A Page Named Willis

Sparrow, Rain, and Mouse

Sparrow woke up. Two kids were looking at Sparrow expectantly. "...Hi," Sparrow said, awkwardly trying to sound like she didn't think it was weird for them to be staring at her.

"Hi." one of the kids said.

"Do you think she will...be normal?" The other kid whispered, taking a step back.

¨I can hear you know." Sparrow said wryly. The two kids blushed and helped Sparrow up to a standing position. Sparrow's eyes adjusted to the light and she could finally see what the two kids looked like. One of them, -the one who actually said hello- was a thirteen-ish-year-old girl with long dark hair and coffee-colored skin. The girl had unnaturally bright blue eyes, like a window facing a clear sky in a rain droplet. The other was a mousey-looking boy with the orange hair that was brushed sideways, freckles across his nose, and he had orange eyes. Gem girl had lime green eyes with flecks of silver, white hair and a tomboy haircut. Sparrow had eyes like pools of chocolate. They were dark brown with small flecks of gold. Sparrow liked eyes. Sparrow also liked to keep her sort of wavy hair short, because it got in her way, but the girl in front of her clearly thought otherwise, because she had pools of long hair in a high ponytail, intricately braided into loops and crosses. It was like a work of art chose to nest on her head.

"I'm Sparrow. Who are you?" Sparrow hesitantly said. The two kids looked at her like she was an unknown creature from Neptune.

"I am 30, and he is 27." The girl said, a bit sadly. Sparrow looked at them, expecting more.

"Cool. I thought you were thirteen. You look uh... you look good for your age. What are your names?"

The girl spoke again. The boy didn't look like much of a talker. "We are thirteen...ish. I don't exactly know. Our names...We can't remember. They call us 27 and 30, the number in which we were taken. I am the 30th child they stole, and 27 is the 27th. You are 40." Sparrow frowned sadly. Then she went into big-thought-Sparrow-thinking-mode. She smiled.

"Then I suppose I must give you real names because I am not calling you 27 and 30." The two kids smiled.

"What are our new names, Sparrow?" the boy said. Sparrow thought for a moment.

"You are...Mouse." The boy raised his eyebrows, slightly appalled, making a priceless face.

"Mouse? Really?" The redheaded boy said, still making the wonderfully surprised face. The girl laughed.

"Yep, Mouse. It suits you." Sparrow said.

"Ok," Sparrow said after the girl stopped laughing. "You are...Rain."

Rain smiled. "That's a name I like." Mouse crossed his arms.

"Do you have another option for me?" He said. Sparrow nodded.

"Yes, there is one, but I don't think you will like it as much as Mouse."

Mouse smiled. "Anything," he said.

"Well, I was thinking about this name..." Sparrow said slowly.

"Spit it out already!" Mouse said.

"It's...Shrimp." Mouse gasped.

"Shrimp?! Shrimp? What kind of name is Shrimp? I like Mouse wayyyyy more. Mouse it is. Mouse is a great name. Yep." Mouse said, somehow convincing himself as well as Sparrow, and Sparrow thought Mouse had convinced Rain that he liked his name until Rain suppressed a snort...or at least tried to.

"Reverse psychology. Works every time." Sparrow said happily.

I know what you're thinking. What are their real names? Well, Pluviamoculi roughly translates to Rain, and Musauris roughly translates to Mouse. And what about my name? Well, Willis roughly translates to Nesciusmalum. It also translates to 'Spikey Fork'.

The three of them smiled and Rain started giving Sparrow a grand tour of their outdoor prison. There was a tent with a table underneath it, but there were no chairs. There was a concrete wall with iron doors and barbed wire on the top, but it must have been put up so long ago because all the barbs had bent and twisted themselves inwards, so it just became a loopy wire with pokey lumps. There was an outhouse with a compost toilet, and a small cabin, without a roof mind you, with straw beds and a little pipe that could be turned on and off if all of the kids helped to turn the handle to let the small trickle into a plastic bowl with a hole in it, which apparently was their sink. If you wanted to take a bath, you would climb this tree, where a bathtub had somehow made its way up there. You used the sweet-smelling leaves of the tree as soap, and creek water would flood its way up the tree using a garden hose. It was not the best place to be living in, but Sparrow adjusted to life in the prison with the rest of the stolen children after a few hours. Rain bumped Sparrow's shoulder affectionately as the two girls strolled over to the table where guards were serving...what looked like week-old slop, but Rain had called it 'Dinner'. Sparrow pulled up an imaginary seat and pretended to sit down in it as she got to the table, which awarded her giggles from the rest of the kids. Rain smiled and picked up the bowl of her 'dinner'. For just a moment, when Sparrow closed her eyes, she could imagine Gem Girl sitting beside her, joking with the other kids right alongside Sparrow. Then she opened her eyes and the moment passed, as quickly as it came.