Sometimes Feathers, chapter 2

Chapter 2
Crab Meadow


    Fenton could not wait to see what would be in the adjacent room. There were special wonders all over the house. Telescopes of all sizes and shapes, some long, like a pirate’s, some so small, they could fit in your pocket. There were others, much larger, that were on great metal tripods, with lenses wider than manhole covers. Fenton had read about telescopes, but had never had the privilege of using one. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on one of them, he imagined the incredible sights he would be able to see. At the time he had no idea how incredible those sights would be. He imagined being able to see planets, and perhaps the man on the moon. With thoughts drifting towards being able to see into far off lands, like France and England. He even thought he would be able to see his old neighborhood, and think how happy he was that he wasn’t there.

  The afternoon went by slowly, as Fenton wondered when he was going to be able to see his new room, as well as the arrival of his father.  Mrs. Wagonblast gone upstairs, and was making quite the racket, Fenton and his mother sat on the porch listening to the radio, awaiting his father and Uncle Jasper. With Bette slowly swinging in the chair, Fenton lying on the porch with a pencil and a drawing pad. He spent the afternoon drawing pictures of the sights he imagined he would soon be able to see. In the middle of his second drawing of the man on the moon, a cloud of dust could be seen coming up the road to the house. Fenton, was very excited to see his father, but also very afraid. He was afraid of seeing his father as less than he was, handicapped in only the limitations of silence.

  Uncle Jasper got out of the big car, and walked to the other side. Fenton still hadn’t seen his father standing, and wondered if he could. Uncle Jasper opened the door and a leg swung out, followed by another, and then the rest of his father stood up, and Fenton was very happy to see that. He looked up as his father walked over, not the same confident walk that he had before, but still strong on his feet, not the least sense of a wobble. Fenton looked up and saw the large bandage still around his father’s neck and wondered if Uncle Jasper had fixed him already. He took a step towards his father and looked up and asked him, “Well, can you?” His father looked down with a saddened look on his face, and slowly shook his head.

  Dewitt reached Bette and they embraced, hugging for what seemed to be a full half hour to Fenton. Uncle Jasper leaned down to Fenton’s ear and whispered. “He will be fine, soon you will be able to talk to him, and he to you. I need you to be patient though my boy. I am going to have to keep him in the medical building for a few days alone.” Fenton wondered why his father would have to be kept alone. “Why can’t I see him? I won’t ask him to talk, promise.” Fenton said as convincingly as he could. But Uncle Jasper replied, “no my boy, it isn’t you, it would be him, he has to be alone to resist all temptation for a few days”. Uncle Jasper was very stern in announcing this. Fenton was disappointed, but he would do his best to do anything he could for his father.

  Uncle Jasper then spent about fifteen minutes explaining everything to his sister in great detail. “Jasper, you can’t use that, it will never work!” Fenton, far off had no idea what they were saying before. This was the first thing that he understood, and it caught his attention. “Jasper, a mechanical device, from a jack-in-the-box, don’t be ridiculous.” Bette was in state of mind somewhere between disbelief and angry, with a slight bit of bewilderment.  His mother went on, now addressing Dewitt. “You know about this? You know what he plans to do to you?” Dewitt just nodded his answer. “I can’t believe that you will let him do this to you? Bette asked him loudly. Fenton, in a way, saw this as an amusing way. The three breasted woman winning an argument with the silent man. His parents did not argue often, rarely even disagreed. But when they did, his father was always the won that seemed to get his way.

  He just stared at her softy, while she was questioning his judgment. Right into her eyes, never wavering, never showing any emotion other than how badly he wanted to be able to answer her back. She couldn’t help but to lock eyes with him, and once she did, she understood. She leaned towards and clutched him close, uncomfortably pressed into Bette’s extras. His father held his mother just as tight, they kissed gently, and Uncle Jasper led Dewitt into the small dome shaped building about fifty yards from the main house. Fenton wondered what was in all the buildings; there were six of them, other than the main house.

  After his father was lead off into what Uncle Jasper referred to as the medical building. Fenton looked out at what was once a farm, and noticed the buildings in detail for the first time. The medical building, being dome shaped, and flesh colored in appearance, now to Fenton looked like a breast, an extra breast, amidst all the other buildings. That is where Fenton imagined his mother had got hers. He wondered, if because it was shaped that way, everyone might come out with an extra one. He first thought it was funny, imagining his father with a boob. But then he realized the horror he would face, the silent man with one boob and he walking down the street, while fingers pointed and people laughed.

  Fenton looked off at some of the other buildings, there was one that was circular and looked to him to be a giant hatbox. Another was triangular shaped, and halfway up, turned into glass. Beyond that, was what looked to Fenton to be just a regular house, although much smaller than the main one. There was another that was half the height of a regular house, only about 3 feet above the ground, with an entrance that led down. And finally the furthest from the main house, was the one that looked most mysterious to Fenton. It was half on the land and half over the water, built on pilings stuck in the water.


