Mockingbird

A Big Turn

A Spin-Off

~Mockingbird~

*Warning: Characters May Be Completely Different*

A young Zara sat on the floor of her family’s room playing with the new dolls her mother had just bought her earlier that year. Her hair was in two small puff balls at the sides of her head. She wore her favorite pink dress. Her eyes were large and innocent and she viewed the world as a safe place.

Zara’s mother was in the kitchen on the phone but her eagle eyes were on her daughter. Her hair was enviously straight and easy to manage. She wore a summer dress with flip-flops. Her even dark skin was passed on to her daughter.

“No, Lorie,” she said to the woman on the phone, “she hasn’t shown her powers yet. I know she’s only five but even Derik was causing us trouble at that age. Try giving a kid a lightning bolt. We had to change out the lights all the time. I guess you’re right. I’m sure she has the gene. I’d just hate for it to only activate when she dies. I should relax but I can’t! I’m a mother! No, it’s alright, Lorie. I’ll see you at church. Bye. Hey Derik, come down stairs! Dinners almost ready!”

There was a thudding sound as Derik, a teenager, ran down the stairs. Zara looked over at the mouth of the stairs and smiled as her brother came over to her.

“You hear that? Dinners almost ready! I’m starving!” he said.

“You’re always starving,” his mother said.

“You’re always starving,” Zara mimicked.

Derik, dressed in baggy pants, shirt and hat, looked at his sister, “You don’t even know what starving means.”

“It means I’m hungry!” Zara defined.

Mother laughed, “That’s good enough for me.”

“Where’s dad?” Derik asked.

“He said he’ll be home soon. Got caught up in traffic,” she said as the front door opened.

“I’m home,” came the voice that Zara loved to hear.

“Hey dad!”

“Daddy!”

“Hey, Hun,” mother set the final dish on the table, “Just in time for dinner.”

The whole family gathered into the kitchen. Father kissed his wife on the cheek to spare the children this public display of affection. They sat in their respective seats. After saying the Lord’s Prayer, they started their meal.

“How was work, Hun?”

“It was like the usual. There has been a rush on the Wilkinson case so that took up most of my time. How about you?”

“Stayed home with the kids, went shopping, the usual. Oh, Derik got an ‘A’ on that project he’s been working on for a month.”

“Hey, I was going to tell him!”

“Well, you can tell me the details!” he looked at his wife again, “Has there been any more trouble?”

“You mean the Johnson’s? Mrs. Johnson saw me in the supermarket and gave me the most fighting of glares. I understand that there are some people out there that just won’t accept our kind, but we have been nothing but helpful to this neighborhood, Ray. You go down to the community center once a week and I help organize events whenever I have time. We’re just as human as they are.”

“I know, Jan.”

Zara, being five, wasn’t sure what they were talking about but knew that when they started calling each other by their names that it was serious.

Ray looked around the table and smiled, “At least we have each other; the Uzek’s!” he nodded.

That received smiles all around. Then there was a knock on the door. Ray squinted at the door as he whipped his mouth with his napkin. He stood up and headed for the door.

“Who is it?” Ray asked.

“It’s your neighbor,” Mr. Johnson answered.

With an unhappy attitude, Ray opened the door. There was a sudden bang. Zara looked toward the door and saw her father falling to the ground, red liquid flowing from the gaping hole in his belly. Jan stood up and screamed. Mr. Johnson came around the door, a large shot gun in his hand. He raised up his weapon. Derik grabbed Zara and fell to the ground. Jan ducked in time as the bullet sailed by her and struck the cabinets behind her.

Her protective instincts kicked in and she ran up to Mr. Johnson and his gun. She grabbed at the gun and tried to pull the weapon from him.

“Take your sister up stairs, now!” she screamed over her shoulder.

Derik grabbed Zara and carried her up the stairs. Mr. Johnson wrenched his weapon free from Jan’s grasp. The force caused Jan to fall to the ground. There was a deafening bang as the gun went off. Derik reached the top of the stairs.

He ran with his sister to his room, only stopping to grab the hallway phone. Mr. Johnson was making his way up the stairs. Derik threw Zara into his room and slammed the door. He then dragged his dresser to barricade the door. Zara started crying and Derik ran back toward her. He guided her to the sliding door in his room. There was a small balcony there on the second floor. He looked over the edge. There was an open garbage container beneath them. The door to his room banged loudly.

He handed the phone to Zara, “Zara, I need you to dial 9-1-1. I’ll be right back.” he tried to sound as calm as possible.

Zara’s fingers slowly found the numbers and dialed them accordingly. Her brother ran back into his room and grabbed the sheets off his bed. He came back; the door and dresser were shaking violently.

“Hello, what is you emergency?” said the operator on the other end.

Derik took the phone and set it in between his shoulder and his ear. He started tying one of the sheets under Zara’s arms, “We need someone here. There is a maniac with a gun in my house.”

“What is the address?”

“5025 Willow Lane,” Derik finished a firm not in the cloth. He stood, picked Zara up and set her on the railing, “He’s banging on my door. He’s about to get in.”

“It’s alright. We’ve sent out the police. Where are your parents, son?”

“I don’t know, dead I think. He has a shot gun. His name is Mr. Johnson.”

“Just stay hidden until the police get there. Do you hear them now?”

Derik could hear the sirens of the police cars but they were still a ways off, “I gotta get my sister out of here.”

“You’re sister?”

“She’s too young to jump so I’m using my bed sheets to her down easy,” he looked at his sister. He wrapped the other end of the blanket around his arm, “You see the garbage can? You’re going to go down easy in there, okay?”

Zara looked, tears blurring her vision. She held on to the railing as her brother leaned over the edge to help her down on the other side. Once her feet were firmly on the small ledge on the other side of the metal railing, he told her to step off the edge and that he would hold her with the blanket. The door was almost off its hinges now and the dresser had been pushed into the room by the force of the knocking.

Derik smiled the best he could. Things were quickly spiraling toward the worst. There had to be a way to make things better but he didn’t know how. He started singing the best he could over the banging, Zara’s crying and the sirens coming, “Hush, little Zara, don’t say a work. Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird—”

Zara looked up at him. The progress was slow and the whole ordeal was frightening but the sound of her brother’s voice was comforting.

“—if that mockingbird don’t sing, mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring turns brass—”

Mr. Johnson Derik’s voice rang out from the other side of the door, “You don’t belong here you pieces of #$%#!”

“Derik’s gonna buy you a looking glass,” he continued, “If that looking glass gets broke, then we’ll have to buy you a Billy goat.”

She was halfway already and for a moment everything felt right in the world. There was no one banging on the door. Her mother and father were alive and in the living room. She was accepted for being who she was. Zara smiled up at her brother and he smiled back. Tears had started rolling down his cheeks.

“If that Billy goat don’t pull, papa’s gonna buy you a cart and bull. If that cart and bull turns over—”

The hinges on the door were squeaking and the door was almost completely open.

“Mama’s gonna buy you a doggie named Rover. If that dog named Rover don’t bark, Derik’s gonna buy you a horse and cart.”

Zara landed in the trash filled dumpster. Yes, it was a less than glamorous place but it was safe. Derik rested his arms on the railing and looked down at her. He let go of the other end of the blanket and it fell like a protective barrio around her. The tears were really flowing from his eyes now. He placed the phone down and finished the song. The door barged open and Mr. Johnson caught sight of Derik. He raised his gun to shoot. By the time Mr. Johnson entered the room, Derik already knew the outcome.

He looked at Zara and after a shuddering sigh he said, “And if that horse and cart fall down, you’ll always be the bravest, dearest Zara around.”

Then the gun went off.