The first time I met Mr Richardson and
Ms Jordan was because their (inbred) child, Chardonnay, grew wings. Personally,
I thought her parents were high. I pulled the A Current Affair car up outside a small house in the housing
commission suburb. The grass was brown and crunchy. It was a plain brick house,
with an old car sitting in the driveway, the paint peeling. The curtains in the
windows were drawn, probably to conceal the derelict horrors inside.
“Let’s go,” Steve, my co-worker, said.
I looked over at him and he raised an
eyebrow.
“We don’t have a choice,” I sighed. We
opened our doors, letting the stale cigarette air float into the car. I
crinkled my nose. “Let’s just get in, see if we have a story, and get out.”
Steve followed me up the drive way and
towards the front door. The first time I met most of my “talents” were at their
homes. I was used to filth like this, and used to getting scammed with bogan
dole-bludgers thinking they could get their five minutes. I hated it, but it
was my only choice. I had to start somewhere on television. Sadly, that meant
ACA.
“Get the door!” I heard a woman yell
from somewhere inside the house.
“I’m feeding Chardonnay!” a man yelled.
I rolled my eyes and sighed.
The door flew open and a thin woman
glared at me. Her hair had been dyed blonde, but more than an inch at the top
was dark brown. She looked me up and down and I did the same. Her blue shirt
was old and stained. She wore grey sweatpants and pink uggs.
“Hello, I’m Brent from A Current
Affair. We’re here regarding Chardonnay,” I said, doing my best to not sound as
if I was repulsed by her appearance.
She nodded, showing her teeth, yellowed
from cigarettes. “Oh, hi! Come in! I’m Shaz, Chardy’s mum.”
She turned around and started to walk
away. I walked in and looked around the dirty room. Sheets of newspaper had
been placed on the ground. I felt my face scrunch up in disgust. The house
smelt like human faeces and I felt as thought the smell would cling to my suit.
I looked over at Steve who stared at the room with narrowed eyes and a dropped
jaw. Sharon “Shaz” Jordan stood in front of the couch and motioned for us to
take a seat. The couch appeared to have been Glad Wrapped.
“Tea?” she asked.
“Ah, no thank you,” I said, forcing a
smile.
She looked at me and I felt compelled
to sit. Across from me was two fold up chairs, also Glad Wrapped. I looked at
the ground, stifling a groan of disgust. The Glad Wrap stuck to my pants, and I
didn’t know what was keeping the two together.
Steve sank beside me and I looked at
Sharon. “Ms Jordan, I think we might just get started, if that’s alright with
you.”
“Yeah, nah, sounds good. D’you want me
ta get Chardy and Baz?” she asked, taking half a step back.
I looked at Steve. “Yes, if you’d
like.”
She disappeared and I was stuck on the
couch. Steve coughed. “I, uh, think I’ve stepped in…”
He trailed off and I looked down at his
shoes. A brown muck seeped from underneath.
“That’s not getting in my car,” I said.
“Great.” He frowned at his shoe and
looked around the room. “Let’s just look at this kid and go.”
Sharon returned with her daughter in
her arms and her defacto trailing behind. I unstuck myself from the chair and
reached out to shake Barry’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr Richardson.”
“It’s just Barry, or Baz, mate. No need
to be formal,” he laughed, taking my hand.
He sat down on one of the fold up
chairs and smiled.
I looked at the child in Sharon’s arms.
Chardonnay was squirming around and I smiled over at her.
“And this must be Chardonnay,” I said.
Ms Jordan beamed and nodded. “Yeah,
this is Charddy.”
The baby looked healthy, her cheeks
were fat and rosy. I smiled at her and she cooed back.
“May we see her wings?” I asked.
She spun her daughter around, showing
us her back. Two large wings grew out, looking very attached to her. They
fluttered a little and my jaw dropped. The feathers were dirty white and still
growing in. Some spots, specifically around her back, were exposed, showing
patches of skin. “Wow,” I whispered, leaning in to take a look. “How long has
it been like this?”