  Mrs. Wagonblast then approached and informed Fenton and Bette that it was time to come inside, dinner would be ready shortly, and that they should come in and wash up. They turned, Bette leaned down to put a hand on small Fenton’s shoulder. He helped out by reaching up his hand to meet hers, so she wouldn’t have to walk all stooped over. They headed towards the porch and into the house when something on the side of the porch caught Fenton’s eye. Some movement and a patch of fur. Fenton couldn’t believe what he thought he saw.  A cat wearing a small cap that resembled that of a cab driver. Fenton shook his head, to clear his eyes as he strode toward the cat. The cat turned towards Fenton, it’s mouth moved as if to mew, but this is what Fenton heard, a cross between a scratchy doll’s voice, and a cat. “Meowr me-are you? Mmmrr-I prr am  prrr-Krinks meeoww, prrrr”.

  “Fenton” he muttered without even realizing that he was answering the cat. His eyes wide with amazement, “You talk” he stammered incredulously. Krinks replied, “Mmmruv course-prrrr, mmmron’t prrr you? I mmme-ave to prrret going prrr-see mme-u meowaround.” And with a shake of his tail, disappeared under the porch. Fenton whispered ‘goodbye’ and followed his mother into the house.

  He waited outside the bathroom while his mother washed for dinner. As he stood there his imagination ran wild. A talking cat, that sounded like it swallowed a talking doll, the kind that you pull the string.  But he knew the dolls were too big to fit inside a cat. He also knew the cat was actually talking to him, not just repeating what would be heard when a dolls string was pulled. He was also wearing a cap, what business a cat would have wearing a cap, Fenton didn’t understand. The door opened with Fenton still staring at the wall in deep thought about Krinks. His mother reached down and tapped his shoulder,”okay mister, your turn, and don’t get lost in there”, Bette warned. “Dinner is just about ready, and you don’t want Mrs. Wagonblast to have to wait. That would be rude”. “I won’t mom, I’ll only be a minute”, Fenton promised his mother.

  Bette walked off towards the dining area, as Fenton closed the door behind him. The first thing that he noticed was that the faucets appeared to be much smaller than he was used to, almost as if they were made for a person of his size. The next thing that he noticed was the high shelf next to a giant bathtub, the biggest tub he had ever seen, it looked like at least five people could fit in lengthwise, and it was at least three feet deep. The shelf went from the floor to the ceiling and was filled with jars bearing exotic and mysterious labels. Some even had skulls and crossbones on them. Fenton knew better than to touch any of those, but it might not hurt to look at them.

  Fenton got closer to the shelves, he could only see the two bottom shelves. He didn’t understand any of the names on the bottles. Things like borixium, mystiape, thingalingumungus, frogdophinia, giantsiziniate, and larynxathopiceary. He stood there, wanting to see up a little higher, but he couldn’t, not with being a little bit shorter than small. That’s when he noticed that there appeared to be movement inside the bottle labeled cosmosixziaria. He lifted the bottle up off the shelf with both hands, the bottle was very large, but felt very light to his hands. Inside he could see miniature stars swirling about, amidst what looked like tiny planets, no larger than a baby’s pinky fingernail, but glowing brightly in the dark liquid. It was then that Fenton heard his call in to see what he was up to. He quickly placed the jar back into its original position on the shelf and yelled, “Coming Mom”. He stood on the wooden box left in front of the sink, quickly ran his hands under some cold water, and purposely left them wet, so that his mother would see.

  At the dinner table in the dining area, sat his mother. “Sit down dear, Mrs. Wagonblast just went in to get the roast”. Bette looked down at her small boy and told him, “Please don’t make any faces at your food, Mrs. Wagonblast worked hard on dinner”. Fenton knew he was a fussy eater, there weren’t a lot of things that he liked. He wasn’t fond of any vegetable except for corn, and meat had to be done just right. He didn’t know why he was so particular about it, he just was. His eyes widened as Mrs. Wagonblast staggered into the dining room with a great big domed silver tray and placed it at the center of the table.

  She vanished again, and appeared as fast as she had left with another tray filled with large bowls. As she placed the bowls on the table, Fenton saw before his eyes a big bowl of mashed potatoes, his favorite. A bowl of creamed corn, while not his preferred method of ingesting corn, he would still eat it. The next bowl was full of a strange looking bean. Something he had never seen before, they were all shades of pastel colors, and shaped similar to large peas. The remaining bowl was filled with gravy. Now Fenton wondered what type of meat would be going with this gravy. He hoped it would be pot roast, something that was always to his liking, because it was always well done. As Mrs. Wagonblast lifted the lid from the tray, Fenton’s eyes opened wide to something he never saw before. A giant goose was in the center of the platter, surrounded by apples and pears. The thing that he could not lift his eyes from, the goose was still wearing its entire neck and head!

