Chapter Thirteen | | P.O.V
What had he just witnessed?
Was what he saw real? Or part of a dream?
No.
There was no way this was part of a dream. It was real.
Kers decided when the snow began to fall that staying on the ground was far too dangerous, so an elevated position above the roots would be better. The four-inch tall Borrower scaled the side of the tree he was hiding under using his broken paperclips and the little bit of string he had saved.
He had to immigrate because the previous home he was in gave their two young daughters cats for their shared birthday. Two cats. One Borrower. Kers did the math and decided it would be safer to leave, even during the cold winter months, and chance getting into another apartment building a few doors down.
He trudged out into the frigid cold with all of his worldly borrowings on his back and found shelter among the roots of a nearby tree. It wasn't until the morning that he realized he needed to find a safer place, hence the dangerous climb up the tree.
Each handhold felt as though it would give way at any moment. The slickness of the frosted bark was treacherous. The slightest slip would mean his demise, but it needed to be done.
As he climbed, he couldn't believe that immense creatures such as squirrels and mice could scurry up these things with such ease.
Part of the terror and danger and thrill of being a Borrower.
The few times he nearly slipped made him tremble and shake, but Kers finally made it to the top where he found a notch in the tree that used to belong to a family of squirrels. He wasn't sure why it was abandoned, but it was warm and a place he could secure while he waited out the storm.
After a midmorning nap and a quick inventory of his belongings, Kers began preparing his food ration for the day when he heard a voice outside. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and send chills ripping down his spine. The Borrower knew the volume of the voice could only mean one thing – a human was nearby.
And, based on the words she was saying, the human wasn't alone. He couldn't hear who she was with, but the words she was using made Kers think she was with a young child.
It was odd.
Usually children were loud and obnoxious, making them easy to identify and run away from. So, why couldn't he hear the child? Was she even with a child? Maybe the human woman was with a pet. Humans did that – talked to animals as if they could understand.
The thought that humans would treat animals more like humans than his own kind if Borrowers were discovered made Kers squirm uncomfortably. If he were caught, Kers had little doubt in his mind that he would be tossed in a cage to live out the rest of his days. He suspected he would be tricked into talking and, if everything went well for him, would live performing tricks like some pet. If things went poorly, he would be experimented on and exposed to the whole world.
It was a terrifying thought.
Still, his Borrower's curiosity got the better of him after an hour or so of listening to the woman talking and responding to someone she called "Parker" and he peered out of his hiding place, acorn cap disguise on his head, to see what he could see.
His heart sank into the pit of his stomach when he glanced down and saw a Borrower child far below near the roots of the tree. He was barely visible because Kers was so high up in the tree, but there was no mistaking the frame of the small being.
What is happening?
What is going on?
That's a child!
Has that human noticed him?
A more terrifying thought seized Kers.
That human... that's who that human woman has been talking to?! She's been talking to that kid?!
Kers couldn't see as well as he wanted from his vantage point, but he could tell that the child didn't seem anxious and didn't seem like he was trying to escape or get away. At the moment, the Borrower high in the trees had a more pressing issue – the child had found his camp from the night before as well as his footprints.
Shoot. Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot! If he looks up or tells that human woman he's working with, I'm screwed!
Take a breath.
I'm okay.
I'm too high for that human to reach me. She can't get to me up here. Even if she tries, I'm inside the tree and can climb higher if I need to.
His panic made Kers' limbs shake as he hurriedly began shoving all of his essentials into his getaway bag. The strap was barely over his shoulder when Kers heard the human woman speak, and it sounded close, and her words made him jump out of his skin.
"Parker? What are you doing in there?"
Kers instantly dropped onto the floor of the old squirrel next and listened as hard as he could. This time, because he was a bit closer, Kers could pick up elements of what the boy was saying – and it made his already chilled blood run cold.
"Momma! Momma! I... I think there's someone else out here!"
No! No! I'm not here. Why are you working with that human? And did... you just call her momma?
"Someone else? That's not possible," said the woman. This was a huge benefit in Kers' mind, and it was enough to inspire a moment of courage in the disguised Borrower.
Kers didn't want to look, but he couldn't bear the thought of simply waiting and seeing looming fingers or, heaven forbid, an eye looking in at him reaching for his frame. He needed to look. Kers crawled to the entrance and, heart pounding a hole through him, dared to look over the ledge down toward the ground.
The human woman was there looming over that small, innocent child! The sight alone made him sick and anxious, but he forced himself to look anyway. From what he could tell, the child didn't seem nervous in the slightest and spoke loudly and clearly for the human woman to hear.
"It's true! Look! There are footprints. They look like mine!" urged the Borrower boy.
Kers felt his insides churn. Did the child not know the rules? Did he not understand what he was doing? He was about to root out Kers' hiding place and not protect his fellow Borrower; and for what? To protect his own family? To protect himself?
Why?
