Harmony waved at the bus driver as Aurora and Serenity quickly descended the short steps. There had been no sign of Rhapsody on the road in either direction so far during her walk to the bus stop.
The smell of spring and flowers was suddenly filling her nostrils.
"How was school?" Rhapsody's voice asked from right behind Harmony.
Harmony whirled around in startlement to find a grinning Rhapsody standing a few feet behind her. The goofy hat and rose-colored glasses made her humorous expression even more comical.
"Where did you come from?" Harmony blurted out before she could stop herself.
"Well, I'm pretty sure it had something to do with my parents," Rhapsody replied with a thoughtful frown. "Either that, or I was hatched from beneath the world tree with the cabbage patches."
Harmony snorted in amusement. It was a lot more difficult to see Rhapsody as some kind of magical fairy when she sounded so much like a contemporary young adult. It wasn't until the small woman left that her imagination noticed all the other peculiarities.
"Are you going to walk home with us?" Aurora asked Rhapsody hopefully.
"Why not," Rhapsody answered with a friendly smile at Aurora. "I'm already going that direction anyway. You doing okay?"
Aurora missed a step, then smiled quickly. "Yep."
Rhapsody watched her with what looked like sympathy, and Harmony suddenly wondered if she could hear Aurora screaming in the night. If she could here Harmony play music, she definitely would have heard Aurora's night terrors.
They had only been walking for a few seconds before Rhapsody suddenly veered off the road and crouched down with a delighted cry.
"Kwammanga domandaro, what are you doing out here?" Rhapsody asked in obvious delight.
Harmony walked over to see what had captivated Rhapsody's attention. As she looked over Rhapsody's shoulder, she let out a startled oath and hurriedly held her arms out to keep Aurora and Serenity from getting any closer. Standing on its hind legs in front of Rhapsody was a very curious looking porcupine.
"Rhapsody, you're going to turn into a pin cushion if you don't leave that thing alone," Harmony warned the small woman.
"Don't mind them," Rhapsody told the porcupine with a wry grin. "They're from the city."
The porcupine snorted in a very human like manner before rolling onto its back in front of Rhapsody. She casually reached out and began rubbing its soft underbelly. It began making sounds that almost resembled a human toddler speaking gibberish. It sounded eerily like a kazoo. Serenity and Aurora were pushing against Harmony's arms as they tried to get a closer look.
"What is it?" Aurora asked in fascination.
"It's a porcupine," Harmony replied distractedly. She didn't know much about porcupines, but she was pretty sure they didn't just let strangers walk up and start rubbing their belly. "Stay back; they have barbs on their quills that are extremely painful to remove."
"It seems pretty friendly," Serenity said with a silly grin on her face.
"She's friendly to anyone who is friendly to her," Rhapsody informed them with a doting smile at the very talkative porcupine. "You can pet her if you like; she would never harm anyone who wasn't trying to harm her."
Against her better judgment, Harmony lowered her arms and let Aurora and Serenity get closer. Aurora tentatively reached out and patted its soft belly. As it continued making kazoo-like noises, Aurora's face split into an ecstatic grin. Serenity slowly knelt and began petting it as well, the silly grin never leaving her face.
Harmony stood tensely, ready to snatch her nieces back at the slightest hint of aggression. After a minute of hovering protectively over her nieces, she slowly relaxed.
"Let's show them what a good dancer you are," Rhapsody suggested merrily as she rose to her feet.
Aurora and Serenity stood up as well, watching in delight as Rhapsody began a goofy little dance, swaying with her hands in the air. The porcupine immediately stood up and began imitating her, with its hands raised in the air as it swayed from side to side in a hypnotic dance.
"How in the world did you teach it to dance?" Harmony asked in amazement.
"No teaching necessary," Rhapsody replied with a laugh. "They do it all on their own when they are young. They're very social creatures, so if you start doing something they think is interesting, they'll try to imitate it."
"Why didn't they ever teach us about these interesting little facts in school?" Harmony asked petulantly. "I certainly would have paid more attention in wildlife biology if they showed us stuff like this."
"Your schools are focused on integrating children into your modern way of life," Rhapsody answered with a hint of sadness in her voice. "There isn't much use in knowing about the behaviors of a porcupine when you are being trained to spend your life in an office of one kind or another. Your learning is geared toward teaching individuals to specialize in a specific skill set, without bothering to teach them about the other species who inhabit your world. You would be surprised at how many people couldn't differentiate a cow from a deer."
Harmony found herself nodding in agreement. Even though she was no wildlife boffin, she knew enough about animals to understand that they could feel pain and sorrow, as well as happiness. It was the reason she had chosen to become vegan. If a human could survive from agriculture alone, why bother enslaving and eating other species? Just because they taste good? Her overdeveloped conscience would never allow her to ignore the unspoken suffering of other species for the sole purpose of adding a little variety to her diet. Her mother did love to ask her why she didn't mind harming plants though. Her only reply was that at least she was trying. It helped that the plants didn't scream when they died. If they ever evolved to have vocal cords, she would probably starve.
"So, is this the kind of stuff you learn when you are home schooled?" Harmony asked curiously.
"You could say that," Rhapsody replied with a shrug. "You would be surprised at how much a person can learn about the world around them when they quietly observe it without trying to interfere."
Harmony glanced at Rhapsody with pursed lips. She seemed to vacillate between a typical teenager to a battle-hardened veteran of human nature. Harmony couldn't decide if she was sixteen or sixty, or somewhere in-between. She had to remind herself that the other woman was older than her. Her face flushed slightly as she remembered the events that had led up to that revelation.
"How did you learn to talk to animals?" Aurora asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.
"By watching how they talk to each other," Rhapsody replied with a smile at Aurora. "People think communication must involve verbal speech, but most animals rely on a mixture of body language that is merely accented by audible cues. For instance, if you stare into the eyes of a dog, it takes it as a challenge for dominance. If the dog accepts your dominance, it will lower its eyes. If it rejects your dominance, it will snarl, bark, and sometimes attack you. If you want to avoid confrontations with vicious dogs, just make eye-contact with them and then lower your eyes. In most cases, the dog will take it as an act of submission and leave you be. Sometimes you have to lay down on the ground an expose your belly and neck to it in order to appease it, but I wouldn't suggest that in most cases."
