MILY THE MILLENNIAL - Chapter 3

MILY THE MILLENNIAL | III. Upturned. Copyright 2021 by Kailey Ann. All rights reserved. This is the third chapter of a #metafiction novel by Kailey Ann, read aloud by the author. Discover more about this story at HEDERAREADS.COM.

III. Upturned

A deer! A DOE!

Mily saw it standing in the sun, a magnificent, massive fawn. But how could it be? The beast had white spots speckled across her brassy back but stood half as tall as a basketball hoop...

Where did you come from? Deer were very fast, Mily knew, but the yard had been vacant when she stepped into the shade – only – barely – a few seconds ago, hadn’t it been? She thought about it a few seconds longer, and then she was unshakably sure that the deer had appeared out of Nowhere.

Oh, how the Doe shone in the late afternoon light. They stared at each other, and while Mily was quite stunned, the deer showed no signs of fear at all. She stood staff-legged and proud, fur turned down smooth like bronze suede, her white tufted tail swaying in the breeze, and the air around the Doe was shining.

When their eyes met again, Mily got the sense that the Doe was seeing right through her. A powerful whooshing sensation beneath her collarbone made Mily gasp and stumble a step backward.

The Doe was unperturbed but turned her head curiously at the kid halfway through stepping out of the shadows beside the flowerbed.

“Wh – What are you…?” Mily murmured as she searched for her voice. You’re not afraid of me? she wanted to ask the Doe, but didn’t. Should I be afraid? she asked herself, and then goosebumps skated from the nape of her neck to her toes.

Mily was in awe. She’d only ever seen a deer in real life just one other time, a buck she’d spied through Bird’s binoculars from way-aways off in the woods a few springs ago. Mily admired the Doe as their gazes stayed locked for long seconds till Time itself seemed to halt altogether.

By then, the suspense was lifted; Mily was sure there was nothing at all to be afraid of.

Taking a step closer, Mily copied the deer and tipped her head to the side in curiosity. She made a show of loosening her grip on the tennis ball to show the Doe that she didn’t intend to chuck it at her.

“Hello,” Mily said, captivated by the emerald gleam of the beast’s eyes under the light of the golden hour. Mily beamed and then froze again – The grass around her feet was growing – From the backs of Mily’s heels to the end of the Doe’s shadow, the lawn turned lush, teeming green.

The dry brown grass had crackled under Mily’s bare feet only seconds earlier, yet now a patch of bluegrass dense and rich as she’d ever seen was underfoot just where they stood.

“Look at that!” Mily cheered. Being in the blindspot of the sideyard, she doubted her voice carried, but in a softer tone, she began to ask, “Do you have…?” but her question faded.

The Clairs were ringing in such a way that Mily might’of said they were singing.

Then, beyond all common sense, she would never forget it – that magnificent Doe cantered closer, lowered her head, smiled, and said:

Call Me Ariel _

“You can talk?” Mily responded, stunned.

Ariel the Doe inclined her head further, pointing her coal-black nose to a deep impression in the lovely green grass where she’d stamped her left hoof.

Mily leaned in and was so near the deer that if she only reached out, she might’of touched the Doe’s pearlescent underside.

Seconds quickened and stretched over a series of instants; first, Mily noticed that the shape of Ariel’s hoofprint looked an awful lot like an evergreen tree; second, she realized the Doe’s mark was a true work of art, for it was so well defined that Mily’s mind filled in the lines, and there was the trunk and its branches, and wow! even light danced between the whorls and sprigs as if tossed in the wind!

Mily’s head swum trying to make sense of what she was seeing… All while the Clairs went on singing!

Suddenly time kicked back into motion, and Mily was afraid again. She leapt back and blinked a few times to clear the flash-burns branded into her vision by Ariel’s magic hooves.

It’s the most magical thing I’ve ever seen! Mily thought. E! E! You have to come see! “Wait! W – will you just? Wait here!”

Mily ran a few paces to the corner of the house and turned back to check if the Doe had stayed.

Ariel raised her head up high, and Mily had to squint to block the shine of fawnish spots sparkling across her back. A little dazed, she set off running towards the back porch calling:

“Mom! Will! Come see! Come see!” Mily whisper-hollered, her instincts still telling her not to frighten Ariel Doe.

“What is it!” Bird and Will called at once.

Mily glared and held her index finger fiercely to her lips. “Quiet! Come quick!” she wheezed. “You’ve got to see the Doe – the deer, she’s over here!” Waving them all over brusquely, Mily hopped on her toes long enough to see that Bird was leading all five of the others off the porch. Then she rushed to get back to the side of the house –

Mily blinked. She swung this way and that, vision blurring as she spun and spun and spun – But the magical fawn was gone.

How could she? She was just – “Here! I saw her right here.” Mily bounded further to where they’d met, but the grass crackled as she went, brittle as it had been before. She gulped and looked about her feet, seeing that the grass was now back to sunbaked brown... But it was green just a few second ago!