Kers watched the human woman look long and hard at the footprints he had left behind hours and hours ago. The whole time, his prayers revolved around not being discovered. After an agonizing amount of time, the woman responded.
"Parker, I think these might've just belonged to a small critter like a mouse or rat. Maybe even a squirrel? I just don't know who would be out in cold like this."
Kers couldn't believe what he had just heard.
The human woman was dissuading the Borrower child from asking further questions? The human woman was trying to convince the Borrower child that no one else was out here? The backwardness of the situation made his head spin. It should have been the other way around.
The child should have hidden the footprints.
The child should be persuading the human woman no one was out here.
"But... momma..." The boy looked around before looking, to Kers, defeated. "Maybe."
Kers let out a sigh of relief, but it didn't dissuade his confusion. What was going on? Why were they interacting so freely? Was all of this a ruse? Or was there something more going on here?
He continued listening as the woman continued. "Good. Now, I think we've had enough fun in the snow. Let's get inside and get warm; and maybe, just maybe, you and I can read some of that 'Eragon' book together. Would you like that?"
The child sighed and nodded, still looking defeated.
"Yes, momma," said the child named Parker.
Kers felt every nerve in his body screaming in protest and fear as he watched the small child willingly climb into the human woman's hands. He wanted to call out to the child. He wanted to tell him to fight and that he'd be rescued soon, but something inside of him kept Kers silent.
There was something in the woman's voice and in the entire interaction that felt too tender – too genuine – to be fake or forced.
It felt impossible, but was it true?
Did that Borrower child think that human was actually his mom? Did she brainwash him? Trick him into thinking that this was normal?
Or was there something more?
Was this genuine?
Was this human woman actually taking care of this Borrower child, treating him like an equal?
Kers had to know more.
He carefully leaned out of his hiding place and watched the woman and the child disappear into a nearby apartment.
Well... at least I know where my next home is going to be. Kers thought.
~~~^*^*^~~~
The trek was a long one and lasted the next day and partway into the night, but Kers finally made it. The apartment where the human woman and Borrower child vanished into was in sight, and he even had an entrance. With precision and care, Kers shimmied up the frozen drainage pipe and he made his way to the roof, which thankfully had a vent pipe that he could slip down.
Eyes adjusting to the dim light and stomach growling uncomfortably, Kers knew he was now bound by fate to whatever was happening inside of this apartment.
He tiptoed through the beams and shimmied on top of the wires as he found the ceiling fan socket which let him look down into the room. The Borrower crouched low and peered down into what looked like the living area only to see the human woman sitting on the couch with a blanket in her lap, book in her hand, and the small child on her shoulder.
The sight was enough to make his blood run cold.
How could that child just sit there on the human's shoulder without a care in the world? Kers thought about his own level of bravery as he wondered whether he could manage such a feat with calm nerves. The scene was a fascinating one and it had him completely entranced.
Kers wanted – needed – to learn more.
The miniscule man found himself hours later sitting and watching the pair interact and talk. It was like watching the human family he just left interact with one another, the only difference being size between the child and he woman.
At some point, the two of them made dinner, which smelled tantalizing, before the two of them went off to bed.
Now was his chance.
Now was his time!
Kers stared down at the little box that the boy, Parker, called his "room" and saw every opportunity to go and save the child.
But...
Something stopped him.
For years, Kers was convinced that humans would treat Borrowers as pets. He was convinced that someone like him would be shoved into a cage and belittled until the end of their days.
What he just witnessed, however, was something far different.
It was mutual respect. It was like his own mother speaking to him and his siblings. It was like the tender care he had seen the human family he just left from the parents to their two young daughters.
This human was treating this child like a human.
Kers felt confusion wracking his brain, and the hunger in his gut wasn't helping. He glanced at his pack, which held everything he possessed, and then looked back down at the sleeping kid in the room far below.
It was the most impossible, difficult decision he needed to make, but here he was making it.
At the moment, Kers knew two things.
One, he didn't have enough supplies to sustain himself right here and now. He needed to go down to the apartment below and borrow as much as he could to set up a proper home for himself.
Two – which was the most gut-wrenching thing he had to decide – was that the child wasn't in danger. The human woman didn't have the boy in a cage and, from what Kers could tell, the boy was being taken care of. There was no fear in his voice when he spoke to the woman he called "momma" and he seemed comfortable interacting and maneuvering around in the human world.
Whatever this kid's story was, Kers wanted to know it; but he couldn't do that if he needed to take care of himself. For now, he would be the child's silent protector from the walls, ready to act and save at a moment's notice. He could learn about this woman from the walls and, when the time came, Kers would venture down and talk to the boy about who he was and what they were if the kid didn't know.
With a fateful glance down at the boy, Kers vowed that the child wouldn't be alone, forgotten and abandoned by his own kind. The Borrower ducked into the darkness toward the kitchen, heaviness in his heart as he hoped he made the right decision.