Tasci made it through the first night sleeping underneath a bush. Even though there were all sorts of bugs crawling around, there were larger things to worry about outside like cats, and cars, and most fearsome of all, late night teenagers. The bush really wasn't all around her either. Being curled up right next to the fence, she could see the stars clearly through the space above.
It was hard. She leapt up again and again from her uneasy doze in a fright as something or another got caught in her fur and started crawling around. It was like the permanent willies. Of course she knew that one does not sleep under shrubbery when camping out, but then again the people who told her that had tents.
"Of all phobias," she grumbled as another imaginary insect drove her into a scratching frenzy, "Why did it have to be bugs?"
The bush before her provided a raggedy wall between the synx and the outside world. She finally found a place out of the way of the ants, and then surprised herself by falling asleep.
The next day passed in a blur. On waking, she invariably opened her eyes with the notion of fixing a nice big breakfast, then closed her eyes as her grim reality reasserted itself. There wasn't many places to eat in the neighborhood. Desert scrub bears no fruit, and any notions of raiding garbage cans were quickly squashed. If you have ever taken a whiff of any amount of garbage, try it with a nose that's a kajillion times more sensitive.
Some people left food out for their pets, and Tasci tried to steal what she could from those. Like as not, Tasci got chased away by whatever local cat decided to protect its meal. For being a head smaller than Tasci, their slashing claws and sudden rushes were deadly to intruders in their domain. Catfood itself was barely edible, only tolerable after Tasci succumbed to munching on some attractive smelling grass to thin it out a bit.
Every now and then, mostly later in the evening, Tasci entertained the idea of sneaking into a dog's yard. Most dogs were too big to be safe, and their constant incessant barking was enough to make her want to run away and hide. But occasionally there before her was an unwatched plate of small crunchy nuggets. They tasted like paper, but the easing of the pain in her stomach was worth it.
"Never thought I'd see the day," Tasci panted after narrowly missing some driving hounder, who was now baying at her over the fence. "When dog food is the best I can get."
Later that day, she scanned for better places to sleep. It had to be somewhere safe. Her house was out because of those cats. Perhaps someone else would take her in...?
"Eh, who do I know here?" Tasci wondered hopelessly. "I can't just walk into someone else's home, they might be dangerous."
Tasci looked around, finding a way she could squeeze into a garage by picking at the screen. There was a loft on the roof where she found some old blankets; she also discovered she was no longer allergic to wool. There were other boxes beside her makeshift bed full of dusty things, books, clothing, photo frames. Little bits of nostalgia such as a plush bear with only half an ear left, a pile of college yearbooks. Tasci didn't want to pry, but spent a while looking through the pages and pages of pictures and events that happened at her local high school. Okay, maybe she did want to pry, but just knowing that 'Joey' was "Totally hip dude," "Great year my man!" and "Good luck on making the team next year," didn't really inspire Tasci's heartfelt trust.
A sleeping place secure, Tasci jumped directly down to the floor instead of the staggered steps she'd taken to get up by climbing the toolbench, levering off the christmas ornaments box, balancing on the rafter, and hopping up into the loft. Her wings half opened on the way down, slowing her fall. She landed and took two steps before stopping and looking up worriedly. "Shouldn't that have... hurt? Geez, I should be more careful before jumping like that."
That night was surprisingly clear, the skies overhead filled with blinking stars. Tasci looked up at the stars, and then her eyes rested on the roof of the house across the street from her own house. She smiled cagily and snuck over to the back of the house. The sounds of a television came from inside. A toy piano... and smells of a recently eaten dinner pervaded the area. Tasci shook her head resolutely. "I just can't risk it," she said. "I-I'd be a freak, the police'd come and take me away, and then the world would return to normal, and my only chance to show everyone that there are and can be synxes would be ruined." Her nose twitched towards the window, but instead she walked up to a garbage container next to the house.
The garbage container was a plastic contrivance, with a "animal proof" flip-top lid. The lid was closed, so Tasci bunched up her hindquarters and bounded on top of it, landing a bit heavily. From there, she jumped up to balance on a chain-link fence, and immediately bounced further up to clear the rain gutter and land on the roof.
Padding softly along the roof, Tasci at last felt safe. Nothing came up here. Nothing except birds and they wouldn't bother her at night. She couldn't sleep up here when it was raining, but when the stars spread their glorious panorama across the sky, Tasci promised herself to always be out here, out here to say good night to the stars.
Every night the weather permitted, Tasci would turn to her house, watching it from the roof across the street, hoping for a familiar green car to drive up. Hoping for some sign of her mother. A week passed, and still there was no sign of her. Something must have happened, something that could keep Mama from coming home to help her. That cheeky green car, Tasci's salvation never drove up, never came home.
By the third day, Tasci was tired of being filthy from her nights under the bushes, and just walking around. She'd watched a family one by one drive their cars and children to various places, then snuck into their backyard which she had already confirmed didn't have a dog. "All this for a stinking bath," Tasci muttered, rising up on her hind legs to reach the spigot of the faucet.
Every house, at least hereabouts, has a faucet in the back yard to which is normally attached a hose. A happy consequence of block housing conventions. In the middle of the day, when the sun was in the sky, it didn't hurt as much to have the icy water soaking her completely through. On rainy days, taking a bath would be easy, but it was getting dry that was tricky. Tasci knew that wet fur at a bad time could spell disaster, especially in the winter months. It got below freezing in the valley here, frost on the cars in the morning, and while she could sleep just fine in her fur, when it was wet it was worthless. One of her blankets she reserved for a towel, rolling on it after shaking dry as best as she could. It didn't absorb the water well, but it kept her alive.
* * *
One day, walking through the afternoon, a synx paused at the pleasant smells coming from a family cooking dinner in their home.
"God... I'm so hungry," she said in a scratchy voice. "Maybe I could just... you know..." The food beckoned alluringly. Sounds of laughter drifted from the home.
"Maybe I could just introduce myself, 'Hi, I'm a synx and I couldn't help but smell your delicious food. Won't you offer me a bite?'" Tasci growled sardonically, tearing her nose away from the smells and walking away. She kept to the shadows, squeezing through a small space between two fence slots into another yard.
The shrubs and grass rose around her like a cathedral as she crept forward silently, tail held low. Sniffing the breeze, she approached the back yard of a second house. Again, a TV could be heard, flickering through the curtains of the sliding glass door window. Next to a wound up garden hose to the left and an overturned cooler to the right, across a bare stretch of concrete was a small, neglected bowl half filled with dry dog food.
Sniffing the air once again, Tasci moved forward. The dog, asleep in the side yard, paid no notice. His belly was full. By the light of the TV, she skittered across the concrete and almost dove into the bowl, crunching softly the leftover food.
A barking in the distance sent her leaping into the air, wings snapping open. But it was another dog, in another yard. It couldn't get her. Landing, Tasci finished off the bowl, then ran off back into the bushes, her frightened frizzed tail vanishing underneath the shrubbery. There she huddled, shivering in the bushes for a while before making her way out of the yard.
* * *
Tasci would tell the world, and let it be known that transformation is not a Fantasy, but for now she knew doing anything would be too dangerous, besides what kept her alive.
Last Updated: Sun Dec 1 2002 08:26:18