Another Half

January 2012

The mid-morning was chilly but pleasant for the second week of January. Blade held Andy on her hip while she looked at the little, cream-colored house in front of her. To her surprise, the house was in her name when she found the deed in her grandfather’s safe, but she had no idea why. Neither grandparent had mentioned or hinted at the existence of this house.

722 Martini Drive, Azul City

“Martini Drive—-of all the things to name a street near a college,” Blade said under her breath. She had suspected something was strange with the small college town when her new phone directed her to turn from Main Street onto Vodka Boulevard, then onto Cosmopolitan Avenue before stopping here, on 722 Martini Drive. At least her grandmother’s house wasn’t on Harvey Wallbanger Road or Screwdriver Way, both of which she had passed on their way here.

“This is what happens when you let drunk frat boys name streets,” Blade murmured.

Martini Drive is kind of cute, Talon said.

“I guess,” murmured Blade, “if you’re into getting plastered on vodka cocktails. Except the original martini was made with gin, not vodka, so I don’t know what they’re pretending.”

“You should tell that to whoever runs the city,” Talon said, laughing hard. “Just let me get popcorn before you do.”

Blade shook her head, smiling. No one laughed at her own jokes like Talon.

What Blade liked best about the house is that it was conveniently across the street from Lazuli University, the small liberal arts college she had secretly applied to transfer to when she decided to leave Nick. She already had one year of college under her belt; three or so more years and she’d have her degree in Education. And since she was raising Andy now, she thought it made sense if she added a minor in Child Development. But it was also a safety issue; two university police cars had already passed by her house on patrol, and Blade had managed to detect that all of the officers were humans. In fact, Blade hadn’t so much as caught the scent of a wolf in all the time she had been in the city. It was strangely comforting.

Wolves hiding among the sheep, Talon said, and Blade nodded in agreement. No wolves meant no one could harm her or Andy here.

After spending Christmas and the New Year in a small southern town outside of Vancouver, Blade had gotten restless. She had liked Canada well enough but felt like her life would be on pause while she stayed there. And then she heard that the small town expected a massive snowstorm within the following week that might bury it and that motivated Blade to come back to this side of the border as soon as possible.

Besides, her transfer application had already been accepted for the spring term. Why wait? Blade had planned to arrive in November to get herself and Andy acclimated to life in a different part of the country, but Nick had obviously interfered with her plans. She hoped that he was already mated to Nadine by now—Who knows? Maybe she was already pregnant?--and thus had already forgotten about Blade and Andy.

Blade’s heart constricted hard when she thought about Nick being mated to someone else. She didn’t feel the relief she thought she should. It hurt to know that the man she had waited for since she found out about the beautiful magic of mates would find it so easy to reject her not once but multiple times for months on end. He didn’t even give Blade the chance to make him happy, as if she didn’t even deserve—

Talon interrupted her darkening thoughts. It’s Friday, classes start on Monday, and we’re not getting any younger standing out here in the cold.

The dirty vanilla-color painted house was small and had obviously been abandoned for several years, but there were signs of past days of glory. The front lawn was surrounded by a wooden fence that once seemed to have been either white or beige; Blade wasn’t sure which since most of the paint had peeled away. She looked forward to resuscitating what seemed to be the remains of a lush garden.

Generally, the inside of the three-bedroom house was in good condition, except for the cobwebs and layers of dust. To her relief, someone had taken care to cover the furniture, which was outdated—-vintage, even—-but in good condition. She wondered if the house was custom-made; she loved that each of the three bedrooms had its own full bath in addition to the one for general use. Perhaps she could rent out the two additional bedrooms to female college students and make some money on the side?

Blade set Andy down in his new playpen and got to work cleaning, organizing, and deciding what was worth keeping and what needed replacement. She had recently purchased toys and books along with the playpen, and Andy was happy to inspect his new belongings.

She found a large jar with a starfish collection on the antique dresser in the largest of the bedrooms and it caused Blade to pause. In fact, she found the entire bedroom’s theme jarring. Golden starfish adorned the indigo-colored curtains, the faded carpet, and even the bathroom set.

“Eres mi Estrellita del Mar,” Blade remembered her grandfather whispering to her. His Little Starfish of the Sea, he called when she handed him several starfish she had collected from a trip to the beach. And she had giggled.

“Maybe we should change your name to Estrellita del Mar?” he had said.

“NO! Never call her that again!” her grandmother Connie had shouted before storming out of the room.

Her grandfather Felix had watched her leave and then had turned to Blade, winked at her, and put his index finger over his lips.

Maybe it’s because we often brought him dead starfish when we went to the beach and Grandmother didn’t like the beach? Talon said.

“Grandmother didn’t like a lot of things, including me, but I don’t see how that matters,” Blade said, frowning at the memory of her grandmother’s thinly veiled dislike for Blade, her own granddaughter. “He hated the beach and anything to do with it as much as she did.”

Ah, but he saved the starfish you gave him, didn’t he?

Blade shrugged and started cleaning the starfish-studded bathroom.

It was true. In his safe there had been a small silver box with a starfish engraved on its lid containing all the starfish Blade had collected for him. She had been touched that he had saved her silly gifts, so much so that she didn’t throw the box away but brought it with her. After washing the jar and rinsing the old starfish, she left her grandfather’s silver box next to the jar on the dresser.

After a weekend of cleaning, Blade dropped off Andy at the university’s daycare facility where she planned to volunteer three times a week to help offset the cost of childcare and to keep a close eye on Andy. She spoke to the director, a nice, portly woman named Nancy, that she was looking for a female roommate who would be able to live with Andy.

Blade loved her classes, respected her instructors, and even liked most of her classmates. She continued to be pleasantly surprised that she had not run into any wolves. Besides that, her entire week was uneventful until Friday morning when she smelled a she-wolf entering the day-care facility and all the hairs on the back of her neck rose as her heart rate spiked.

Blade had been setting Andy down into a playpen full of toys and suddenly froze. She slowly turned her head toward the entrance, to the source of the wolf’s scent. She felt a shudder of apprehension run down her spine, arms, and legs, and she held her breath.

A petite she-wolf with wavy blonde hair had been talking avidly to Nancy while bounding a baby boy around Andy’s age on her hip. Blade held her breath as she saw the she-wolf suddenly sniff the air and turn in Blade’s direction. But she didn’t seem angry or upset; she seemed shocked.

Shit. What do we do, Talon?

But before Talon could respond, Blade heard Nancy say, “Let me introduce you to her and you two can talk and maybe reach an agreement?” Nancy was leading the she-wolf straight to Blade, and the she-wolf quickly followed.