"How did that raccoon understand what you were saying yesterday?" Serenity asked with a puzzled crease to her brow. "You were speaking plain English the whole time."
"People often think animals don't have the ability to understand complex languages because they are unable to talk back to us," Rhapsody explained as she nodded to the porcupine in farewell and continued walking. "Most animals don't have lips, tongues, and teeth capable of mimicking human speech, but that doesn't mean they don't understand it. Some species are more adept at pattern recognition than others, but all species require at least some degree of pattern recognition to survive. There is more to Azeban than meets the eyes though, so you might consider him a special case."
"Why?" Harmony asked dryly. "Because he is the anthropomorphic personification of a Native American deity?"
Rhapsody turned her head to look at Harmony with a small smile tugging at her lips. "Define deity."
Harmony blinked at the unexpected response. "A deity is a god."
"Go on…" Rhapsody's smile widened slightly. "What is a god?"
"A misogynistic prick," Harmony replied before she could stop herself. "Or in the case of Azeban, just some spirit that likes to play tricks on people for fun."
"You should get along well with him then," Serenity muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Harmony grimaced when Rhapsody started laughing with way too much enthusiasm. When she finally recovered from her laughing fit, her face turned serious again.
"So Azeban isn't really a god, so much as an advanced state of consciousness exhibiting the image of a raccoon?" Rhapsody prompted.
"Sure," Harmony replied with a shrug. "That's a long description for a spirit, but I suppose it fits the bill."
"Consciousness is dictated by perception," Rhapsody said, her tone serious. "We already know organic substances like mushrooms can alter your perception of reality. Powerful or focused electromagnetic currents can also alter your perception. Those are two distinct methods for altering the way your consciousness perceives the world in which your body inhabits. Does it stretch the boundaries of reason too far to suggest that a race of beings consisting of structured energy matrices exist and can influence your perception? While you perceived a raccoon getting scolded, a person capable of perceiving his true state would see something quite different than a raccoon."
"When scientists can weigh, measure, and study such a being, I'll accept it as a reasonable suggestion," Harmony replied with a cynical smile. "So far, science hasn't found anything to even hint at the existence of a spirit."
"Except consciousness," Rhapsody corrected with a raised eyebrow. "There is not a single neurologist on this world that can definitively prove that consciousness resides solely in the brain. Sure, they can observe all the sensory data being processed by the mind, but the organic ingredients that make up your brain lack any definable method for how consciousness is generated. Without such evidence, the possibility that our bodies are merely hosts for an intelligent parasitic entity is still on the table. Without these parasitic entities inhabiting our bodies, we would lose all form of higher consciousness and operate purely by instinct."
"You've really thought this through, haven't you?" Harmony asked with an approving nod. "Maybe you should put your ideas in book format."
"It helps to pass the time," Rhapsody shrugged.
"All eight-hundred and eighty-two thousand years of time?" Harmony asked slyly.
"Eight-hundred and eighty-two thousand, six-hundred and fifty-two years, to be exact," Rhapsody grinned impishly.
"Right…" Harmony drawled, slowly shaking her head. "Come on…how old are you really? You can't be as young as you look with all that knowledge banging around in your head. I would swear you aren't a day over eighteen. How much older than me are you really?"
"Well, you know what they say," Rhapsody replied whimsically. "You're only as old as you feel."
"If that were really true, I would have grey hair," Harmony declared sadly. "So, you really aren't going to tell me how old you are?"
"You didn't believe me the first time, why would you believe me the second time?" Rhapsody replied pointedly. "I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results."
"You just defined Aunt Harmony in a nutshell," Serenity commented with a snicker. "Insanity is her domain of choice."
"Hey, it's thanks to nutjobs like me that you have interesting novels to read, instead of boring textbooks," Harmony retorted defensively. "If only sane people wrote books, nobody would ever enjoy them."
"Just remember that sanity is determined by a demographic of similar people," Rhapsody told Serenity. "The further your personality diverges from the most popular state of behavior in society, the more psychologists will consider you crazy. In essence, that means sane people are just replicas of each other without anything interesting to set them apart, while crazy people are unique. Sane equals boring, insane equals fun. Any questions?"
"So, are you crazy too?" Aurora asked Rhapsody thoughtfully.
"I invented crazy," Rhapsody grinned. "How many sane people dress in such an inspired assortment of clothes?"
"Just the ones with wings and pointed ears to hide," Harmony supplied with a chuckle.
"So, what made you want to move out here to the middle of the forest?" Rhapsody asked curiously, as if she hadn't heard Harmony's comment.
"Humans," Harmony replied with a disdainful shake of her head as they began walking up the driveway to her house. "I'm fairly certain there was some kind of accident when I was delivered to a world populated by humans, because I really can't stand most of them."
"Way to get her going," Serenity groaned apprehensively.
Rhapsody stared at her for several moments of thoughtful silence before speaking. "I'm sorry for the pain you suffered that caused such a jaded view of the world."
Harmony nearly stumbled in surprise. The sympathy in Rhapsody's tone almost had her in tears in its sincerity. Harmony was no stranger to sympathy, especially after her sister's violent death, but she had never experienced an instant warming in her heart when someone expressed comfort before.
When she finally felt confident enough that she would be able to speak without blubbering, she cleared her throat and addressed their mysterious guest.
"Would you like to join us for dinner?" Harmony asked Rhapsody hopefully. She wasn't really sure why but having the paradox of a woman around just felt comfortable in a way she couldn't define.
"I would love to entertain you during dinner," Rhapsody replied with a mischievous grin. "I'll pass on the food portion though; I'm on a rather odd diet."
"Most of my food is gluten-free and vegan, if that helps," Harmony informed her.
"It doesn't, but thanks anyway," Rhapsody replied with a smile.
"Well, then, I'm going to get dinner started," Harmony said briskly. "Sorry to leave you at the mercy of my nieces. It should only take about fifteen minutes."
Serenity and Aurora were ecstatic to get Rhapsody all to themselves. Harmony smiled in amusement as Aurora immediately began asking about the rainbow-colored crow Rhapsody had mentioned the last time they had talked. She tried to work quietly as she made dinner so that she could hear the story.
