First Born

by Tricia Zoeller

  “What sound?” Lily asked.

  “Like a long fart.”

  “Unbelievable. I’m in serious trauma here and you’re talking about farts like a ten-year-old boy.” A tingling sensation crept up her neck toward the top of her head before radiating back down her spine. Seth straightened his back and cocked his head, waiting, perhaps anticipating that her next transition would be into something cool like the Incredible Hulk.

  “Are you done because, Dude, I am totally serious. It sounded like a Guinness Book of World Records fart.”

  “Great. Like I’m not self-conscious enough that I’m waking up naked in strange places and that I have a beard. Now I have a flatulence issue to address,” she retorted.

  “I didn’t say you farted. Just sounded like one.”

  “Thank you for the scientific analysis, Dr. Moore. Technically, it’s not a fart. The sound waves created gave the perception of a fart,” she said crossing her arms to mimic him. They both started to laugh, which relieved some of the tension between them.

  They took a synchronized breath after their laughing jag. Lily studied Seth’s face. “You’re taking this animal changing thing in stride.”

  He shrugged.

  “You don’t look very surprised at all.”

  He shifted on his cardboard box, which made its own flatulent noise in protest. She was too intent on hearing his answer to laugh. His attention was on the nasty linoleum floor. Following his gaze, she confirmed that there was nothing interesting there.

  “You better start talking Sethasaurus,” she threatened. “People are dying and my life is really messed up right now. I’m walking that line between sanity and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

  He cleared his throat and looked up at her.

  Lily noted the worry lines on his forehead. She waited with her arms crossed, trying to look intimidating despite her inadequate clothing.

  “Did anything seem weird to you when we were growing up?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  “Define weird.”

  He sighed. “Remember the police dog Dad worked with?”

  “Barney? What about him? I loved that dog. He had such human...”

  “Yeah.” Seth’s gaze held hers.

  Apprehension fluttered in her stomach. “He wasn’t just a dog?”

  “No.” Seth swallowed. The last time she saw such apprehension in her brother’s eyes was during the grill incident. He was okay with the explosion, not so much with the bomb squad and five fire trucks that showed up at their house.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Think about it, Lily.”

  She pictured the beautiful Belgian Malinois that was part of the K-9 Unit for the APD. The Malinois’s head resembled that of a German Shepherd, but its body was sleeker and fawn-colored. Dad’s colleague, Li Liu, was its handler, but Dad partnered with him on assignments.

  “So what you’re not saying is that Barney was a man.” She looked over to her brother. “Who was he?”

  “Lily, did you ever see Barney and Dad together?”

  “Of course they were together. Dad worked alongside Li Liu often.”

  “Mr. Liu was the K-9 handler.” Seth waited.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Yes.” Seth said, determined.

  Lily’s mind raced. It was true. The times they were around the dog, it was Mr. Liu who was with them, letting them pet him. But there was a picture of the three of them together. “That picture—”

  “Was most likely just another dog they grabbed to pull off the deception.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know the specifics,” Seth said. “Let’s just say that as a teenager several events led me to suspect and the circumstances of Dad’s death convinced me.”

  “Why the heck didn’t you say something to me?”

  Seth bristled. “Would you have believed me? Or, would you have told Mom I was cracking up?”

  “Thanks for the overwhelming trust.”

  “Well, you know now. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Let’s just figure out what to do from here.”

  She didn’t have time to argue with him, or create any more drama. “We need to talk to Mr. Liu.”

  Seth shrugged. “That should be an interesting conversation.”

  “I don’t know what else to do,” she replied.

  “Fine, I’ll call him.”

  “What about me?” she asked.

  “You need to stay safe. What’s the deal about the ‘Dark Watcher’ guy?”

  Lily bit her lip. How crazy do I sound saying I saw a man in black then he disappeared, but then I smelled him around my apartment?

  “Pretty crazy,” Seth said.

  “What?”

