Germaine Street - Chapter One

It started as a smell. No, that’s too concrete a description, it started as a scent. Not quite perceptible but enough to set Kitty Rirsen’s concentration off track. She had been in the middle of prepping the whitetail chili when she began to, well, “notice” was perhaps putting it too strongly but something felt..off. The fine hairs that had run down her spine the last few days bristled unbidden, Kitty was glad that it wasn’t closer to the core days.

It wasn’t a bad scent; yes Kitty would definitely call it that now, it circled her but only because it was filling the kitchen, the house and, she knew, the whole of Germaine Street, it wasn’t one of those directed scents, that Kitty knew for sure. Whatever the source, they, singular or, and Kitty knew that it was going to be this, plural, were simply giving off the, ah, now she could describe it as a smell. Kitty wondered if they were as aware of her as she was of them.

Time would tell, about an hour, two at the most, Kitty estimated, yes time would tell, but perhaps she didn’t have to wait for time…

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“Lizzie” Kitty addressed her eldest’s bedroom door but elicited no answer. Knocking again, Kitty lowered the pitch of her voice slightly and added a touch of the old steppes vocal magic. “Lizzie, you’ve been sleeping all day, you can go back to sleep after we talk”.

Behind the door, the sounds of an exceptionally tall 17 year old girl could be heard, unwinding herself from whatever state of semi sleep she’d been hovering in.

“What is it Mother?” the respectful phrasing did little to disguise the irritation at being woken.

“Open the door and I’ll tell you”

“You can tell me through the door; it’s not like any of us have bad hearing”

Kitty felt the annoyance prickle, like usual, at the corners of her mouth and eyes, but she tamped those feelings down and decided to try a different tactic.

“Little Girl” Kitty tapped the rhythm of the words out as she spoke them “Little Girl, let me in”. This had always made Lizzie laugh, even when she’d been barely weaned. Which was why now Kitty could hear the slight chuckle from her daughter. Kitty made her voice gruffer, “Little Girl, Little Girl, Let Me In”

The door opened wide enough for Lizzie to pop her head out.

“Not by the hair on your chinny chin chin” the girl declared then stuck her tongue out before opening the door a little wider and stepping into the hallway. “What’s the urgent question Mom?”

Kitty smiled at the fact her callback to Lizzie’s earliest days had worked, “First of all, do you smell that?”

Lizzie tilted her head to one side and raised her eyebrows, “you want to maybe clue me as to which of several smells I should be confirmi...oh, oh yeah!”

“Yeah” Kitty stepped closer, “you know anything about that?”

“How would, why would I?”

“I thought maybe, if there were new folk in town, you might be aware of them via other methods than me”

Lizzie shook her head “No, I don’t, I haven’t seen anything about it at least, maybe it’s just tourists?”

“Could be, but they’re coming this way. It’s not like we live in the middle of town”

“They’re” Lizzie sniffed deeply, “30? 35? Miles away”

“Very good!” Kitty knew praise was always appreciated, “it’s closer to 40 but I’m genuinely impressed” it didn’t do to let Lizzie get over confident.

“Whatevs” Lizzie shrugged “that’s a lot of miles to turn in a different direction”

“You could be right, and you really haven’t heard of anyone new?”

“I swear”

“You think the triplets might?”

“I doubt it...Dad might tho”

“I suppose, but he’s taking a nap in the den, not sure I should wake him just yet”

“Huh, imagine, being woken from a nap, that would be bothersome”

Kitty suppressed a chuckle “fair enough, you can go back to your bed, dinner is going to be ready around five. It’s whitetail, I know you like that”

“I doaaaaaawwwrnnn” Lizzie didn’t even try to disguise her yawn “I’ll be down then, love you mom” and with that she opened her bedroom door the same slight bit more than ajar and slipped back inside.

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Tobias Rirsen gazed across the landscape; beneath the rocky crest he could see the caribou grazing. Easy pickings. He stood up and padded over to another spot on the ridge. That’s when he spotted what he was seeking. A young male, perhaps a year from joining in the natural rites of adulthood, had wandered away from the herd. Bingo, Tobias felt the sense of previctory buoy his confidence as he eased closer.

The young male was oblivious to his fate as he explored the fallen snow for tender things to eat, quite unaware that he was himself, a tender thing to eat. Tobias knew it was only a matter of time before...and there it was, the ears twitched, the nostrils flared and suddenly an easy kill became a fun challenge.

The deer was unclear about where the threat lay but it was on full alert now. It slowly, Tobias was tempted to think of it as nonchalantly tried to make its way back to the herd. This was precisely why Tobias had placed himself in the intervening gap. The cold of the snow cut through all the insulation to the skin of Tobias’ belly, keeping his attention sharp and honed.

Any second now, any...second...NOW; there was a twitch shift and the deer bolted, barreling towards the others and straight across the spot where Tobias lay, or had lain. Tobias was, in fact, now on his feet and running at an interception angle and speed.