"Her shortened name is Ikle Chikle Chicary Chan Hornaman Gornaman Dustio Willopy Wallopy Chineo," Rhapsody began in a fond voice. "You can call her Ikle Chikle if you like. Quite a while ago, she and her kind saved our world from annihilation."
"What happened?" Aurora asked curiously.
"There was a very big explosion in space from a star," Rhapsody replied with an odd note in her voice that Harmony couldn't quite place. "You see, when a star reaches a certain stage in its development, it passes on to a new state of being and leaves the physical realm behind. When this happens, enormous amounts of energy are released that travel at the speed of light. Your scientists call this energy a gamma ray emission. The same thing that happens to food when you cook it in a microwave happens to any living organisms on inhabited worlds from gamma ray emissions. Since this lethal form of radiation travels at the speed of light, most worlds' inhabitants never even know that they are in danger before they are dead. Fortunately for the people of this world there was a wide array of inter-dimensional races that could travel faster than the speed of light. Native Americans called us…I mean them, Spirit Walkers, because they could separate their consciousness from their bodies and visit other worlds. During one such visit to the Communion Realm, Ikle Chikle discovered that a star near this world had transitioned, leaving behind a powerful gamma ray emission that would destroy everyone on earth. She had many worlds that she called home, but earth was her favorite, and she couldn't bear the thought of it being obliterated at such a young age. She informed the rest of the higher species on earth of the impending threat, and they held a week-long council to find a way to save the earth. In the end, Ikle Chikle took every last member of her species into the skies around earth, forming a loose dome. Before the event Native Americans called The Great Fire in the Sky, all crows were rainbow colored, and they didn't flap their wings to fly. They had very specialized cells in their bodies that absorbed and transformed the planet's electromagnetic radiation. This transformed energy was re-broadcast from their antenna-like feathers, creating an ion cloud that repelled them from the planet's positively charged surface. They planned to use their specialized ability as a shield to absorb the radiation from the incoming gamma rays. Their plan was highly successful, but their specialized radio cells were burned out of their bodies from the magnitude of the gamma ray energy. The ion cloud that once wrapped them in the color of the rainbow like the Northern Lights was gone forever. Now, they simply appear as pure black creatures, but their heroism and sacrifice will never be forgotten."
"I thought you said Ikle Chikle was still rainbow colored?" Serenity said with awe in her voice.
"She is a spiritual entity that takes form as an avatar of her choice, which happens to be that of the original crow," Rhapsody replied solemnly. "If you have ever seen pictures of the Northern Lights, you will have a small idea of how beautiful she is when in flight. The Ancient Greeks called her the Phoenix, but historians lost the true account of how her legend came to pass. She isn't reborn from the ashes of her former body; the entire world was given a second chance at life after her race was scorched from the gamma ray emission. Crows once produced a song of such sweetness that it inspired entire generations of poets, but after the Great Fire in the Sky their beautiful voices were damaged to what you hear now."
Harmony realized that she was standing, unmoving in front of the stove. She hurriedly turned the stovetop burner on and continued preparing dinner as her mind churned with questions. One thing was certain: Rhapsody really wasn't as young as she had initially thought; not with the sheer amount of knowledge knocking around in that small head of hers. She had harbored a few doubts when Rhapsody had claimed to be older than her, but she was growing more certain that it was true as she learned more about the enigmatic woman. What kind of life has that poor woman endured to make her fabricate such vivid fantasies?
Harmony had not missed the slip-up where Rhapsody had almost included herself in the group of Spirit Walkers. But what an imagination! Gamma ray bursts? Radio cells? Whether she is actually crazy or just purposefully living in a fantasy land inside her mind, this girl needs to be writing some of these ideas down in story form.
Harmony recognized the feeling she had been experiencing around Rhapsody now: compassion. She had always been the daughter to bring wounded animals home to nurse back to health. For someone as obviously intelligent as Rhapsody was, something traumatic must have happened to make her become so completely absorbed in her fantasies. Like her need to assist wounded animals, Harmony felt compelled to find a way to help Rhapsody find her way back to the real world.
"You sure you don't need some help?" Rhapsody's voice asked from right behind her.
Harmony let out a startled squawk as she spun around from the counter with a knife still in her hand. "You really need to stop doing that!"
Serenity and Aurora were giggling up a storm from where they stood in the entryway to the kitchen. Rhapsody stood less than a foot away, grinning up at her mischievously. Harmony had a wild urge to snatch those damned tinted glasses off her face in retaliation. As if reading her mind, Rhapsody took a step back, the cheeky smile never leaving her face.
"What, offering to help?" Rhapsody asked innocently. "I know some people get uptight from being offered help, but I've never seen a reaction quite so intense."
"Sneaking up on me!" Harmony growled reprovingly.
"Someone is a little high-strung," Rhapsody noted teasingly. "We'll have to work on that some more. We have a homemade drink that I'll bring over sometime to help you chill out a little bit."
"Let me guess," Harmony replied dryly, fighting down a blush at the thought of another massage. "You have a recipe for butter-beer."
"Naw, this is much better than that swill," Rhapsody said dismissively. "One taste and you'll never want anything else to wet your whistle ever again."
"Wet my whistle?" Harmony asked in amusement. "I haven't heard anyone under the age of eighty use that term before. Do you live in a retirement home or something?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes," Rhapsody replied with an infectious giggle. "I think they might object to that term though."
"Okay, kiddos," Harmony addressed her nieces. "Dinner is served. Spaghetti and asparagus."
"This isn't spaghetti, Aunt Harmony," Serenity disagreed with evident distaste. "This is spaghetti squash."
"What was the first word?" Harmony asked sweetly.
"Squash," Serenity replied truculently as she flipped the noodles around in the bowl.
"Spaghetti!" Harmony corrected brightly. "You're just hesitant because it has the word squash in it. For some reason kids get triggered by the word squash."
"Cause that's what you do to bugs," Serenity declared disgustedly. "You squash them."
"I do no such thing," Harmony denied indignantly. "That's barbaric."
"Well, most people do," Serenity muttered, still poking at her spaghetti squash.
"That would be a total waste," Harmony said as Serenity hesitantly put a forkful into her mouth. "Their dried corpses add too much flavor in squash to waste by squashing them."
Serenity froze in the middle of swallowing, then glared at Harmony as she finished swallowing. "You're vegan. You wouldn't use them in food."