  “You didn’t say that out loud, did you?” Seth’s jaw dropped.

  “What the hell?”

  “I think you just talked inside my head.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Try it again.”

  Lily sighed. You are a first class monkey butt!

  “Dude!” Seth stayed on his box, perhaps scared to get any closer.

  On her feet, Lily held the blazer closed and told herself to breathe. Then she decided to sit down, modesty be damned, because she was afraid she might pass out. She sat on a box slightly smaller than Seth’s, but her entire bottom sunk in since the cardboard was old and the box half empty. At least that’s the reason she told herself.

  Normally Seth would have laughed at her, but he looked too spooked still. “Can you...hear what I’m thinking?” he asked with a trembling voice.

  Lily closed her eyes and thought about entering Seth’s brain. All that happened was that she realized she really didn’t want to know his thoughts. Expelling pent up air, she cocked her head to consider him. “Nothing.” She watched all of the muscles in his neck and chest relax. “Just as I always suspected. Nothing going on upstairs.”

  “Ha, ha.”

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “Don’t bite my head off, but your best bet is to stay hidden until you can control your condition. You think you can hang in there for a while at Larry’s?”

  “Guess I don’t have much choice.” She kicked the box in front of her, sending it airborne. The force behind it shocked her, particularly because she was still sitting. “I’m eating dog food and going to the bathroom outside.”

  Seth grimaced. “Sorry.” He looked like he really meant it. It wasn’t a word he used frequently, and now he had used it twice in one day.

  “I just don’t understand what’s going on,” she whined.

  “I think it’s called shapeshifting,” Seth said.

  Lily shrugged.

  He went on to instruct her on meditating, breathing, and getting her heart rate down hoping this would help her relax and learn to control her shifting.

  “What the heck, Seth?”

  “I used to date a yoga instructor,” he said proudly. Her brother, the Yogi Lama of generation “Dude.” Who knew?

  Her mind strayed back to Peter as she considered how alone she felt. “Peter’s dead, my neighbor’s dead...”

  “You need to focus on yourself right now Lily,” Seth interjected. He deflected any further discussion that involved Peter. Peter and Seth had become friends, playing basketball together every Saturday morning. Seth put a wall up when anyone tried to discuss death. Wasn’t just any wall. It was the Great Wall of China.

  Before she let him go, they discussed her communication issues and clothing. Seth said he would add another touch screen phone to his plan and scrounge up some clothes. He agreed to leave a bag of items on the side of Ansley Park Manor behind the air conditioning unit late that night so she would have some provisions.

  Seth’s radio squawked. It was his boss. “Lily, I definitely have to go. I’ll leave this roll of toilet paper as a doorstop so you can get out of this closet if you do change. If I don’t see you sneak out as a dog, I’ll check on you within the hour and we’ll figure someth
ing out.”

  He made full eye contact with her when he stated that she needed to stay hidden in Larry’s house until they got some answers. It was as if he was channeling their father, Arthur Moore, with the tone of his voice and stern look in his blue eyes. The awkward hug he extended in goodbye unnerved her the most. Was he afraid to touch her? Perhaps he thought she was cursed. She certainly was considering it.

  After he left, she sat cross-legged on the floor and closed her eyes, doing her best to think of all things scary: sharks, spiders, and the Dark Watcher. She had ascertained that being terrified triggered her hysterical Shih Tzu side; being relaxed shifted her back to human form. One memory of the man’s scent and she was in canine form again.

  Before exiting the room, she gazed down at Seth’s maroon blazer, which she evidently slashed to threads during the transformation. Beside it was a single shiny feather. What the hell?

  Her next thought was to flee the building before somebody found her. She peered out into the hallway before sprinting for the stairwell door that Seth had left propped open.

  “Oh, look at you!”

  Uh oh, single white female. A twenty-something woman was leaning down to pick her up.

  She considered channeling a pit bull, but her bark was menacing enough as it was. She did froth at the mouth to improve her performance. This delayed the woman long enough for Lily to dart through her legs and make a mad dash down the stairs.

