Flutterby - A Fragment Found on My Hard Drive

Flutterby

by Erin Halfelven

When the package from his aunt arrived two days after his birthday, Niall assumed that she had remembered and that his present had just gotten lost in shipping. The letter that accompanied the small box confused him.

"Dear Niall," it read. "Here's hoping that enough of the family heritage lives in you for this to be useful. Love, your Aunt Lea."

Family heritage? He had no idea what that meant. As far as he knew the only thing he had inherited from his parents was strawberry blond hair, blue eyes and shortness. At just turned fifteen, he had not yet reached five-foot-tall being just four-foot-ten and at that, he was half an inch taller than his mother, Bea.

"Do you know what she means by this, Ma?" he asked over lunch. 

"Not a clue," said Bea. "You going to open that now or wait till after school?"

"Um, now, I guess. Otherwise, I'll be wondering all afternoon what it is." Not very many kids lived close enough to the high school to come home for lunch, or also had stay-at-home moms to fix a meal for them. To Niall, it sometimes turned into a mixed blessing. A good hot lunch was always nice but it kept him from being there for lunchtime socializing at the school.

The small package might contain something like an iPhone but seemed more likely to be a book. An iPhone would be more than he could expect for a birthday present from an aunt he seldom saw.

Aunt Lea was his mother's nine minutes younger twin sister, non-identical, though they did look alike. Personality-wise, they could hardly be more different.

Bea had married right out of high school, had Niall and settled down in her husband's hometown. Harold Penworth, Niall's father, who had once aspired to be a jockey, died before his son turned two in a freakish accident, a state van transporting prisoners had gone off an overpass into traffic. 

The insurance settlement, put into a trust, provided a living for Bea and Niall without Bea having to work outside the house. She designed and sewed custom children's costumes and Niall had frequently been her sewing dummy when he was younger.

Lea Perry, the older sister, had never married, having gone to the big city to work for a newspaper after getting a college degree in library science. She'd also been, in no particular order, a magician's assistant, a TV stuntwoman specializing in doubling for children since she was also quite small, an acrobatic clown in a Cirque du Soleil-type circus, and a model for petite fashions.

Niall stopped wondering what his aunt sent him, tore the paper off the box and opened it. He looked inside and then looked at his mother. "Jewelry?" he said, baffled. He pulled from the box a glittering strand of flat gold links set with a single large rose-colored gem.

Watching, Bea blinked several times. "It's her belt. The one she got on her trip to Ireland more than ten years ago."

"Huh?" said Niall, holding it up. "It's a belt? Are you sure? I don't remember ever seeing her wear it."

"Hmm," said Bea. "Neither do I, but she did say it was a belt."

Niall held up the length of it, hardly more than a foot-and-a-half, not counting the clasp. "Maybe you could wear it," he said to his mother.

Bea snorted. "I don't think so. Lea always was the slender one and she stays in shape. I wear a size 6P, Lea is a 2P, and those are a bit big on her."

"Huh," said Niall, who knew almost nothing about women's clothing sizes. "But this belt looks small, even for her."

Bea measured it by eye. "You're right. Maybe she was kidding me about it being a belt. But the clasp is behind the jewel setting, like a buckle. That wouldn't be a necklace or anything else."

"And what does this have to do with our heritage?" Niall asked.

Bea shook her head. "I have no idea what she was thinking. Other than we're Irish and she got it in Ireland?"

* * *

Niall finished his lunch, tomato soup and toasted cheese with pickles and iced tea, and headed back to class. He couldn't completely forget about the odd gift from his aunt but an hour of geometry last period did a lot to shake it loose.

Coming out of math class, he met his friend Francine and her brother Sam. "Going with us to see a movie?" asked Francine?

"Uh," said Niall. He'd forgotten to ask his mother for money to see a movie, let alone telling her about the plan. "I guess not," he said. "Or, I have to go home first?"

"Well, hurry up," said Sam. "Last matinee showing starts at 4:05 you know, and it's a half hour walk to downtown." 

Plenty of time, actually, Niall knew but Sam was like that, needing to boss someone around. "If I can, I'll meet you at the theater, uh, what are we going to see?" He'd have to tell his mom in order to get the money.

"It's that new flick about the supers in the seventies, Academy Knights. When Protector disappeared and the Vor attacked Los Angeles and the student supers had to stand it off."

"Geez," said Niall, no longer so anxious to see it. That was not a happy tale, nearly all the student supers had died.

Francine rolled her eyes, "That's what he wants to see. I want to see the comedy about Damselfly and Skarab, it's set in the fifties and it's supposed to be pretty funny. It's the sequel to Beetle Juice from last year. Beetle Juicy."

Sam made gagging noises, a feat he was actually a little too good at.

"I guess you get the deciding vote," said Francine, looking at Niall hopefully.

"If I make it," he said. "If not, I guess you two can flip a coin."

"Aw, c'mon," said Sam. "You don't want to see that chick flick. The Knights were heroes, they've got statues of them in Los Angeles."

Niall nodded, he'd seen pictures. Nine young men and women in bronze, some of them half-melted from the reality-destroying force of the alien life-form called the Vor. They'd put up statues as memorials because there had been no bodies left to bury. He shuddered.

Sam had seen the nod as agreement with him, Francine had noticed the shudder and knew Niall agreed with her. The sibling argument started.

"I'll run right home," said Niall. Not wanting to get in the middle of something with his two friends, he really did start running.

*

Reaching his house, he dashed in the front door, calling out, “Mom?” Then in a completely different tone, “Mom!”

Because, there she was, his mother, prostrate on the floor, weeping, with her phone lying on the floor beside her. “No, no, no!” she cried.

He knelt quickly, “Mom! What is it, what’s happened?”

“Oh! Niall!” she clutched at him. “Oh, baby! It’s Lea! There was a break-in at her apartment three days ago. She was killed! Your Aunt Lea, my sister, is dead!”