"I wouldn't eat them in food," Harmony clarified with a raised eyebrow. "But you two aren't vegan, so why waste such a good source of protein?"
"Because bugs are gross!" Aurora answered with a disgusted look.
"Have you ever tasted them?" Harmony asked pointedly. "Maybe they are good."
"I haven't tried dog crap either," Serenity declared. "Some things are just self-evident."
Rhapsody burst out laughing, "I think she's got you there, Harmony."
Harmony shrugged with a wink. "I'm still pretty far ahead."
"Oh, are you keeping score?" Rhapsody asked in amusement.
"You're damn right I'm keeping score," Harmony declared with a nod. "She's almost a teenager and will never be wrong again soon. I have to get a decent head start before I'm wrong by default."
Rhapsody laughed a warm, rich laugh that seemed to brighten the room. It was that special laugh that made her feel like there was something beautiful, just out of sight. It made Harmony want to find more things to make her laugh like that.
Harmony finished her dish quickly and started cleaning up. Rhapsody tried to help, but Harmony chased her back to the table.
"You didn't even eat anything," Harmony said indignantly. "You aren't allowed to help with the cleanup."
Rhapsody snorted a laugh but sat back down to talk with Serenity and Aurora.
Harmony quickly cleaned up the dishes before returning to the dining room.
"Why don't we adjourn to the front room," Harmony suggested. "It's a lot more comfortable."
"Rhapsody's going to read our palms!" Aurora told her excitedly. "Come on, I want to see how old I'm going to live."
Harmony raised an inquiring eyebrow at Rhapsody as she followed her nieces to the front room.
"What, you don't believe in palmistry?" Rhapsody asked with a lopsided grin. "We really need to work on this aura of skepticism you've wrapped yourself in."
"Good luck with that," Harmony replied with a shrug as she sat down on the couch.
Rhapsody knelt on the floor in front of the couch before an expectant Serenity. Without a word, Rhapsody reached out and pulled Serenity's hands closer for inspection.
"Hmm…" Rhapsody murmured, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "That was certainly unexpected."
"What?" Serenity asked eagerly.
"Your left hand is almost completely different from your right hand," Rhapsody answered, pursing her lips as she continued studying Serenity's palms. "Typically, your left hand indicates your potential, and your right hand shows what you have done with that potential."
"So, is that a good or bad thing in her case?" Harmony asked with a raised eyebrow.
"All good," Rhapsody replied with an impressed smile. "It indicates you have taken your single talent and multiplied it many times over."
Serenity's grin grew by several orders of magnitude at hearing this. "What else does it tell you?"
"I'll warn you right now that most of what you have probably heard about palmistry is just parlor tricks," Rhapsody told her seriously. "The lines in your hand don't tell the future, they merely show who you were, and who you have become. By understanding where you are in correlation to where you have come from, it is possible to make general predictions of where you will go from here."
"Okay," Serenity nodded in understanding. "So, what can you predict based on the differences right now?"
"Your left hand says that you were once very naïve and easy to take advantage of," Rhapsody replied as she continued intently studying Serenity's palms. "Your right hand tells me that this is no longer the case at all. You were once very shy and self-conscious, but you are very outspoken and opinionated now. This circle in the lifeline on your right hand shows that you have recently experienced a tragedy of some kind. Judging by the depth of the impression, it was a very poignant tragedy. The most notable changes in your right hand have occurred after the tragedy, which would indicate that this change has been a catalyst for positive improvement. I've noticed that some of the times I've grown most in life were the times when the most terrible things happened to me."
Harmony had been on the point of interrupting as the act of a simple palm reading turned into something that might be damaging to her young niece's psyche, but as Rhapsody finished speaking Harmony closed her mouth. Is she really giving Serenity a palm reading, or just helping to build her self-confidence? Somehow, she either knows about their mother, or has made some educated guesses.
Harmony remained quiet as Rhapsody finished reading both of her nieces' palms. As far as she could tell, Rhapsody was just giving the two girls a badly needed therapy session to give them a sense of hope and self-worth. She had to once again reevaluate the small woman as Rhapsody accomplished what months of professional therapy had failed to achieve for her nieces. Aurora and Serenity were both grinning from ear to ear as they inspected their own palms when Rhapsody had finished.
"Your turn," Rhapsody informed her with a mischievous smile.
"No freaking way," Harmony replied dryly. "Do you have any idea where these hands have been?"
"A pretty good idea, actually," Rhapsody replied with a knowing grin as she sat in front of Harmony and lifted her hands so that she could see the palms. Harmony felt her face heat up at her words and wished for the millionth time to have an off switch for blushes.
Harmony was startled at how long Rhapsody's fingers were. Almost inhumanly long. Nonsense. They are just humanly long.
Rhapsody stared at Harmony's hands silently as Harmony's demeanor changed from humorously tolerant to growing awkwardness. A small blush appeared on Harmony's face as Rhapsody traced the lines with a frown. Serenity and Aurora started fidgeting as the silence stretched out.
Rhapsody let out a tremulous sigh and stood up. She wrapped her arms around Harmony, pulling her into a soft embrace. "I'm so sorry, Harmony."
Harmony stiffened as the whispered words hit her like a freight train. All the sorrow she had hidden away since her sister's death, since her mother's illness, and since her own father's abandonment when she was a child, suddenly burst like a damn. She found herself suddenly sobbing in between wails of grief as Rhapsody held her tightly.
She had tried to ignore all off the loss, the feeling of abandonment, and the dread of future loss. Rhapsody had pulled it out of her like a surgeon excising a tumor with her quiet words. She buried her face in Rhapsody's shoulder as she finally let her grief out. She had been so afraid to let her nieces see her grief; afraid it would somehow make their own grief worse.
Now, in the small woman's embrace, she felt a sense of warmth and safety envelope her. It allowed her to finally purge the sorrow that had been burrowing inside of her like poison. The refreshing smell of spring flowers had been filling her nostrils as Rhapsody embraced her, giving her an odd sense of renewal.
She felt her nieces hug her as well as they wept their own tears. She wasn't sure how long they stood there grieving in each other's arms. A growing warmth began to envelop her as she finally let her grief run its course.
Eventually, she pulled away from their embrace, smiling through the tears.
"Thank you, Rhapsody," Harmony took a shuddering breath. "I think I really needed that."