Caribou are big, not big in the greater scheme of things but bracingly massive to run into at speed. The collision had dazed Tobias the first few times and he had lost his quarry, which had not pleased his Grandfather in the slightest. That however was back when he was younger. Now his body unconsciously braced and he enjoyed the feeling of the collision. Playing football in school and college while supplementing that with Rugby and, once or twice, Aussie Rules, had helped, despite the shape of those collisions being somewhat different.

The deer reacted to the shock of the crash with confusion and an unsteady stance which only aided Tobias. A quick glance in the direction of the herd confirmed that they were still unaware of the struggle one of their members was destined to lose.

Tobias felt the growl before he heard it, staring into the wide eyes of dinner he gave the deer a small shove until it lay on its side, exposing its throat. Tobias knew he could relish this moment but instead delivered the coup de grace.

It came as a shock therefore when the deer turned its lifeless head on the ruined structures of its neck and said, in a voice Tobias would recognize anywhere, “Sweetie, are you sleeping?”

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Tobias’ eyes opened to see Kitty’s face inches above his, her smile was genuine but he could tell his wife had something on her mind.

“Were you dreaming about reindeer again?”

“Caribou” Tobias muttered, the sleep still clinging to his faculties a little.

“Oh, so no Rudolph steak in dreamland, hmm, you make very similar sounds for both though”

“Probably” Tobias closed the gap between their faces and kissed his wife, “And to what do I owe this interruption in my hunting.”

“Oh I just wondered if you knew of any new folk coming to town, you know, out of curiosity.”

“People come to town all the time Kit” Tobias paused, pulled himself up to a sitting position and sniffed “Oh! Right, that was today! I lost track of dates, yeah, sorry meant to tell you, we’re getting neighbors” he paused again and breathed in deeper “In about 25 minutes I’d say”

“Oh, nice people are they?”

“I, I don’t know Kitty, none of them have any sort of record that I’m aware of if that helps”

“A little; what are they called?”

“The, the” Tobias shook his head to get the remnants of sleep to clear his synapses and bring back the residency application for the house two lots over on the opposite side of Germaine Street from theirs “the Vaudans”

“Hmm” Kitty’s face wrinkled in a way Tobias knew and found adorable.

“I’m sure they are perfectly terrific, their eldest is a Lawyer and they have a fairly typical sized family for us, it’ll be fine, I promise”

At that the sound of a moving truck lift gate touching down on the sidewalk made itself known.

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Across the street the movers were busy at work, bringing large boxes and their smaller brethren from the truck, as well as the occasional unboxed item. The smell was all encompassing now and despite it not being unpleasant, Kitty could feel her hackles rising in response. Tobias’s hand on her shoulder and the small of her back brought that response a little under her control again.

“It’s okay Baby” Tobias made smoothing motions along his wife’s shoulders and spine, causing Kitty to instinctually lean into them.

“I don’t think much of their taste in decor” Kitty grumbled “seems pretty trashy if you ask me”

Tobias kissed his missus on the top of her head “I’m sure you’re right, but not everyone has taste like you my darling” something caught his attention “Oh, and I think that’s them”

A minivan had pulled up in close proximity to the truck and now several kids were getting out. There were, as it turned out, eight in total, ranging in age from a boy about the same age as Abigale to a set of twin girls who looked to be maybe a couple of years older than Lizzie. They milled about as their mother fiddled with something in the back of the van.

That something turned out to be large, golden silver of coat and energetic as he bounded over to the children, all of who showered him with petting and, while the words were indistinct, the praise they conveyed was obvious.

“So” Tobias whispered in Kitty’s ear despite there being no one else in the room “you think that’s their pet or…”

Kitty glanced over to where The Calendar hung, “Not sure, could be”

Kitty could sense the smirk on her husband’s lips as he continued “I mean, you remember those parties in college…”

Kitty did indeed, rather fondly as it happened, but she affected a look of offended sensibility and playfully elbowed her husband, “You. Are. Such. A. Perv Tobias Rirsen!”

“And you love it” Tobias retorted before lightly licking his wife’s ear.

“Enough of that!” Kitty wanted to stay focused, which meant a subject change “in any case, my most enduring takeaway from college is asleep upstairs...honey, is she sleeping too much? I don’t remember sleeping that much when I was her age”

“Who? El? Nah, she’s a growing girl, she needs her rest”

“If she grows anymore we’ll need a custom bed”

“She takes after her Great Grandmothers, that’s all”

“We better hope the triplets or Vincent don’t take after their Great Grandpas” Kitty contemplated the thought, “especially the triplets”.

“If they do I guess I’ll just take up woodwork as a hobby” Kitty knew Tobias was teasing her as he said that but it wasn’t the worst plan, she returned her full attention to the street. The minivan was there but its occupants had all entered the house, even the movers were absent, installing some of the horrible framed art Kitty thought with half hearted venom.

“You think I should say hello?” Tobias asked

“Not yet, but I could use some mushrooms to go with dinner, think you could go get those?”

“Whatever you so desire my darling” Tobias gave his wife an all encompassing hug and headed out of the room, Kitty heard him calling Vince to see if he wanted to ride along, only to be answered by Abigale instead.

Wandering over to The Calendar, Kitty looked closely at the cycle. Three days till waxing gibbous, she sighed, well this was going to be interesting.

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Chapter Two Coming Soon