The parents looked at each other and
frowned.
“What? Two, three months?” Mr
Richardson said.
Ms Jordan nodded. “Yeah, about that.”
“Do you know why it’s happened?” I asked,
looking up at them.
They shook their heads.
“I was in the kitchen when Charddy
started to cry. I thought, “The fuck does she want now?” and I walked in to see
red spots on her back and I was like “Shit”. I was rubbin’ some cream on it,
when I felt these bumps? And I’m thinking, “How the fuck did she hurt herself?”.
A few hours later, I looked at it again and found wings. They looked like them
wings you get at KFC.” Ms Jordan shook her head. “I dunno why it happened to
her. But we’ve gotta look after her.”
“I think,” Mr Richardson started, “that
it has to do with the Wi-Fi and all that radiation shit. You know? Them
scientists reckon it causes cancer. I reckon it could make kids grow wings.”
I nodded along.
Chardonnay cooed in her mothers’ arms
and we all looked down at the baby.
“Can she fly?” I asked.
Ms Jordan scoffed. “Can she fly? Why
d’ya reckon we’ve put down newspaper? Not just decoration.”
Mr Richardson laughed. “Charddy’s
really picked it up. But, I think the worst thing is that she ain’t toilet
trained. We want her to grow up natural like, and if she becomes a bird, we
want her to feel comfortable. Shit hits the fan, but.”
Steve giggled and I smiled.
“How have you accommodated this?” I
asked as Steve calmed down.
Ms Jordan stood up. “Lemme show you her
room.”
The couple walked in front of me,
making their way down the corridor. Steve and I avoided the excrement on the
ground like they were landmines. We entered the room and I frowned.
It was lined in chicken wire. It had
been pinned to the walls and windows, creating an aviary appearance. Sticks had
been stuck between gaps in the wire, almost like perches. My jaw dropped as I
tried to take in the room before me.
“I, uh, got inspired at the zoo a few
weeks ago,” Mr Richardson explained.
I looked over at him and frowned. “A… a
cage?”
“See, she was rammin’ her head against
the windows like them birds in shopping centres, and I thought, ‘We can’t let
this happen’. And as I said, if she turns into a bird, we want her to be used
to it.”
I nodded and looked around again. There
were mirrors dangling from the celling, a birdbath on the ground, water and
food containers hanging from the walls, and the bottom had human faeces.
I looked down at the baby who seemed to
smile up at me.
“What are your plans in the future?” I
asked, looking back at Ms Jordan.
She shrugged. “Do what we can with what
we’ve got.” Ms Jordan looked at her partner. “We’ve got a friend who gonna
install a sunroof in our car with a chainsaw. If we take trips to the coast, we
want Charddy to be able to stretch her wings.”
“We can’t keep her cooped up and we
can’t let her fly orf,” Mr Richardson said. “We’re not bad parents.”
Steve looked around. “This can’t be
cheap.”
“I’ve written in to Take 5 and That’s Life. They give people money for tellin’ their stories. We
haven’t gotten anything, but ya gotta keep tryin’.”
Mr Richardson nodded. “I wrote to
Doctor Harry, so he can teach us ta clip her wings and stuff. We wanna look
after her the best we can and we reckon he can help. Look, at the end of the
day, we want the best for her.”
I nodded. “I can see.” I paused to
appreciate how this family functions. “I think we’ll leave this for today.
We’ll be back soon to shoot some footage, and whatnot.”
I shook their hands, and Steve and I
manoeuvred our way out of the house.
As we climbed into the car, Steve minus
one shoe, I sighed and shook my head. “Wi-Fi signals, Steve. Wi-Fi!”
“No scientist will respond with
assistance.”
I scoffed. “If one responds with
something even remotely sensible about this topic, I will quit my job.”
We laughed as I pulled away from the house and returned back to the studio.
Published on Wattpad.
Like this:
Like Loading...