"Any time, Harmony," Rhapsody replied with a smile that was like the sun coming up.
Harmony fetched a box of tissues and then she and her nieces spent some time trying to clean the aftermath of their emotional storm.
"I want to read your palms," Serenity said suddenly, looking at Rhapsody intently.
"Perhaps another time," Rhapsody replied firmly.
Harmony's hands were moving before she even realized what she was doing. She snatched Rhapsody's wrists and turned them over to look at the small woman's palms. It took her a moment to figure out what she was seeing. There were thousands and thousands of tiny lines covering the surface of Rhapsody's palms, each so finely detailed that Harmony was sure a magnifying glass would reveal even more nested lines inside of the more prominent lines.
Rhapsody gently pulled her hands back as Harmony gaped at what she had seen.
"Wow!" Serenity gasped in amazement. "You have tons of lines on your hands. And they're so tiny! Does that mean you've had a lot of experiences?"
Rhapsody nodded wordlessly, watching Harmony with a calculating expression.
Harmony was almost never speechless. It just wasn't in her nature. However, as she stared at the small woman less than a foot away from her, the ability to articulate completely deserted her. Okay, so she's got five billion lines on her palms…how long of a life would a person have to live to have so many lines? What am I talking about? Lines are just freaking lines!
"Earth to Aunt Harmony," Serenity said grinningly. "Do I need to get Houston on the line?"
"Music," Harmony muttered, standing up abruptly. "Right. Let's go play in the music room."
Rhapsody followed her in silence. Aurora and Serenity were still comparing their palms to each other excitedly as they slowly followed the two adults.
Two adults. Yeah, right…I'm starting to think Rhapsody might be the only adult here. Harmony thought to herself with a quiet sigh.
When she ignored the deceptively young appearance of the other woman and focused on the content of her words, it was much easier to imagine Rhapsody as an adult. Harmony had always felt like an intelligent person for her twenty-three years of life experience, but Rhapsody had a way of making her feel like an infant getting her first glimpse of the world outside of the womb. She felt like a war was raging inside of her mind, with her skeptical nature fighting an uphill battle against her slowly blossoming sense of wonder and credulity.
"Holy ectoplasmic SpaghettiOs's!" Rhapsody declared as they entered the music room. "This place rocks!"
Harmony looked at Rhapsody suspiciously. It was almost like she could sense Harmony's inner struggle, and went out of her way to make inane, adolescent comments that no self-respecting adult would ever think to utter.
Her medium-sized studio was filled with cellos, violins, guitars, keyboards, a variety of drums, and a shelf full of woodwind and brass instruments. There was a small sound room with a thick glass panel separating it from the rest of the studio.
"Let's see what you've got, kiddo," Harmony said with a grin. "I seem to remember you saying you play every instrument."
Rhapsody tilted her head slightly as she looked back at Harmony with a small smile. "Which instrument would you like me to start with? Kiddo."
"The violin!" Aurora answered for her enthusiastically. "That's my favorite."
Rhapsody nodded once and then walked over to the small violin stand. She unzipped her white jacket and then completely removed it. She was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top that made it clear she was fully developed. Memories of Rhapsody in her summer dress flashed through her mind, short-circuiting her brain again. She stared at her hourglass figure and long, graceful neck. A wealth of brilliant auburn hair that had been covered by her jacket now flowed down to her waist in cascading sheets, almost seeming to glow. Harmony felt her cheeks redden as she realized she was staring slack jawed, just like her nieces. Rhapsody was beautiful in the fairytale sense of beauty. Harmony had forgotten just how beautiful the small woman was. She wished she could take the goofy hat and glasses off her head so they could finally see what she really looked like in her full glory.
Rhapsody picked both the violin and bow up with a professional looking flourish and then settled the violin between her chin and shoulder.
Harmony couldn't stop an involuntary shiver as the first sequence of notes began resonating throughout the studio. The melody was filled with a haunting beauty that easily surpassed anything she had ever hoped to compose. She wracked her mind to find a match for the melody but came up blank. Is this an original composition?
After playing through the first verse, she began singing in accompaniment to the violin. What had been poignantly beautiful before was now transcendental as her voice meshed into a perfect harmony with the violin's bittersweet melody. The words she sang were either made up, or in a different language. When she finally finished and lowered the violin, Harmony realized her cheeks were damp with tears.
"Wow," Aurora breathed in awe. "I've never heard anything so beautiful! Did you make that?"
"Yep," Rhapsody replied with a gratified smile. "It was designed for another instrument, but it still sounds good on a violin."
"I'll say," Harmony declared fervently. "That was amazing!"
"Thanks," Rhapsody replied, the ever-present blush on her cheeks burning a deeper red. "Any instrument in particular you want me to try next?"
"Do you play piano?" Serenity asked tentatively.
"I play everything," Rhapsody replied, shooting a knowing grin at Harmony as she walked over to the keyboard and sat down. "Although I am rather new to piano, relatively speaking."
Harmony listened raptly as a song of unparalleled beauty filled the room like a warm breeze on a cold winter day. Rhapsody began singing again, her voice weaving an elaborate tapestry of sound as it courted the melody line of the piano.
There had been several times in Harmony's life when a musical piece was so moving that it left an indelible impression on her mind. All the previous moments of musical transcendence paled in comparison to what Rhapsody was producing so effortlessly as her hands and voice caressed the keyboard.
The next hour was filled with inhumanly beautiful music as Rhapsody demonstrated her virtuosity with almost every instrument in Harmony's studio. It was far better than any concert Harmony had ever been to; the intensity of emotion and sublime beauty could never be equaled in such a rowdy environment. She no longer doubted Rhapsody could play every instrument. She handled each one like an old friend, with no hesitation or doubt.
"Do you ever record any of your music?" Harmony asked curiously as Rhapsody placed the new lyre back onto the shelf.
"No, I don't have the equipment for that kind of production," Rhapsody replied wistfully. "One of these days I'll get a computer and try one of those music programs for recording multiple tracks."
"Well, it just so happens that I have all of the necessary equipment for layering tracks in my studio," Harmony informed her lightly. "I spend two hours of every day from 10am to 12pm in town working at a women's shelter, so you are more than welcome to use the studio while I'm away. Of course, you can use it while I'm here as well, but you won't have to worry about me bugging you during that time."
