Carved from Darkness

A Seagull's Call

From behind me, the door creaked open. I turned to see Ma beating a towel against her faded green apron. "I heard noise. What are you two up to?"

"Nothing, Ma," I said, uncrossing my arms and faking a smile. Her social reputation relied on my thin, cracked relationship with Callum, for his own mother was good friends with Ma and was just about the most social of butterflies in the area. If anything happened between Callum and I, Ma would go crazy and disown me.

The thing was, the two of us were new to this Australia thing. We had moved in from New Zealand two years ago, when I was twelve, because of Pop's role in the military, and I had made friends almost immediately at school. Of course, that meant that I had enemies, too; Ma dismissed such thing and just assumed that, since Callum and I spent so much (inevitable) time together, we were the best of friends or even more.

I mentally cringed at the thought.

"Why, hello, Callum." Ma walked past me to give the boy a hug, to which he returned with slight formality. "Is your mother home?"

Callum drew away from her to nod. "Mum is at the koi pond. Should I get her?"

"Yes, please," Ma said. "Tell her that I invited her over for cake."

I was disgusted at their conversation, but mostly at Callum, who had even thrown in a bowed head to convince Ma that he was a perfectly reformed boy.

He could be a bully.

"Ma," I said, watching Callum run away and feeling a weight lift from my stomach, "are you really going to have Mrs. Julie try the cake?"

She winked. "Of course not. I bought one from the store earlier."

As we laughed, a seagull flew past, its wings spread wide.

The bird collided into the dark shingles of our roof with a surprised squawk that Ma didn't hear.

~#~

Mrs. Julie smoothed out the bottom of her short, bright pink miniskirt while she prepared to sit down at the dining table, and I smirked when one of her charm bracelets caught on the tulle fabric. Callum kicked my shin from beneath the table with a bare foot, a sharp snap to my leg that caught me off guard.

Needless to say, the suppressed grin slipped from my face, and I glared at Callum as Ma and Mrs. Julie struggled to separate metal from skirt.

After what seemed like barely a second of me boring a hole into Callum's skull (I wanted to do so much worse), Ma stood up with a sigh. "Sorry. That was tough. Now, who wants cake?"

"Me!" Callum and I said in unison. I stared down at my lap, seething, as Ma laughed and slid an iced vanilla cake from the kitchen counter. She placed it in front of us, and as she licked the icing off of her fingers, I volunteered to cut the cake.

"Don't mess it up, Michelle," Callum said. I wielded the clear plastic knife in my hand, pointing the tip threateningly in his direction before sinking one side of it into the cake. The jagged edges gnawed into the insides of the sweet treat.

I slid the knife beneath the newly-cut slice of cake and dropped it onto a paper plate that Ma had placed on the table beforehand. "This one's for you. Cal."

He reached for the plate, but I picked it up for him, sliding it in his direction. The cake fell pathetically into his lap.

"Oh, God." I covered my mouth with my hand, mostly to hide my gigantic grin. "I'm so sorry."

Callum pressed his lips together and lifted the plate from his legs, sprinkling lumps of mushed cake back onto it. His nostrils flared when he spoke. "It's perfectly fine."