Germaine Street - Chapter SIx

Vincent peered at the camera “Am I centered?”

Abby assessed how her brother looked in the preview window, “go a little to the left Vince”

Vince did as bid until his little sister held up her hand and said “stop!” then gave a thumbs up.

“Cool, cool” Vince murmured while staring at his feet then looked the camera in the eye again, he smiled and nodded towards Abby.

Abby pressed play and nodded back.

“Hi, my name is Vincent Rirsen and this is the first video in a series that I’m making to educate people about the change” he walked over to the little table he’d set up, Abby followed his movement with the camera.

“I had a birthday two months ago” Vince continued “I’m now 12 and my birthday is just before the full moon, so this last birthday I got an extra present”. He picked up a framed photograph. Beneath the glass was a picture of a very young wolf with dark streaks around its eye that echoed the shade of Vincent’s hair.

“I got a dog!” Vince declared almost, but not quite, deadpan, before continuing “nah, I’m a werewolf as are my brothers” he held up a photo of the triplet’s in their identically tawny lupine forms, “my sister” Lizzie in all her midnight black, “and my parents”, Kitty and Tobias picture was actually their framed wedding set that Vince had swiped from the Den. The left hand pic was a symphony of early 2000s rental matrimonial wear while the right featured the young bonded pair in the garden of the wedding chapel. It was difficult to assess which image was the more embarrassingly staged; the fact that Kitty wore the same floral garland atop her head was an interesting touch.

“Most of these pics were taken by my little sister Abby”

“Hi!” Abby called from behind the camera.

“She’s too little for the change so she was able to take photos”

Vincent held up one last picture, a group shot. In the middle of the shot sat Abby in one of her favourite outfits while her family surrounded her like a mass of predatory throw pillows.

“Except this one, this was taken by my mom’s best friend. Thanks Aunty L’leth”

“We love you Aunty L’leth!” Abby added her own commentary to the scene.

“Yeah” Vincent continued, “so Dad told me about the change before it happened the first time, which was cool, but then I wanted to see if there were any videos about the change and couldn’t find any, so I thought I’d make some”.

“And cut!” Abigale switched the camera off.

“I think it should be good” Vincent sat on his bed and indicated that his little sister should hand over the camera. “I’m gonna do a bit more and then we’ll capture the whole process, people are going to love it!”

Abby shrugged and made “I dunno” sounds. Abby just liked being involved with her most creative brother’s projects.

“Yeah, it’s going to be good, thanks Abby”

“I’m gonna look around the street; maybe the new people will be around”

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Silphie Vaudan sat on the front porch of her new house, reading one of the twenty books she’d stuffed into a bag during packing at the old place. The rest of her reading material sat in boxes in the room she shared with her sister Ekatarine but she’d yet to unpack them. The new place had built in bookshelves which was a new and exciting experience; for Silphie at least.

The book she was currently reading was a history of the town to which her parents had moved them. It had arrived a week before the move and was written in possibly the worst kind of overblown prose Silphie had read in her 13 and a quarter years, fairly typical for a human’s account of her folks in other words. Still, it was worth a giggle or three.

“Whatcha laughing at?”

“Aaaaaahhhhh!” Silphie jumped enough at the sound of the voice to dislodge her glasses. Locating them and refocusing she saw a girl a few years younger than herself standing on the steps to the porch.

“My name’s Abby, what’s yours? Ooh, ooh and what do you do with your glasses when you do The Change?”

“That's a lot of questions Abby,” Silphie said as she stood up and approached the younger girl “My name is Silphie. The book is a silly human thing that makes me laugh because they’re always so scared of us when we’re so not scary it’s funny. And the glasses aren’t an issue because, so far I haven’t made the change except on the three core days and on those I wear contacts”

Something about her glasses bothered her so Silphie removed them and held them up to the light. She breather onto the lenses and used the hem of her tee shirt to polish them “I might start wearing contacts more but I’ve only done the change a few times so I'm not sure i want to change more than I have to”

Abby weighed this information before nodding, “makes sense”.

“Now, I think my mom will have finished with breakfast, wanna come meet my sisters and brother?”

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Silphie carefully opened the door and ushered Abby inside. “Mom is probably in the Kitchen with a few of my sisters, my little brother too I would think”. There was a commotion from deeper within the house and a large mass of golden and silver fur burst towards the girls.

The wolf was around the same size as Abby’s father or Lizzie when they had done The Change she estimated but a lot more boisterous than either of them. He bounced around like an excitable dog as Silphie petted him and tried to engender a modicum of calm in him.

“Abby, I’d like you to meet my dad, Daddy, this is Abby, she lives across the street”

The wolf padded over to Abby and gave a slight play bow and allowed her to pet him between the ears. “Hello,” Abby said as Silphie’s father swished his tail happily, she looked over the wolf’s form at her new friend and mouthed “is he always like this?”

Silphie nodded before continuing “Is Mom in the kitchen Daddy?”

The wolf turned to look at his daughter and gave a nod.

“K, let’s go talk to her, c’mon” and with that the girl proceeded into the house with the wolf and Abby following behind.

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Anji Vaudan nursed a cup of acorn coffee at the kitchen table. She’d ensured all of her children were fed and set to tasks around the house. She wasn’t entirely sure they would do those tasks but it didn’t hurt to provide them.

Anji yawned, wider than anyone who thought she was a slightly built petite human would have expected, and stretched. The Core Days were getting closer and that meant she was becoming a lot looser around her joints as well as feeling more, restless? Pent up? Anji couldn’t put her finger on the right description but her muscles felt the need to be stretched beyond normal.

As Anji brought her arms back and reached for her coffee mug she felt the arms of her youngest daughter encircle her shoulders and Silphie kiss her on top of her head. “I want you to meet someone Mom”

Anji turned to see her daughter, husband and a girl a little younger than Silphie. “Momma this is Abbey, she lives across the street…”

“Oh...Oh!” Anji extended her hand for Abbey to shake “Pleased to meet you Abbey, I hope our families can be friends”.