"Why thank you, Harmony," Rhapsody's smile was so bright that Harmony would swear she could feel the warmth shining out of her. "I might just take you up on that. I've had a gazillion ideas for how to mix the different melodies with the other instruments for quite a while now, so that would be a lot of fun."
"Me casa es to casa," Harmony said with a smile, trying to identify the odd warmth Rhapsody's smile caused to flood her body.
"Muchos gracias, mi bella anfitriona," Rhapsody replied in perfect Spanish dialect.
"You speak Spanish?" Harmony asked in surprise.
"sí, señora bonita," Rhapsody replied with a grin. Her grin suddenly vanished, and her head tilted slightly in a manner that was far too cute.
"What's the matter?" Harmony asked concernedly.
"Nothing," Rhapsody replied after a moment of silence. "I should probably get going though."
Harmony opened her mouth to object, but the doorbell interrupted her. "Who in the world could that be?"
"I'll get it!" Aurora declared, running for the stairs.
"No, I'll get it!" Harmony shouted after her firmly. "Don't open that door yet!"
Harmony ran down the stairs after Aurora and sighed in relief as she found her niece waiting for her at the unopened front door. She had too many bad memories from living in the big city to let her nieces open the door without knowing who was outside. She looked on the small flat screen monitor next to the door that her surveillance system was connected to and rolled her eyes. Her mother was just raising her hand to ring again when Harmony unlocked and opened the door.
"Mom, would it kill you to call ahead before you visit?" Harmony asked irritably.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," her mother replied primly. "I need to talk with you alone."
"Girls, go get ready for bed," Harmony told her nieces firmly.
"Are you kidding?" Serenity demanded in outrage. "We're not done talking with Rhapsody!"
"I didn't say go to bed," Harmony replied patiently. "I said go get ready for bed. That's code for 'I need some privacy to talk to your grandma'."
"Okay…" Serenity acquiesced slowly. "As long as we still get to visit with Rhapsody."
"Who is Rhapsody?" her mother asked curiously.
Harmony looked back toward the stairs as she realized Rhapsody hadn't followed them down. The small woman was nowhere to be seen. The warm presence she had noticed when Rhapsody was in their home was still burning brightly, so she was probably still upstairs. Hopefully she's still in the studio.
"She's the fairy," Serenity replied matter-of-factly. "She's the one who saved Aurora from the tree."
Harmony grimaced as her mother raised an inquiring eyebrow. "She's the one who saved Aurora, but there is still some serious debate regarding her status as a non-human. I would appreciate a little objectivity on your part for a change."
"Don't be snide," her mother admonished her with a frown. "Run along Serenity and Aurora; I need to talk to your aunt."
Harmony sighed resignedly as her nieces dashed back up the stairs, undoubtedly to the studio to find Rhapsody. "So, what's so important that you needed to drive out here to tell me instead of just calling me?"
"David has been released from prison on a technicality," her mother replied bleakly. "According to the DA, he was talking about getting his girls back before he even stepped outside of the front door of the prison."
Harmony felt like someone with steel-toed boots had just kicked her in the gut. The bastard responsible for her sister's death had been looking at a life sentence. How could they have let this psychopath out after his own daughters testified against him?
"I need a gun," Harmony said absently as she tried to push the terror away before it consumed any chance of intelligent thought. "Serenity and Aurora won't be safe as long as he's alive and free."
"You don't belong having a gun with those girls under the same roof," her mother replied with a disapproving grimace. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small box. "I did bring you a tazer though. It's already charged. Are your surveillance cameras still working?"
"The front room, porch, and back door cameras are working," Harmony replied dully. "The one monitoring the road stopped working a couple of days ago, after a seagull landed on it."
"That should be good enough," her mother replied, taking a deep breath. "I brought you a second cell phone as well. If I see you calling my phone from this number, I'll know David is at your house. Keep it with you at all times."
"Thanks, mom," Harmony said with a defeated sigh. "How could they let that piece of excrement back out? What kind of messed up court system do they have in this stupid state?"
"That's our justice system at work," her mom replied in disgust. "Locking up children as terrorists while letting homicidal maniacs use the penitentiary's revolving door to get back out onto the streets."
"Everything okay?" Rhapsody asked in concern as she came down the stairs. Harmony noticed with a sense of disappointment that she had once again donned her white jacket.
"Not exactly," Harmony replied, unable to hide her anxiety. "Aurora and Serenity's father was just released from prison on a technicality. There is a good chance he'll try to take them away from me. They testified against him during his trial in the death of their mother, so he probably has a lot of unsavory plans for them."
"Well then, we'll just have to make sure that he doesn't get them," Rhapsody told her with more than a hint of steel in her musical voice.
"So, this is Rhapsody?" her mother asked, studying Rhapsody's strange clothing curiously. "I understand that I have you to thank for saving my granddaughter's life."
Harmony watched Rhapsody closely as she waited for the small woman to respond. She had made a point of not asking Rhapsody if she was the one who had saved Aurora from the tree a week ago.
Rhapsody just smiled and shrugged. "I think that might be exaggerating a little bit. Harmony had already almost reached Aurora when I arrived."
"If fifty feet is your idea of close…" Harmony said dryly. "Even if I could have reached Aurora in time, I would never have been able to get her down without getting us both killed in the process. I'm still not sure how you managed to balance on that limb while holding Aurora in your arms. She's nearly as tall as you, and probably heavier to boot."
"Just one of those skills you learn when you are homeschooled," Rhapsody replied nonchalantly. "I'm going to go fetch some reinforcements. I'll be back soon."
"Rhapsody, I don't want to immerse you in our troubles," Harmony said awkwardly, causing Rhapsody to pause at the door. "Especially if you might get hurt in the process."
"Don't worry about my safety," Rhapsody replied grimly as she continued exiting through the front door. "Worry for his."
The sense of impending violence in Rhapsody's departing form was unnerving. Despite her diminutive form, Rhapsody suddenly seemed closer to ten feet tall.
"How old is she?" her mother asked curiously.
"Twenty-seven trillion seconds," Harmony replied with a snort of amusement.
"I beg your pardon?" her mother said blankly.
