Mikhail slipped his arm around the old man, exerting his mind on the mythic realm. Ordinarily he refused to influence others against their will, but this poor old man was clearly terrified.
“I’m Bird’s friend,” he said, pitching his voice to be soothing. “You will take no harm of me.” As he spoke, he lifted the man up to the couch, and set him carefully down. “Now we should check you over to make certain you have not damaged a bone.”
A gnarled hand trembled as it touched his. “No, no, I’m fit as a fiddle. Just a tad rickety on my pins. Can’t get up anymore, not from down there.” Paint-stained fingers indicated the floor. “Don’t call the doc, Bird girl. A glass of water and an aspirin, and I’ll be squared away.”
“I’ll go get the aspirin,” Bird said, shooting a worried look at Mikhail. And a whisper, “Stay with him, please?”
“I will.” It was more of a vow than a promise. Mikhail could see that here was a problem that concerned his mate, and at least two other people little able to help themselves. It would be his honor to lend them his aid, but how, beyond the immediate?
Bird flitted away. Suspecting that she had to go all the way back to the other end of the house, Mikhail said to Mr. Kleiner, “What can I do to make you comfortable? How about some pillows here?”
The anxious look eased from the elderly man’s face. “That would be peachy-keen, young man. Thank you.”
Humor flared briefly in Mikhail at his being addressed as ‘young man’ when he was many years older than this frail human, but he said nothing as he set pillows so that Mr. Kleiner could lean back and give a long sigh. “That fall rattled my bones good, it did,” he said. “A short snooze and I should be right as rain.”
Bird reappeared, and together they supported Mr. Kleiner as he took the two aspirin. Then he sank back. “Right as rain. Right as rain,” he murmured. “No doctors. I don’t want Them over here, badgering me again.”
“I promise,”
Bird said. “I’ll come back later to make your lunch, all right?”
“You’re a good girl, Birdy,” Mr. Kleiner murmured, shutting his eyes. “Kuma Noko and me, we’re both getting up there in years. Never woulda thought it . . .”
He dropped off to sleep.
“Is it all right to leave him?” Mikhail asked as they walked out.
“Yes. It’s happened before.” But Bird betrayed her worry in her tight voice and a quick look behind her. “Just, lately it’s been more often. But he can’t bear the thought of being bullied by his relatives. And I don’t blame him.”
They exited the house. The sun had just begun to rise, sending pearly light over the gorgeous display of flowering shrubs, fruit trees, and blossoms. Bird bent to yank a weed from a bed of pansies.
“Mr. Noko is slowing down, too,” she said, almost under her breath. “It’s going to be horrible when the inevitable comes. His family will put him in a nursing home and sell the property. I hate the thought of the garden being ripped out to make room for those awful houses, like the one I lived in when I was married, with bedroom windows looking straight into your neighbor’s windows because the houses take up the entire tiny lot. How I hated that place!” she added fiercely as they approach her cottage.
When they got there, she turned to Mikhail. “Thank you for coming with me.”
“You are my mate,” he said. “We walk side by side. It gives me pleasure to help you in any way I can.”
“I’m not used to . . .” Bird’s smile slipped, and she looked away. “Sadly, meaning well won’t fix what’s wrong around here. There’s nothing any one of us can do. Doris has mentioned getting together a community fundraiser, but even that might not raise the amount needed to take care of him, fix the house, and keep the taxes paid. If we did hold a fundraiser, we’d risk getting the attention of his relatives, who’d use it as proof that he can’t care for himself.” She shook her head. “The only thing we can do is keep on doing what we can to see that he’s comfortable. So.”
She turned to him, her shoulders set firmly. “I would really like to finish those sketches, if you think the cavern is safe. There’s something in those shadow drawings that keeps nagging at me.”
Would the rest of his life be filled with these sudden moments of upwelling love? He bent to kiss her, saying, “Before your landlord called for help, I was going to suggest that I go there to scout, then return. I need to return Joey’s car to him, then I want to check it again before I take you back.”
“It’s a deal,” she said.
He picked up his jacket and tie, started out, turned back to kiss her. She followed him a few steps, and when he turned yet again, there she was, for a third kiss.
Then she let him go.
ELEVEN
BIRD
Why couldn’t the world be as happy as she was?
It seemed awful to feel as if the sun had taken up residence inside her when Mr. Kleiner was so unhappy. But that was an old worry, one she knew she could not fix. She could only give him what she could.
Once Mikhail drove away, she threw herself into tidying. Not that there was much to do, after the previous day’s marathon cleaning. When she came to her blue dress, still lying where she’d dropped it, she thought of Doris and her promise.