She lifted a mouse at its tail smashed it on a stone and fed it to her owl. Immediately it swallowed the entire mouse and stopped the 'gasping'.
"You see how satisfied it is? Now it's your turn to feed one. You can feed yours while I do the other chicks."
I hesitated. I never killed anyone or anything and those mice looked so cute.
"What keeps you? You want to let her starve for hunger?"
"Can't you do it?" I begged.
She observed me for a while and lifted my little Birca.
"If you want this little baby to be yours you have to feed it. If I feed it it's mine. The choice is yours. The only thing I know is I won't let her starve for hunger because of you, because she needs someone who looks after her till she is old enough to hunt herself."
She didn't wait for my answer and placed little Birca back in her box. It looked so easy. I mean the way how she grabbed a mice at its tail, smashed it on the stone floor of the patio, picked it up, and offered it to the next owl. She had fed nearly every one of them and was on her way to pluck the last mouse out of the box. My decision was made. I took a sprint, snatched a mouse out of the heap, closed my eyes, and threw it on the patio. The mouse, that poor mouse...I hardly dared to open my eyes. There it was. It didn't look ugly, there was not a single drop of blood spilled and it looked as if it was asleep. It felt so soft and warm.
Birca kept gasping and looked at me with her big dark eyes. Before I knew I dropped the mouse into her beak and... she had swallowed it. Instantly she became herself and started to make her cute sounds as I stroke her. I lifted her and kept stroking her till she fell asleep.
"You can sit with the other chicks on your lap too. Each one of them needs attention plus be fed regularly. If we want them to stay with us, work for us, we need to invest in them and care for them first."
I nodded. It all sounded so easy and although I didn't like to kill animals I didn't want the chicks to die either.
"We need to feed them several times a day and night as long as they are little. It's important to feed them before they start crying. Do not teach them crying is food as long as they stay with us or you will never sleep again. If you are ready we'll go to the garden and finish yesterday's work. There's no need to hurry. Give them all the love you have."
She left the door open as she went inside as relaxed as always. I knew she wouldn't go back to bed but prepare for the day. A day filled with work, teaching me all those things she learned a long time ago or recently saw or heard. Years passed by before I started wondering how she knew, saw, and heard so much. As a young child, I thought it was the wind who whispered it in her ear, the sun or moon told her or perhaps the clouds spoke to her as they floated by. I saw her observing each one of them but never heard any spoken words myself.
The days I spent with Carmen were filled with joy. With everything, I was allowed to join her except during those rare moments she left and Rosemary sat next to my bed waiting for me to wake up and share her latest news with me. News about her and the adventures of the magical ones. I loved to listen to her. She was a great storyteller although she didn't seem to know the difference between the truth and fantasy. Nevertheless, her tales made me travel in a different world and see through her eyes. Rosemary had a vivid personality and I liked to have her around. The only moments she kept scaring me was as her head kept shaking as if she was a doll made to nod only. I learned to ignore it most of the time. If the excitement was too much for her I shook her just like the first time in the herbs garden. Rosemary was not a child but in some way, she acted like one. We played hide and seek and as I told her about the stories I read in Carmen's storybook her eyes shone and she listened as if it was the best story she had ever heard. Frequently she fell asleep sucking at her index and middle finger at the same time.
"Can Carmen see you?" I asked as we sat on my mattress with little Birca on my lap.
"Yes, she can just like you."
"I can't see you. I mean, I can't see you if you are invisible."
She seemed to think about what I said but not quite to understand the 'invisible' part of her. I tried to explain what I meant but the only thing she kept saying was "I am not invisible".
"Is Rosemary a fantasy?" I thought while I looked Carmen in the eyes. "Did I make her up?"
"No, she is not or at least no more or less than we are. Do you believe we are made up?"
I shook my head.
"Are you sure!"
She pinched me hard and tickled me till I screamed it out for laughter.
"Here's the proof. You are real. Let's have our tea and answer your other burning questions of the day."
Burning questions. Did I have them? With Carmen around, I never seemed to have any. They started at those rare moments she left and somehow were forgotten as soon as she arrived home and everything became back to normal. She cared, was a great teacher, and never avoided answering me still I felt onerous to ask.
While we sat at the table and enjoyed our tea she peeled some potatoes and tomatoes for our late meal.
"I bought us some meat," she said.
She took a small package out of her bag and showed me the handful of chopped meat.
"I hope it's enough together with the herbs to keep us healthy. It's good food better than this." She pointed at the potatoes.
"Can't we grow some ourselves? The garden is big enough. I can help you."
She smiled and said she would give it a thought and discuss it with Rosemary since the earth was hers and we only borrowed it for the time being.
"Why did you leave, do you leave me alone?"
The question was asked before I knew. She once left home to buy me, once she came back with the owls. She brought us meat this time. Was she always buying something? Why didn't she take me with her? She knew I could walk long distances. I proved it to her on that day she took me with her. What if she bought someone else next time, or what if she wouldn't return home because of the 'dark days'? What would happen to me? Would Rosemary take care of me, could I take care of myself?
Carmen waited, at least I thought she did but while she drank her tea and prepared our meal she listened to my thoughts, understood my fear although I hadn't spoken out in clear language to her yet.
"Why do you leave me? Where are you going? What are you doing? What will become out of me?" I wrote it down in big, bold letters on the blackboard instead.
She told me she heard me, reads my mind but this time I needed to write it down to make the difference between my thoughts and what I liked to say or share.
The total amount of words:
Prompt: none
I wrote 10,907 words which means I finished 20% of my tale (novel).
NaNoWriMo 2020
The magic ones - episode 4
Not each part of this episode is published.
Brilliant one