E implored in-thought, scouting the lowly rolling, wide-open fields surrounding them:

Emjay, which way did she go?

“You saw a deer in our yard?” Bird beckoned, leaving the tiny gathering of family members idling in the shade of the sunflowers. “How cool is that!” her mom said next, bronze eyes full of wonder. “Where did you see her – by the pond, or out in the field...?” Bird looked this way and that as if she had all the time in the world.

Mily’s mind was whirling. Bird and the rest of them didn’t understand. She was just here! And Mily bet it couldn’t even’of been more than a minute prior to then in that moment, when – It doesn’t make sense! She floundered with logic, gaze prizing open every fell and folly of the hills that stretched far and wide as the horizon line.

Flat open plains, just the same as dangnear everywhere else in Diana. She could fix her eyes on every burnt-up bush and dusty croprow in-between, and practically count the maple seeds since the Clairs made her eyesight so good – So Mily didn’t get why she couldn’t find wherever the stupid deer went.

She splayed her fingers wide and stretched her arms as big as they’d go. “She’s gone!” Mily said. And I don’t know where she could’of went. “Mom, the fawn. She was right here.”

Mily stamped the spot where the Doe’s hoofprint had been with her entire left foot. Dropping her arms slowly from the ‘This-Big’ position, Mily held out for hope that one last-ditch effort wish would work its magic and, somehow – zap Ariel back on a patch of green grass.

It didn’t work.

“Whoa, a deer really came so close to the house Mily?” Will asked, wearing a trademark look of puzzled-meets-peachy-keen which made his little sister want to scream. “How far were standing you when you spotted it?”

Mily was starting to feel silly with rage and sick of no one listening to what she was saying. Deciding to bite her tongue, she took a deep breath and walked the very short distance to the edge of the shade under the sunflowers.

Mily pivoted and mimed the surprise she had felt at first sight of Ariel Doe.

Earn snorted and didn’t even try to hide the fact that he didn’t buy it. “Are you josh’n us all, Mildred?”

“Don’t call me that!” Mily spat. She was on the verge of tears. She was no longer hoping, but rather ruthlessly choking on the fact that if she so much as mentioned how the doe had made the grass turn green or how she talked, absolutely no one would believe that Mily was telling the truth. I’ve got no proof.

A wave of disgruntled shame swelled in her ribcage when Mily heard a crunch like boots on fresh fallen snow. Bird had taken a knee alongside her.

“Wow!” Bird told Mily at eye-level. “You’re so lucky to have seen her.”

So her mother believed her. That made Mily relax a bit. Bird was the best at unruffling feathers. But the Doe hadn’t just seemed big. She was huge!

“Must’ve scared the bejeezous out of her!” Esa said, coming to inspect the edge of the shade where Mily said she first saw the Doe. There was a sly bend Esa’s brow that gave away her intent…

Mily rolled her eyes so only Esa could see. It was their shorthand way saying it was okay to smooth things over with some good humor.

Esa pivoted with the quickness of a pinball flipper, eyes bugging wide in horrified mock-surprise. Mily laughed with the others, but sorely wishing to impress the seriousness of what she’d seen, she mustered what sternness she could and said, “Well, the Doe wasn’t scared at all.”

“Or maybe you were both so startled that you couldn’t tell,” Will said.

“Oh, is that where they get that? Like a – like a deer in headlights?” Eyani asked.

“She wasn’t afraid!” Mily said. “The Doe smiled right at me!”

“Wish I’d seen her,” Elaeagnus sighed. Mily glanced fervently at the place Ariel Doe had really appeared, but her aunt’s wish really wasn’t worded right anyway.

“Was it magical?” Elae then asked.

“I think it might have been,” Mily admitted, a little less defensive now that they all seemed to be getting on the same page. Miraculous. The word came to Mily’s mind right away for some reason, so she added real quietly, “A miracle maybe.”

Bird’s voice sounded dreamy, like her thoughts were far-off. “Well then...” Mily thought that her mom was probably the only one close enough to hear the miracle part – besides Eyani, who heard almost everything eventually, one way or another.

“Where’s your dad?” Bird then asked.

Mily grimaced and looked around instead answering when she caught E thinking –

A drop of golden sun?

Hm? The snippet of thought didn’t seem directed at her, but Mily hardly ever heard E’s thoughts unless he intended her to. But her telepathic cousin’s tendency to ‘think out loud’ in his head was one of a growing list of quirks she kept noticing. Trying to work out the way it all worked scrambled her mind more and more and usually led to losing track of her own thoughts.

Bird offered her hand. Mily took it. She was happy to be led away from her letdown and return to the Twins’ birthday cakes. And the dinner waiting in the kitchen-and-dining room.

Ohh! Mily grinned at E as Bird tugged her by the hand into the back yard. A doe, a deer? she sung. Eyani’s snippet of mid-thought suddenly rang a bell.

A female deer?

