Grace with her mouth open. After a beat she said,”You’re her aren’t you?”, as she got up and walked over to Grace. The woman stuck her hand out and Grace shook it. “I’m Anne Twill by the way. Can I ask if you would touch my babies head? I’d be mighty thankful if you did.”
“I don’t know who you think I am,” Grace said standing up.
“You’re here to bring the tribes together. You will end the great division and bring peace and harmony to all bear kind. I knew it was you as soon as I saw you approaching. You have a quality about you, an inner light that we can all sense. Please,” she said holding her baby out towards Grace. The baby kicked his legs and was tensing its body as his face began to redden. His face was scrunched up and he looked like he was about to cry any second.
Grace looked from the woman to the baby, not knowing what to do. She reached out and stroked the soft skin of the babies forehead. The change was nearly immediate, as the baby stopped twisting in his mothers arms and the flush of red faded from his face. The baby gurgled at Grace as its heavy lids slowly closed into a restful sleep.
“See,” the woman said. “You are the one,” she said, as the baby let out a sleepy burble.
Graces ordered and structured life seemed so far away from her now. She wished she was sitting in her apartment right now with everything around her neatly stacked and placed to her exact specifications. She yearned to be in her kitchen where every label in her fridge was turned to the front and everything ordered alphabetically in her cupboards. As appealing as it sounded to be back in the cocoon of her own space she knew it would mean one thing, not being with Tom. That was something she was starting to realise she didn’t want to happen. She never believed in the myth of love at first sight and she didn’t think she loved Tom, and yet she couldn’t stop thinking about him even through all the fear of the last few days. Constantly at the back of her mind was Tom, she felt like she could do anything when by his side. Her desire to have a well ordered life seemed to burn in the fires of her feelings for Tom. This is all happening too fast she thought to herself as she stared blankly ahead.
“Are you okay?” the woman with the baby asked.
“Sorry,” Grace stammered and then sat down on the pagoda steps, “I’m not sure whats come over me. This town, the things Tom has told me they are a little overwhelming. I still feel likeI’m inside a fairytale.”
The woman kissed her babies head and looked at Grace with kind eyes and said, “My husband felt the same when he found out about me.”
“You’re a bear,” Grace said interrupting her.
The woman smiled and said, “Most of the town is. There are some husbands and wives who are human, they know the truth about us. Otherwise our clan keeps to itself mostly and has since the beginning of time.”
“You’re married to me, one of us, a human I mean,” Grace said stumbling over her words.
“Fifteen happy years this coming winter. We are not the only mixed couple in town, we are rare but there are a few of us. Bears generally like to stay with their own kind, but sometimes you meet someone and everything falls away and you would do anything to be with each other. I can see in your eyes that you might of met that someone special already.”
Grace glanced away, thinking about Tom again. It was all she seemed to be able to focus on lately. “I don’t know yet, everything is still so new. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that shape shifting bears exist,” she said with an exhausted laugh.
The woman reached out and rubbed Graces shoulder and said, “It will get easier for you I promise that. You’ll soon see we aren’t much different from regular humans, we all want the same things that you folks do. Give it a chance.” Tom came out of the hardware store and looked up and down the street. He saw Grace and waved in her direction. “Looks like your someone special is calling you,” she said.
“How do you know it’s him,” Grace asked as she stood up.
“We bears know things, we can sense things that humans might miss. I live above the diner on main street, call into me any time you want someone to talk to. My door is always open for a new member of our town.” the woman said and then kissed the top of her babies head.
Grace smiled at her and then walked up the street to meet Tom. His face was tight and serious when she got to him. “What were you doing?” he asked her in a worried tone.
“I wanted to explore a little. I was speaking to a nice woman named Anne Twill at the pagoda,” Grace said.
Tom sucked in air sharply and pointed at the pagoda, “Anne Twill has been dead twenty-five years. You couldn’t have been speaking to her.”
Grace looked back at the pagoda and it was empty. Her mind spun and she felt a tickling crawl across the back of her neck. If transforming bears existed she thought maybe ghosts and other horrors were out there waiting to be found. She could feel the blood drain from her face and said, “Is it a bad omen if a ghost contacted me?”
Tom looked at her face, a stiff mask of seriousness and pointed across the street. Anne Twill was very much alive and opening a door beside the entrance to the diner.