  “Stop. I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s okay,” she called to Lily.

  Great. She gave full-grown men pause, but not this lady. Lily heard the clip clopping of heels behind her. It sounded like a Budweiser Clydesdale pursuing her down six flights of stairs to the lobby. Lily stopped to get a breath before darting across to Seth. It was 4:30 p.m. People packed the lobby, apparently absconding the scene before their bosses caught them in a five o’clock strategy meeting. She hid under the desk.

  The woman approached Seth and Reggie at the front desk who were busy giving a man directions to the Westin Peachtree Hotel downtown.

  “Did you see a little dog?” she interrupted.

  “What dog?” her brother asked, his eyes shifting from the man to the pretty young woman in front of him.

  “The Shih Tzu,” she said, placing one hand on her hip. The other hand hovered inches above the counter allowing her to drum her ruby red nails rhythmically on the wood.

  Inspired by the voluptuous blonde, Reggie decided to be valiant. “Oh this one, is this your dog?” he asked while dangling Lily in the air for the world to see.

  Seth snatched her. “That’s Mrs. Brown’s dog, so glad you found her. We were getting worried.”

  The woman looked disappointed, but flashed Seth a knowing smile. Lily had seen that smile used on her brother since he was fourteen years old. Her stalker regained her composure, chatting with the guest and security guards while scratching Lily’s ears with her acrylic nails before making her departure. Seth finished giving the gentleman directions then took the dog outside “to find Mrs. Brown who he believed was sitting by the flower boxes.” Once he went around the corner, he sat down on the edge of a flower box with his back to the street.

  “Okay, you need to get out of here Lily.”

  “Weah. I wanna make sure I’m home for dinner.” Larry was a good cook.

  Seth snorted.

  Remembering the janitor’s closet, she paused a moment and thought of a delicate way to express the state of his blazer. “Uh, I left you a surprise upstairs.”

  Seth’s face lit up. “Dude, what kind of a surprise?”

  “Wour jacket looks like the Incredible Hulk got it.”

  “It’s okay, Lone Ranger,” he said laughing.

  Maybe he had been doing vodka Jell-O shots for breakfast.

  “The mask,” he said as if she should have made the connection. “Oh look, you even have a little black saddle on your back.” She nipped his fingertip. Her Shih Tzu markings did include a black mask and saddle, but her sense of humor was gone.

  “Ow! Look for that stuff tomorrow and make contact as soon as you can,” he said while nursing his finger. “I’ll try to meet with Mr. Liu.”

  She barked in agreement and licked his face before sprinting down Peachtree Street.

  “Yuck!” Seth said.

  Ewww. I need to stop this licking compulsion.

  As she rounded the corner on to the Prado Northeast, she saw a “lost dog” poster on the telephone pole. Larry was probably having a stroke. The thought of him worrying kicked her into turbo drive. There were no cars in the driveway when she reached the manor. She barked and scratched at the front door before running to the backyard. Plastering her face to the glass of the sliding door, she peered inside. No one was visible through the glass.

  Feeling deflated, she returned to the front mat. The temperature was in the high seventies. Flowering dogwoods, redbuds, and cherry trees lined the street sending pastel blooms into the air. A slight breeze stirred, bringing with it a plethora of irresistible aromas. In her past life, this was the kind of day she would have relished. She and Katie would have gone to drink sangrias at one of the restaurants that had seating on an outside patio.

  Instead, she relieved herself in the grass then came back to rest with her beard on her front paws. She fretted over the revelations made about her deceased father. Her thoughts turned to Mr. Liu. She prayed he held the answers. Lily remembered Li Liu as a quiet, but fierce individual. She guessed he must be nearing fifty years old by now.

  He could be gentle as he was the night he consoled her mother over their father’s murder. He never hugged or shook hands with the kids, but rather taught them how to bow in respect to their elders. The few Chinese words Lily knew, she had learned from Mr. Liu. Her mother had rejected her past, Americanizing as much as possible, even dropping her Chinese name, Chanjuan, and going by Maggie.

