Featherless Bird

It was a cloudy day, that was one thing Carolyn remembered clearly. Also, it had been drizzling all day, but at that moment nothing was coming down from the sky. Passers by looked at her quickly before deciding that she was just another girl with no fashion sense and moving on. Carolyn was wearing her dark purple skirt with her favorite pair of Uggs that she had bought approximately three years ago; she also had a green t-shirt with the peace sign on it. In all, she looked homeless, but at that time Carolyn didn’t seem to notice, or care.

She passed building after building, where she knew hundreds of employees were working their asses off while their boss often sat there in their smugness, waiting to fire someone. Maybe that was one of the reasons Carolyn didn’t want to have an office job like those people, even though she was intelligent enough to work as a lawyer or doctor. Those things never seemed to appeal to her, so following her gut she had gotten a job at an old book store where she worked part time.

Everything seemed in the ordinary that day, people were rushing to catch a cab or the subway; some beggars were on the street, and you had some high schoolers who were skipping school to go smoke a joint or do something of the sort. Carolyn didn’t know that on this day, her life would be changed drastically, and that she would never look at the world the same way.

A car screeched to a halt and Carolyn looked up to notice that she was in the middle of the road, and that an angry looking cab driver was giving her the finger. She gave him a look before running out of the street to the safety of the sidewalk. She was even more lost in her thoughts than usual. She decided that it was because that no more than fifteen minutes ago, her best friend of nine years, Albert, had just told her that he was madly in love with her. Carolyn loved Albert, she really did, but it was only a brotherly love, nothing else. She wished that Albert would understand that and not try to change her mind. She knew how she felt, and sadly, that wasn’t enough for Albert. He probably thought that when he told her she would in turn give him her unconditional love and that they would run away and get married. Sadly, real life didn’t work that way, and Carolyn had run off, afraid to hurt his feelings.

So there she was, wandering the streets of London as the sun began to go down. At that moment she missed more than anything the sweet smell of her hometown, Okotoks. She missed the frigid cold of Alberta and the warm summers. She missed knowing everyone in her town, even though she never talked to anyone, it was just nice to say ‘oh yeah, I know him, he’s that guy who lives in that place, right?’ Not like in this city where she knew about ten people, including the old woman who ran the bookstore and the guy who worked at the small grocery store she went to.

At that moment, her crappy cell phone rang with the usual ringtone of birds chirping, announcing that the caller was Ellie.

“Hello?” She answered, although she already knew what Ellie was calling for.

“Smooth move just leaving Albert there, hun.” Carolyn rolled her eyes, not exactly in the mood to hear this.

“Ellie, you know how I feel about him. What do you want me to tell him? ‘Oh yeah, I actually don’t like you that way, sorry to crush your dreams.’ I don’t think that conversation would go over too well.”

“Caro, don’t be so harsh. Maybe you should give him a chance, maybe he’ll surprise you. He’s a mighty good snogger.” Carolyn roller her eyes at her friend once again. That was just like Ellie, mention her former relationship with Albert.

“I’m sure he is. And don’t call me harsh, aren’t you the one who broke up with him over text and then went to see him the next day to ask if he wanted to hang out?”

Ellie giggled slightly, and Carolyn couldn’t help but wonder if she had been smoking anytime soon. She had tried to tell her friend that she shouldn’t do drugs, but Ellie had just slightly decreased her amount, and scoffed over the rest of Carolyn’s warnings.

“Maybe. But that doesn’t mean you should do the same. Well, I have to go babe. See you soon.” And with that Ellie hung up quickly, and Carolyn suspected that her new boy toy Jake was there. As much as she loved Ellie, Carolyn sometimes wondered if she would live up to the age of thirty.

With that thought, Carolyn stumbled down to the subway and got on just in time, because the doors had closed. She sighed as she sat down on an unoccupied bench next to what looked to be a business lady. She was talking animatedly and it took a long time for Carolyn to tune her out between her occasional gasps or shrieks of horror. For some reason Carolyn was quite glad that she didn’t need to hear the conversation.

The subway stopped and Carolyn got up, walked over the woman who didn’t move to let her leave and got out. She saw in content that she was close to where she lived. Her feet didn’t bring her home though; they brought her to the small café that she went to every morning. Nobody was sitting there like they usually did, but she figured that it was because it was six o’clock and everyone was home eating supper.

When she opened the door a bell jingled but she ignored it, like every time she walked in. The place was deathly calm, the sofas unoccupied and the chairs collecting dust that would soon disappear with the arrival of costumers. The employee that was surely working there was no where to be seen, so Carolyn hit the small bell on the counter and waited for someone to appear.

When the employee arrived, Carolyn felt her cheeks get warm. He was quite attractive in her mind; his dark brown hair was cut in an edgy fashion while his stubbed facial hair made him look like some kind of badass. His eyes were almost black, and his lips looked like they were set in stone. Plus, even in his working uniform he managed to pull it off and look like some kind of Greek god.

“Yes?” He asked after a minute as Carolyn wasn’t saying anything. When she looked up she saw that he had a small smirk on his face, and she felt her cheeks grow even warmer.

“Um, can I have a, um, coffee with two creams.”

“Coming right up. You’re invited to take a seat; there aren’t any costumers right now so I’ll go bring it to you.” He said with a smile.

“Thanks.”

With that, Carolyn went and sat on the cream colored sofa, making herself comfortable as she looked outside. Night had surprised London and settled himself in before anyone was ready. She looked over at a group of habitants of the neighborhood pass; they were talking and laughing loudly. She grew jealous immediately, she craved to be like them at that moment. To just be able to go with some friends and have a good time, but she wasn’t like that. She was too shy and awkward.

“Here you go.” The employee snapped her out of her thoughts as he handed her a cup of hot coffee. That was another thing she was jealous of, British accents. Since she was a child she had always wanted to have their accent, but that was quite impossible since she came from Canada. But she had still moved to London in the hopes of gaining one, but that didn’t seem likely. It had been almost two years and she didn’t have the slightest British accent, just her Canadian one.

“Thanks.” She said to him, snapping herself out of her thoughts once again.

“You’re welcome. Your name is Carolyn, right?” She frowned, not exactly sure that she liked him knowing her name. “Don’t worry. You just came in here once in your work uniform and you had a nametag.”

“Oh, okay.” Carolyn shifted her gaze, intimidated by the man. She took a sip of her coffee and frowned. It tasted odd, like some sort of liquid metal was in it. “Wha-?” She had the time to say before everything started to get blurred up and her train of thoughts was gone. She started panicking, but then a sort of invisible force seemed to calm her down swiftly.

She couldn’t feel anything anymore, she looked down painfully to make sure her fingers were still there and was surprised when she saw them. That’s when her vision started blackening rapidly. She felt something on her cheek and realized it was a tear. The last thing she saw before blacking out was the face of the man, hovering over her, a smirk on his face.