Toms serious face dissolved and he burst out laughing. Grace punched him playfully on the arm.
“You lier,” she said laughing with him, “I was ready to believe anything. If you told me the creature from the black lagoon lived in your towns lake I would have fallen for that too.” Grace went to punch him again and he grabbed her fist and pulled her close to him.
They stared into each others with wide grins on each others face and then they kissed. Sparks wheeled and buzzed through her body as he held her tight. When the kiss ended she felt lightheaded as a pleasurable warmth spread through her core. Her lips hummed from pressure and she ran her tongue along the back of it enjoying the buzz of electricity.
“I have to go away for a few days,” Tom said a
nd the pleasurable buzz quickly dissipated in Graces body, now to be replaced with something else, a dark and oily serpent curled in a corner draped in shadows and waiting to digs its fangs into the first ankle to gets within striking distance.
“For how long?” Grace asked hoping to hide the gnawing worry she was feeling already.
“One week. One of our clan elders is being held and I’m going to go and get him,” Tom said.
“Can’t someone else go and be the hero,” she asked.
“I have to go. The clan is depending on me. We know were he is being held and it will be very easy to get him back. The man is called elder Silas and he is very important to our clan. If you knew what those other twisted animals do to our sort you would never ask me to stay.”
Grace felt a twinge of regret for coming across so needy. “I understand,” she said.
“Don’t worry you wont be alone. The whole town will be very interested to meet you. The elders have set up an apartment across the hall from your new ghost friend Annes place. So you will have some company,” he said and reached up and held her face gently, “don’t worry about me. Im going down south with eight other guys. We will be in and out and back quicker than you think. Before I go I want to take you in to meet Elder Franklin, he runs the hardware store.”
The hardware store looked like it hadn’t changed in decades, an old noticeboard hung in the entryway and faded calendars with pickup trucks, tractors and harvesters hung beside yellowing ads selling the latest tools and workwear. At the back of the store was an old wooden counter its surface shiny from a plethora of transactions and general chin wagging sessions the clientele would have, most of the time they were in the store to talk rather than buy. Standing beside the cash register and stroking his snow white beard was Elder Franklin. His head was as smooth as a golf ball and just as dimpled, with several ruts and indentations across his great dome. His large stomach hung over the waist of his blue jeans and his belt buckle had at least three different leather pouches attached to it. As grace walked towards him he dropped the tools catalogue on the counter and stared at her openly.
He outstretched his hand and Grace took it. Her hand was engulfed in his huge mitt as he shook her hand with vigour. “It’s amazing to finally meet you. I’m Elder Franklin, one of the seven elders of this ancient clan. Tom has been telling me all about you and I’m sure you have a thousand questions about us.”
Grace nodded her head as Elder Franklin continued, “All in good time my young lady. Everything will be answered and explained to your full satisfaction. I know Tom has told you that he has to go away for a few days. I think its best you take that time to relax and get settled into town life. When Tom returns we will have a town meeting and you will get a chance to meet everyone. We have set you up across the street in a very nice apartment, and Tom tells me you have already made friends with your new neighbour. Anne and her husband are both fantastic people. If you need any help do not hesitate to ask them and if they cannot help you, you are always welcome here and I’ll help you out as best I can.” Franklin nodded at Tom and then picked up his catalogue and returned to it. Grace could see the time for conversation was over with him.
“Lets go,” Tom said and left the store with Grace following.
“Well, that was abrupt,” Grace said.
“That’s the way he is around humans. He tries to keep the niceties up and sometimes it doesn’t last for very long. He doesn’t do very well with strangers, even one as beautiful as you,” Tom said winking at her.
“When do you go?” Grace asked, dreading the answer.
Tom ground the toe of his boot into the dust and looked off out at the other end of town. “I leave now. The men are waiting for me a mile outside of town. I’m sorry it has to be this way,” he said leaning in to kiss her. Lana heard no swelling of music, felt no rush of tingles as she kissed him. The coiled snake rattled in the gloom of the corner of the room and Grace could feel it begin to stir and look for prey.