  Lily’s current condition had her reconsidering family dynamics. Her grandmother was a proud woman who Seth and Lily only met twice. The first time was in grade school when they traveled to China. The second time was when she came to the states for her son-in-law’s funeral. Their grandfather was an American businessman who had met their grandmother when marketing to the Far East. He died of a stroke in his sixties. Arthur Moore’s parents were both gone, as well. They had died the year before her father’s death. She wondered if her grandparents had known about their son’s uniqueness. How could they not? Lily didn’t know them well, either. They had spent much of their time in Florida.

  The thump of a bass drum drew her head up. Snatches of obscure voices and techtronic rhythms drifted to her along with the engine hum of a luxury car. Larry coasted down the street with the Chemical Brothers blasting from the speakers of his convertible. The pulse and thump of the music lent interesting orchestration to the blooms swirling in the wind. As soon as Larry pulled into the driveway, she ran to him. He opened the garage, but didn’t pull forward. Throwing the car into park, he opened the driver’s door, allowing her to leap into his arms.

  “You little shit! Where did you go? I was scared to death.” He looked to her expecting an answer. She buried her face into the crook of his neck and smelled him—grilled salmon from lunch mixed with his cologne that filled her nose with notes of bergamot, cinnamon, patchouli, sandalwood, and leather.

  He drove into the garage with her on his lap. As soon as he opened the car door, she jumped down and waited to be let in. Larry carried his computer bag with him as he let her into the house. “You must be starving. You never ate breakfast,” he said.

  My hero. Some people looked to muscle-bound men with big guns for rescue, but at this moment, Larry with his pear-shaped body clad in a crisp white shirt, lavender pullover, and white slacks was a god!

  Before starting his meal prep in the kitchen, Larry created a top knot with her fur and positioned a magenta bow in the middle of her forehead. “You look adorable.” He snapped several pictures. The only reason she tolerated it was because she could smell th
e chicken on the counter.

  When he began cooking Paula Dean’s recipe for fried chicken, she almost forgot about her troubles and the latest news about her father. However, betrayal is a prolific virus. Once it burrows deep into your core fibers, it’s difficult to shake. Her parents’ deception was not sitting well. When she thought about her father withholding this information from her, she felt ill.

  Chapter 7

  Li Liu

  The tranquil night contrasted with Seth’s state of mind as he stole away from the Ansley Park home. One block east on Barksdale Drive, he slipped into his Dodge Ram truck. His hands were sweating as he started the vehicle.

  For Christ’s sakes, I’m not a crook. He had parked his truck one block away since he wasn’t sure how to explain what he was doing at the side of Larry and Frank’s house with a bag full of chick stuff. But he had promised Lily a care package and he delivered it behind the air conditioning unit as they had agreed.

  The time glowed green on the dash, 11:54.

  It had felt weird to be close to Lily, yet unable to talk to her. He had been tempted to peer inside the impressive home, but “Peeping Tom” was not a skill set he’d like listed on his resume.

  Seeing the place in person, he now appreciated why Lily referred to it as “the Manor.” At least she’s comfortable and safe.

  Seth turned on to Peachtree Street. His shoulders relaxed as he drew closer to home. Tomorrow was another challenge. Before his work shift at 11:00 a.m., he planned to visit Li Liu at his home in Kennesaw. The retired officer was expecting him.

  It had been six years since his dad’s death, but Seth still cringed when he heard Mr. Liu’s voice over the phone. His father’s colleague had always been warm and supportive, but at this point in Seth’s life, it was just too familiar.

  Mr. Liu’s voice had tripped that wire, the one holding everything together. Seth had pushed all reminders of his father into a mental box, locked away. He never opened that box. Not ever. But tomorrow he would be forced to cope with his sorrow and anger. His sister’s life depended on it.