A ray –

“Did’ja drop this tennis ball?” Will asked, scooping it from where Mily had let it go.

It took Mily a few seconds to process what Will said. Guess I must’ve dropped it when… Mily couldn’t find words to finish describing the moment in her mind. The mere memory of gold flooded her whole Sense – Warmth filled her up from tip to toe, and Mily wondered, Am I glowing? Alight with vibrations which reminded her of the chorus the Clairs sang when… the deer was still standing here.

“Wutch y’all wait’n on?”

“You!” three voices griped in unison. Elaeagnus, Esa, and Will were sharing a good laugh about the exuberance of their vocal convergence when the six-minute timer on Will’s wristwatch ran out, and none other than Dog Yoder appeared on the spot.

“Look at that!” Will said while silencing his wristwatch. “Six-minutes flat, Mil – I think that counts as Mission Accomplished.”

Mily shrugged. She didn’t care much about that since her mind had been wiped of the Stranger completely. She was consumed by what she’d just witnessed, and there’s still a chance! that Dog had seen the giant fawn too.

“Dad, I saw a deer – a Doe!” Mily told him, still clutching Bird’s hand. “Did you see her? Right here?” Mily released her mom’s fingers and bounded over to where Ariel Doe had appeared.

“Wow!” Dog’s eyes were wide and excited. Her dad looked everywhich way, but Mily shook her head vigorously until he paid attention again.

“I tried to get everyone in time,” Mily told Dog, not looking at the others. “But she was gone when I came back.”

“Well deer’re real fast,” Dog said, understanding. “I’m glad you got t’see her! How big was she, Mil?

Mily beamed and leapt high as she could, reaching her fingertips for the skies. “Way taller than you!”

“Must seemed that big,” Earn chuckled.

Mily frowned at her uncle and the others for doubting her story. “I’m telling you! I could’of reached out and touched her!”

“Mildred Junegrass!” Bird warned. “You do not need to snap.”

Telling herself not to talk-back, Mily bowed her head and mumbled ‘sorry’ so they could all hear it. But inside she was raging. She walked back over to her mom and held out her hand to show Bird she was ready to let it go and move on.

Bird offered a smile that told Mily she found her daughter’s outburst more funny than rude, and the fact that Bird wasn’t mad made Mily remember why they were all there in the first place.

“Time for the twins to blow out their birthday candles!” Mily said, dragging her mom by the hand so everyone would get moving.

‘Where Bird goes, we all follow,’ was something her dad used to say before he became a Jack and they had to move away. It was true though: in a matter of moments the whole family was finally gathered on the porch to take part in the Twins’ Eighth Birthday Celebration.

Eyani and Esabel’s cakes looked like rainbow playdough. The confetti sprinkles had melted completely into the buttercream icing, which was glistening in the heat. Mily could tell Bird was sad about the way her cakes were sagging, so she volunteered to stick all sixteen wax candles in herself; she was careful to shove them straight in and kinda deep so it would look like they all stood up easy.

Once the Twins were positioned at the ready, Elaeagnus sparked a long-barreled butane lighter and lit her kids’ candles. She cradled the flame with the cup of her left hand, moving from wick to wick with grace. As soon as the last stick on Esa’s cake was going, Elae took the reins and started them all singing.

The Clairs apparently loved the sound of music and perked up, harmonizing the simple melody. Mily didn’t mind the way they chimed in, extending all the high notes so they echoed like brass symbols struck in slow motion.

Sun-shimmering beachglass dazzled the edges of the Twins’ playdoughy cakes like a rainbow disco ball. The candles’ flames swayed at Attention, saluting whichever way the wind shifted.

“Make a wish!” said Elaeagnus and Bird together.

Esa and E looked each other full in the face as they drew deep breaths, and then the each turned to the other one’s cake and blew:

I wish I had seen the doe

She blinked as all sixteen candles went up in gray trails of smoke. What a waste of a good wish, Mily moped. Whether or not wishing really worked wasn’t what worried her. Everybody knew that the wording of a wish was very important and getting it right could be quite tricky business – If all Mily’d been led to believe in her favorite fairytales were true, anyway.

E should have wished for Ariel Doe to come back, Mily worried over his past-tense phrasing.

I think it’s the spirit that counts

Mily was mortified. She almost constantly forgot that Eyani could hear everything she thought.

You’re probly right, Mily apologized, trying not to make too big of deal out of it so her emotions wouldn’t show themselves in front of the rest of their party. It’s your wish anyways. Sorry E.

I bet it might still come true

I mean Esa’s was way worse’n mine so

Esa punched her Twin hard on the arm.

“There they go again!” Earn said. “Two of them always fight’n in their heads!”

The whole lot of them cracked up laughing.

Dog set to the task of cutting the cakes, and Bird fed him festive paper plates and then served everyone slices, and Mily angled to get hers last so she could steal away to her inner seat and say to the Clairs: Pipe down and keep your ears on the lookout for Ariel Doe – You know, in case she comes back.