The kiss ended and Tom said, “Your apartment is up the flight of stairs through that door,” as he pointed over towards the diner. “The key is in the door,” and he turned and got into his car. As he drove away out of town Grace stood there in the middle of the street feeling numb. What if his last words to her were about a key in a door and their last kiss was the lack lustre one they had just shared. They idea that she might not see him again felt like she was being pulled down into the ground. She couldn’t imagine a world were he never came back and shared this new world of transforming bear shifters with her. She felt utterly alone and like a complete outsider as she walked over to her new apartment.
At the top of the stairs was a small boxy hall with two doors. Her new apartment had a key in the door and the door opposite which was Anne Twills place was covered with a layer of stickers of bears at knee height. Grace leaned against the door once she was inside and looked at her new home. It was a small single bedroom apartment with linoleum covered floors. A kitchen was in a recessed corner with brown painted cupboards and a lime green counter top. A sofa covered in material patches sat in the corner of the room and Grace flopped on it and stared up at the ceiling. The urge to get up and reorder everything in the apartment was strong, she felt the pull of the extreme and knew that it would only give her nothing more than an empty feeling of satisfaction.
5
The First White Bear
The night sky cracked and fizzled with curtains of phosphorescent greens and purples as the northern lights danced in the sky. Tannis and his sixteen year old son Tulimak sped across the open arctic tundra on the back of their sled. The six dogs pulling the sled were exhausted, their coats covered in a white foam around the haunches. Tannis had been pushing them for nearly ten hours straight without a break. He cracked the whip again and the dogs slowed and then stopped. They collapsed onto to the ground, puffs of white breath coming from their mouths.
“Get me the food for the dogs,” Tannis ordered his son.
Tannis took his spear off the mount on the side of the sled and walked a short ways away and looked around. The light show above illuminated the flat tundra they had been travelling across for a few hours. Off on the horizon he could see the shape of the animal that had been hunting them for two days now.
They had been seal hunting along the coast and had two carcasses tied to the back of the sled. The hunt had gone well with seals abundant at this time of year and Tannis had been feeling luckier then usual. That was when he first saw the bear standing atop a hill and staring down at him. He was familiar with the moods of bears all his life, his grandfather and father had taught him the way of the bears and how to best respect and avoid contact with them. This bear seemed different from the first time he saw him. The bear never seemed to pay any attention to the seals basking on the beach below, his focus was on Tannis and his son as they loaded up the sled. It had spooked him the way the bear sat atop the hill unmoving and observing them from on high. Tannis cut the hunting expedition short and told his son to prepare the dogs and get ready to leave.
They were taking a wide flat piece of land leading from the coast and going inland when the bear appeared over a hill and started to pursue them at top speed. Tannis cracked the reins and the dogs sped up. He could already see the dogs begin to get spooked as they smelled the scent of danger in the air. The noise of the bears massive paws moving across the compacted snow at great speed was a sound that would haunt Tannis in his dreams. He dared to look back and the bear was only feet away from him. Its tongue lolled out of the corner of its mouth as it increased its speed. Tannis said a prayer to the gods of the land when he saw the eyes of the bear staring at him. The bear had two emerald green human eyes staring at him in anger as it continued to gain ground. The bear was within a few feet of the sled when it started to slow down and the distance between them increased. Tannis’s victory only lasted for a moment, when he glanced back the bear was still coming after them, only this time at a much slower pace. It had been that
way for the last ten hours. The white bear a relentless sight against the glass flat tundra. The bear seemed to know that the dogs would soon tire and they would be easy pickings on the open land.
Tannis’s son cut off strips of dried reindeer and threw it to the dogs. They were starving and barely moved for the food. If it landed in the snow beside them they would stretch out their necks and gobble it up. If the strips were out of reach the dogs did not move for them. This is not good Tannis thought to himself as he gathered up the strips the dogs had not touched. If he had to hand feed the dogs it meant they had crossed the barrier into something past exhaustion and possibly more dangerous. He had seen dogs run to death before.
He was an early teen out with a party of experienced hunters. They had left the village on a three month expedition and were coming to the end. The sleds were loaded down with seal and reindeer carcasses and everyone was in high spirits, that was until two days of early sun started to melt the frozen pass they needed to cross. Usually this pass would remain frozen for another two weeks, all the elder hunters said it was unusual. All agreed that there was only one thing to do. Instead of taking the usual three days to cross, where they would camp out on the ice. They had to do it in one day without any nights of camping. If they didn't get across before it melted they had no way of returning home and people in the village would die without the supplies the hunting party were loaded down with.