"That's what she told me the first time I asked her how old she was," Harmony replied dryly. "I Googled it when I got home, and it's approximately eight-hundred and eighty-two thousand years. I've tried to get her real age, but she's a master at avoiding direct answers."
"That's quite the interesting wardrobe she has," her mother noted thoughtfully. "She seems to be hiding behind a mask."
"Maybe," Harmony nodded pensively. "I think she might actually be older than me."
"You're kidding!" her mother said in surprise. "She's probably not even out of high school."
"That's what I thought at first too," Harmony agreed. "But she keeps talking about things that are so far out of my depth that I can barely keep up with her. Add the fact that she's a virtuoso with every single instrument I have, and there's just no way she could have learned so much in so little time. She's either one of the world's most brilliant adolescents, or she's older than she looks by quite a bit. She told me she was older than me when she visited the other day and..." she broke off as her face flushed at the memory of what happened that day.
Her mother's eyebrows shot up as she observed her blushing daughter. "Oh, so you've gotten to know her that well, huh?"
"I wish," Harmony muttered, then flushed a deeper shade of red. "She just gave me a back massage. You know me--I don't do well with physical contact."
"Or, you just need the right person," her mother noted with a mysterious smile.
Harmony tried to retort with something flippant, but for the second time that day, words failed her. She sighed, a small smile appearing on her face. "Yeah, maybe so."
"What's that perfume she is wearing?" her mother asked curiously. "I've never smelled anything like it before."
"I have no idea," Harmony shrugged. "She always smells like spring and flowers though."
"I'll be interested in getting to know her," her mother said musingly. "She sounds like a fascinating character."
"That she certainly is," Harmony replied with a fond smile. "Would you like some tea?"
"Yes, please," her mother answered with a grateful smile. "I could use a little something to calm my nerves."
As they entered the kitchen, there was a deafening crash from the front room. Harmony rushed back into the front room to find her front door hanging on one hinge and the doorframe in splinters. The six-foot six-inch form of her murderous brother-in-law, David, was stalking toward her with a nine-millimeter handgun pointed at her head.
"Where are my daughters," he demanded with a maniacal gleam in his blue eyes.
"Get out of my house!" Harmony shouted with far more confidence than she felt. "I don't know what kind of moron let your crazy ass out of the slammer, but I can guarantee you'll be going right back there after trespassing on a private residence with a deadly weapon."
"You've got five seconds to fetch my daughters," David growled as he pulled the hammer back on his pistol. "Then I'm going to decorate the walls with your brains."
Harmony felt the last dregs of fear drain from her system as the inevitability of her death loomed in front of her. "Do it, you piece of shit!"
"I'll give you to the count of three to get out of this house," Rhapsody's voice announced from somewhere behind David. "If you're still here when I reach three, I can promise you a night of more pain than you can possibly imagine in that pathetic excuse of cellulose you call a mind."
David spun around to stare at Rhapsody, his lip curling in disdain. "Get lost, you stupid bitch, before I add your brains to the walls as well."
Rhapsody was walking toward him calmly without a trace of fear on what was visible of her face. "One. Two."
With a snarl, he raised his arm and then pistol-whipped Rhapsody on the side of the head. Instead of crumpling to the floor from the force of the blow, Rhapsody's head barely even moved. Her hat was the only part of her head that was disturbed, with the earflap getting flipped up to reveal a very pointy ear.
"Three," Rhapsody said quietly. There was a sudden blur as the small woman punched him in the ribs quicker than Harmony's eyes could track, each punch emitting a loud cracking sound. Then her booted foot connected to his groin hard enough to make a squishing noise. Somewhere in the blur of punches and kicks, Rhapsody had also disarmed him and tossed the pistol onto the ground.
David fell to the ground, curled up into a fetal position as he howled in pain. Without a word, Rhapsody grabbed a handful of his long, greasy hair and began dragging him toward the front door as if he weighed no more than a ragdoll. He let out another scream as he grasped her wrists while she dragged him out the front door.
"Harmony, would you mind calling the police?" Rhapsody asked calmly from just outside the front door. "I'll have a little talk with David while we wait for them to arrive."
Harmony was still standing with her mouth hanging open in shock as her nieces came pounding down the stairs at a dead run.
Her mother was already calling the police on her cell phone as Aurora and Serenity rushed into the kitchen with terrified expressions on their faces.
Harmony pulled them both into a tight embrace as her mother hastily explained the situation to the dispatcher.
"What happened?" a trembling Aurora asked shakily.
"Your dad broke into the house," Harmony replied as she stroked their heads comfortingly with each hand. "Rhapsody came back and beat the crap out of him. Everything is going to be okay. The cops are on their way here."
"Where's Rhapsody?" Serenity asked in a frightened voice.
"She's just out front having a talk with your dad," Harmony replied with a shuddering breath.
Another piercing scream made the three of them jump.
"That was just the third joint on your pinky," Rhapsody's voice said calmly. "There are twenty-seven more joints left to crush if you don't start paying attention to what I'm telling you. If the justice system fails to put you where you belong when you get out of the hospital, I want you to remember what will await you here if you ever come anywhere near Harmony's family again. So far, you have four broken ribs, with one of them puncturing your lung. The doctors will need to amputate what's left of your manhood. The lucky part for you is that you still have your arms, legs, hands, and feet. If I ever see or smell you again, I'll make sure that none of those things ever functions again. This is cervical vertebrate four right here. I'll do the same thing to it that I just did to your pinky's third joint if I even get a whif of you again. This will result in quadriplegia, which means you will lose the use of all of your limbs and require a ventilator to breath for the rest of your miserable life. You seem like a really stupid person, so I hope for your sake that they lock you up for a long time. Otherwise, I have a feeling that you'll show up again and I'll have to follow through with my promise."
As Rhapsody finished speaking, the sound of sirens could be heard growing closer quickly. Harmony gently released her nieces and walked out to the front porch. David was still contorted in a fetal position, with Rhapsody sitting next to him, one of her tiny hands clasping the spine on the back of his thick neck.
"Do you understand what I've told you?" Rhapsody asked in a patient tone.
"Go to hell, bi-, " he broke of as she increased the pressure on his spine. "Yes! Yes, I understand, for god's sake!"
"Not god's sake," Rhapsody corrected grimly. "Your sake."
A police car rolled up the drive and came to a quick stop as two uniformed officers jumped out with weapons drawn.
