Henry had left over an hour ago. Lisa had been playing in her room since then but she was becoming increasingly bored and hungry. She decided to venture down to the kitchen to find something to nibble. She wasn't sure what she wanted to eat so she opened all of the cupboards one by one.
'What are you looking for honey?' Annie said, looking over her shoulder as she tried to program the food synthesizer. 'Oh blast this thing. I don't know why it keeps making sweetcorn. I've punched in the codes for lamb casserole.'
Lisa scrunched up her nose and walked out into the hallway. She could hear Annie still mumbling and struggling with the food synthesizer behind her. Lisa knew how to program it to make candy. She had tried it once and she had got into a lot of trouble because it had spurted and spurted and just hadn't stopped. Pink candy had been all over the floor. Lisa giggled at the memory and walked out into the garden.
She was bored again. The house was a lot better than their last home, but it was so quiet without her mommy. Annie was always busy doing this and that. She wasn't much fun to play with anymore. She was always complaining that she didn't have enough time. She was starting to sound like mommy.
Nobody ever had any time to play with Lisa. She stuck her tongue out at the roses as she skipped across the lawn. Her mommy loved the roses more than she loved her. Lisa had snapped one of the roses off and thrown it behind the bushes and her mommy had asked her about it for days. Lisa had lied, telling her that she didn't know what had happened to it. She hadn't liked doing it, but she had felt better about it later.
When she reached the far end of the garden, she dropped down onto her knees on the grass, arranging her dress around her knees. A small tree gave a little shade where she sat, and the breeze felt cool against her skin. Lisa pulled some blades of grass from the lawn and twirled them around her fingers. She wished Willow man was still around to play with, but he had gone away again. She liked the gold star that he had worn around his neck. She liked Willow man too. He lied all the time. Not as much as Jenny Allpot, who Lisa had once met at a really boring birthday party, but almost as much as that.
Lisa began to hum a song to herself. She couldn't remember where she had heard it before. She seemed to remember quite a few songs lately. She tried to remember if her daddy had ever sung it to her but she didn't think he had. Nobody wanted to talk about daddy anymore. It made Lisa very sad. He had never brought the wooden flower that he had promised her for her birthday. Mommy had said he wasn't going to be able to bring her the flower anymore. He didn't mean to break his promises. It didn't mean that he didn't love her. Mommy always got sad when Lisa asked her about it. Lisa had stopped asking, but she hadn't stopped thinking about him. She was still waiting for her daddy to come home. She thought about him every day.
Lisa twisted a blade of grass between her fingers. It was a little pale. Annie had said that the grass wouldn't grow in the soil. The lawn had been grown on top of a thick mesh of synthetic soil. It had gravel in it, and something else that Lisa didn't understand. There were nutrient pipes underneath it. Sometimes she could feel them vibrating beneath her feet as the nutrients passed through them. She didn't understand all of it. She just liked to play on the grass with her mom - when she was around.
There were no other children to play with near her new house. Even boring Jenny wouldn't travel so far from the Old Quarter. Lisa slumped her shoulders and tried not to cry. The grass felt soft between her fingers. She curled it around each finger in turn. She had an urge to lift her hand but she wasn't sure why. She held it out in front of her and a small bird landed in her palm. Lisa squealed with delight. The bird was only just big enough to fill her small hand. Its black feet tickled her palm as it looked up at her with tiny black eyes that darted back and forth with curiosity. Lisa smiled back at it. Its feathers were mostly brown, but it had a bright blue patch just above its beak. It opened its mouth and tweeted a sharp, loud melody that filled the whole garden. Lisa held her palm open, listening to its song. It was singing the same song that she had been humming only a moment before. She wondered if the bird was copying her song, but then she realised that it had sung more of the song than she had hummed. Perhaps she had been copying the bird? Lisa giggled.
The bird sang louder, with increasing desperation. It fluttered its wings and stared into Lisa's eyes as it hopped about on her hand. Its song grew louder and louder, until its chest heaved with the effort of making so much noise. Lisa felt sad. She hummed along to the song but she could sense the nervousness in her own words. The bird was growing frantic and its eyes reflected the light that burned within her own. She felt warmth growing in her tummy. The grass seemed greener than ever before. Every blade moved in rhythm to the song. She hummed louder and louder, until she realised that she was mumbling words that she had never heard before. A stiff breeze swirled around her, stirring the grass at her feet. Lisa raised her voice and sang her song.
Gather around me,
we join as one.
In the waters you'll find me,
where memories once shone.
Life must be taken,
to strengthen the one,
who leads us from the broken path.
When the sky is dark, seek the birds,
Only they can find the fallen one.
Lisa felt suddenly calm. She stopped singing and looked down into the palm of her hand. The little bird lay dead on its side.