  His mother glanced towards Fenton and seeing his face, gently nudged him under the table with her foot. This caught him off guard, and he nearly tumbled off of the pile of books that he sitting on. He caught himself and slowly righted himself to balance again. “Why, Mrs. Wagonblast, what a delicious looking dinner. I haven’t had a roast goose for some time”. Bette stated matter of factly. “Oh dear, let’s stop the formality, please call me Winnie. We are almost like family” and Mrs. Wagonblast turned to Fenton and said, “and you, you may call me Auntie Winnie”. “Okay Winnie” Bette started, “and you should call me Bette”. Fenton asked, “Auntie Winnie, what is that?” as he pointed to the goose. “And why does it still have his neck?” “Fenton honey, don’t be rude,” his mother offered. “Oh my, don’t be frightened by the neck dear. Jasper, I mean Dr. Nystrom prefers it that way/ He loves the neck, if it were up to me, I would leave it off too”. Fenton could not even think of anything at the moment that he would rather not eat, other than a gooseneck.

  A few moments later, Uncle Jasper bounced through the door. “Grand!’ he shouted, “The goose looks delicious! I will wash up and be back in a jiffy. I can’t wait to get my hands around that neck!” And off he shuffled down the hall to the bathroom to wash up. He was indeed back in a jiffy. Fenton thought to himself that Uncle Jasper must have washed up in the same manner as he. Uncle Jasper sat down at the head of the table as Mrs. Wagonblast got out the knife and started to carve the goose as his mother prepared the rest his plate. Please he thought to himself, no bean and no goose. No beans and no goose, no chance. His mother mounded what he thought to be a small mountain of the Easter colored beans onto his plate. Two slabs of the dark fleshed goose shortly followed this. His stomach tightened inside as he thought of his impending meal.

  His plate was placed in front of him, he found himself forcing himself to not make a face, when the smell wafted up around his face. “Wow”, he thought to himself, “it smells almost like a carnival”. He couldn’t quite place the smell, but it was familiar and not something that was objectionable to him. The goose still didn’t look to him like it was anything that he wanted anywhere near his mouth though. “Winnie makes a great goose!” Uncle Jasper announced. “And the candybeans are straight from my greenhouse.” “What’s a candybean?” Fenton asked, exchanging looks between the bowl filled with the large purple, pink, and minty green looking large peas and Uncle Jasper. “Those?” he asked while pointing to the bowl. “Yes, those are them! I finally was able to get my hybridization process perfected last year.” Jasper said proudly. “What’s highbridgestation?” Fenton asked, still staring at the bowl.

  “It is when you try to cross more than one thing into one thing” Uncle Jasper explained. “This is the result of years of crossbreeding between sugar cane, sweet pea flowering vines, and kidney beans” he went on, “they taste a little like Crackerjacks”. Fenton couldn’t believe what he heard. “The candy” he asked, he didn’t know of any other Cracker Jack. “Yes, Fenton, the one and only! Now dig in, I have a lot to do this evening”.

  Fenton was now excited to start his meal, he still wasn’t thrilled with the goose on his plate. That’s when Mrs. Wagonblast got the knife out again, and cut the goose’s neck off at what would be his shoulder, if indeed a goose does have shoulders. She then passed it to Uncle Jasper, who marveled at the sight of it. “AAAhh, the neck, where so much can happen, the center for transmitting sound”. Fenton wasn’t sure what this meant, but he was enjoying his meal that is until he realized that he hadn’t had any goose yet. The beans were as described, Fenton had never eaten beans before without a long struggle, and since then, his mother had abandoned from the struggle of making him eat anything he didn’t like. He finally brought himself to try a small piece of the goose. He raised it to his lips, and paused, he saw his mother gazing towards him and nod. He spiked it into his mouth. Fenton expecting the taste of roast animal in his mouth was pleasantly stunned. It tasted just like chocolate! Warm, and sort of chewy, but just like chocolate! He dug into the mashed potatoes, they were like no other potato he had ever tasted, they tasted like warm vanilla ice cream. Excitedly and not knowing what to expect, he gathered a forkful of the creamed corn and shoved it into his mouth. He was a little surprised, it tasted just like, corn.

  He watched his mother’s face from across the table, she was going through the same thing as he. Her face filled with wonder after each bite. “You may have noticed that things don’t taste like what you are used to”. Uncle Jasper explained. “I have spent the last number of years working on ways to make foods more appealing. Things to taste not as what they seem, but still containing the basic nutrition that they would normally provide”. Uncle Jasper continued, “Through careful experiments, and years of practice and patience, I have come up with ways of putting many things together. The better parts of certain things, while getting rid of the bad, and combining them with another useful trait from something else”. Uncle Jasper was excited now, talking about his inventions. “What about Krinks?” Fenton blurted out. “Who is Krinks?” his mother wanted to know.
“You met Krinks did you Fenton?” Uncle Jasper gave a wry smile. “Yes, he is a dear friend that was in need. He is a bit mischievous though Fenton. You shouldn’t spend too much time around him. He stays to himself mostly, so you shouldn’t have anything to worry about”. “Who is this Krinks, Jasper?” his mother asked her brother. “He isn’t dangerous is he?” as she placed her hand on her forehead. “No, he isn’t at all dangerous, and he is a cat, Bette, a cat”. “A cat that talks” Fenton added quickly.