"He's no longer a threat," Rhapsody called out to them as they cautiously approached the loudly groaning form curled up on the porch.
"What happened?" one of the cops asked warily.
"This guy broke into my neighbor's house with a gun and tried to abduct her children," Rhapsody replied calmly. "I was visiting when he broke the door down, and was able to overpower him before he could shoot anyone. His gun is on the floor near the kitchen."
The first cop went inside to retrieve David's gun while the second cop squatted down to inspect the groaning man.
"What did you do to him?" the cop asked curiously. "Is he going to need an ambulance?"
"I broke a couple ribs and kicked him in the nuts pretty hard," Rhapsody replied with a shrug. "He'll definitely need an ambulance; one of the broken ribs punctured his lung."
"What did you hit him with?" the cop asked with a frown.
"These," Rhapsody replied, holding up her balled fists. "They're meaner than they look when you piss them off."
When the cop looked at Harmony doubtfully, she nodded. "I've got the whole thing on video from our surveillance system. She punched him in the chest four times and then kicked him in the family jewels. I heard his ribs crack with each punch."
"Damn…" the cop muttered in awe. "I'll have to see your video feed. How did his gun get in the kitchen?"
"That's where she beat him down at," Harmony replied with a half-grin. "Then she dragged him out here by his hair."
The cop stared at Rhapsody's small form disbelievingly as his partner rejoined him with the discarded gun. "I think I'll have to see that to believe it."
Harmony nodded and stepped back into the house to rewind the surveillance data while the cops called dispatch for an ambulance. She quickly downloaded the video segment to her iPhone and walked back onto the porch.
"Here it is," Harmony said, offering her phone to the first cop.
Harmony blinked when she realized the porch camera had recorded the audio. Crap, I hope Rhapsody's little 'talk' with David doesn't get her in trouble.
The cops were shaking their heads in amazement as they watched the video. Their looks of incredulity turned to nervousness as they listened to Rhapsody threaten David with the loss of his limbs if he ever came back. When the video finished, they both looked around warily.
"Where did she go?" the cop asked in surprise.
Harmony frowned as she looked around the darkened landscape. She hadn't seen Rhapsody leave, but the small woman was nowhere to be found. "She's got this disappearing act she does occasionally. I have no idea how she does it, but one second she's there, and the next she's gone."
"We're going to need to question her further," the cop said with a frown. "What's her name, and where does she live?"
"I'm afraid I won't be able to help you very much with that," Harmony replied with a wry smile. "I only know her first name, which is Rhapsody, and I have no idea where she lives. This was her first time visiting my house. I met her a few days ago along the highway, where I walk to the school bus stop to pick up my nieces."
She spent the next half-hour answering questions about David's relationship to her nieces, as well as his status as a former convict. One of the cops walked around the perimeter of her yard, trying to find the elusive Rhapsody.
"Call us immediately if you run into your friend again," the cop said, handing her a card. "We have some questions for her that need to be answered."
"Is she in trouble?" Harmony asked worriedly.
"That depends on whether your former brother-in-law can get his hands on a good lawyer," he replied gravely. "The first part of the incident was obviously self-defense, but when she broke his finger after he was obviously out of action it turned into a case of assault. If his attorney doesn't see that portion of the surveillance video, she should be in the clear."
"That bastard already murdered my sister and got away with it," Harmony growled angrily. "He better not get another get out of jail free card."
"As far as I'm concerned, we've only seen the first portion of the video," he replied blandly.
"Thanks," Harmony said with a grateful smile. "I'm really not relishing the thought of having to look over my shoulder everywhere I go for the rest of my life."
"That guy would be insane to come back here after what happened tonight," the cop said ruefully. "Personally, that girl terrifies me. Makes you wonder if she is some kind of former CIA child assassin or something."
"Nothing would surprise me about her at this point," Harmony sighed tiredly. "Thanks for all of your help."
"Anytime," he replied with a friendly smile. "Here's my card. My personal number is on the back as well, if you're interested."
His partner cuffed him on the back of the head. "Come on Romeo."
Harmony tittered awkwardly and waved as they left.
Harmony went back into the house, grimacing at her destroyed front door. She would need to have a contractor come fix it in the morning.
Her mother was sitting with Serenity and Aurora on the couch with an arm wrapped protectively around each of them. Her nieces were finally coming out of their shock.
"Where's Rhapsody?" Serenity asked anxiously.
"Probably up in one of the trees behind the house," Harmony replied absently. She was fairly certain Rhapsody was still nearby. The warm presence that accompanied the small woman was still permeating the home. It made her feel safe, knowing her tiny protector was nearby if more trouble found them. I'm so pathetic; I can't even keep my nieces safe on my own.
"How are you doing?" her mother asked with a searching look.
"Exhausted," Harmony answered truthfully. "I feel like I've just run a marathon."
"Do you think Rhapsody's okay?" her mother asked worriedly. "David hit her pretty hard with that pistol."
"I have a feeling it didn't even bruise her head," Harmony replied vaguely. She had been trying to convince herself that the pointy ear beneath the earflap had been a trick of her imagination, exacerbated by an adrenaline overload.
"Don't tell me that you're becoming a believer," her mother said in surprise.
"Just my eyes playing tricks on me with all of the excitement," Harmony replied curtly.
"Why, what did you see?" her mother asked curiously.
"Nothing," Harmony snapped irritably. "Because there was nothing to see."
Her mother thankfully let the issue drop. She was already questioning her own sanity. She certainly didn't need her mother encouraging her to take a vacation from her senses.
Serenity and Aurora ended up sleeping with her for the night, too frightened to sleep in their own beds. It made her thankful that she always purchased king-sized beds, even if she never shared them with anyone. Her mother stayed in the guest room on the first floor, and for once, Harmony was glad to have the extra company in her house.
She stared at the ceiling for over an hour as her restless mind refused to give in to her exhausted body's need for sleep. The sound of quiet singing had her frowning in puzzlement as she tried to force her mind to shut down. Her mother wasn't known for singing, so she was pretty sure it was coming from somewhere else. She tilted her head as she tried to identify the origins of the calming melody. It seemed to be coming from just outside of her window. Before she could work up enough motivation to go investigate, the soft voice lulled her racing mind into a state of blessed slumber.