Free In the Land of Birdfishes by Rebecca Silver Slayter

asked. “What did you say his name was?”
    “It’s Jason,” said the woman. “I’m Minnie, and that’s Angel”—she pointed to the singer—”and you’d better tell us your name.”
    I told them my name. Angel turned and looked up at me from the corners of her eyes and then turned her face down again. She fiddled with her hands and touched Jason’s sleeve, but he didn’t move.
    “What happened to my sister?”
    Minnie looked sharply at Jason.
    “When did she die?”
    “Don’t you get too excited. It’s been a long time now. Maybe five years she’s been gone now,” said Minnie.
    “Six.”
    Even Minnie flinched. She nodded at Jason, who stared fiercely at the ground, as if he’d said nothing.
    “It was sudden,” Minnie said. “She didn’t have any pain.”
    Jason stood up.
    Suddenly his hand was in my face. I drew back, but he held his hand close, his thumb tucked into his palm, so that I couldhardly see. “How many fingers am I holding up,” he said. “How many fingers.”
    “Get away from me,” I said. “You’re not her son. She was so gentle.”
    “How many fingers.”
    “Four,” I said. “Get away from me.”
    He took his hand away and looked hard at me. He was much taller than I. “How come you can see,” he said. “How come she was blind and said it was something that happened to both of you.”
    I felt a hand at my waist and realized Angel was there beside me. She looked up at Jason, and he took his eyes off me to look back.
    He was breathing deep and hard. “Who is she,” he said.
    “It’s Mara’s sister,” said Angel. “You know she had a sister.”
    “Why didn’t she come before.”
    “I don’t know,” she said softly. “I wish she’d come sooner.”
    Jason began to walk away from us.
    “Jason …” called Angel.
    He had this energy about him like he might suddenly stop walking and reach out and throw someone to the ground. I was trying to figure out how to leave. I was dizzy and tired. Far, far away, light was leaving my kitchen.
    “I have to go,” I said. I left them standing there, and I found my way back to the hotel. I climbed upstairs to my room, which exhaled faintly sour-smelling, warm air as I opened the door. It must have been late. It must have been nighttime by then. The sun was high in the sky, and I slept in its suffocating heat.
    I woke from a dream of Stephan. Immediately I was unable to remember what he’d been telling me. I knew if I moved, the dream would be lost forever, so I kept my head still on the pillow and closed my eyes, digging deep into the dark there. Reaching back for my dream. Then I heard my name again.
    “Aileen?”
    I hadn’t realized until I heard it again that it was the sound of my name that had woken me. And then a knock on the door.
    “Aileen, are you in there?”
    I stood up slowly and went to the door. Through the peephole, I saw a face I didn’t recognize looking back at me. Then I remembered her name. “What do you want, Angel?” I said through the door.
    She apologized for waking me, but said Jason wanted to meet me at a bar in an hour. I didn’t answer, and she knocked again. Her face was anxious and I was tired.
    “How’d you know where I was staying.”
    She turned her face down. “I asked Ivan about you. There aren’t very many places open now.”
    I slipped the chain lock off and turned the knob, peering at her through a crack just wide enough to rest my face between. “I don’t have a real good reason to believe that roughneck kid that can hardly string together a sentence is my sister’s son. But what I know for sure is that you aren’t anything to me.”
    Her eyes watched mine for a moment and then she bobbed her head, like she’d understood something. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I lied to you. I didn’t ask Ivan. I followed Jason.” The sides of her mouth turned up, but she wasn’t smiling. “
He
followed you here.” Then she turned away and headed down the stairs. I listened to the