A WEIRD FAMILY

“Wake up Xavier."

Xavier Damon should have gotten used to the drill of a voice in the winds waking him up occasionally but he woke up on the morning of the second of September to the face of a girl about sixteen staring him down.

“Layla?” he murmured, sleepy. “You’ve grown tall overnight? And what’s with the red hair?”

“Not Layla,” she frowned. “And you might want to change out of those rags. We can’t have people trooping in here to stare at a 19^th century relic.” Xavier’s ears perked up immediately as he heard the ‘19^th century.

“Sorry who are you?” he asked sitting up cautiously. “And what’s today’s date?”

“Ariana,” she said. “You can call me Aria.”

“Okay Aria,” Xavier said. “What’s going on? Where’s Layla? And who’s house is this.”

“Ghost finally found your family,” Aria said, staring him down with her grey eyes.

“Who’s Ghost?” Xavier stood up. “And what does he want with my family?”

“Wouldn’t forget the name of the man who killed my family even after a thousand years,” Aria muttered to herself.

“What did you say?” Xavier narrowed his eyes at her.

“Ghost is your uncle…kinda,” she lied. “And he’s looking for you.”

“What for?” Xavier frowned. “Don’t remember owing any uncles money, except Layla…”

“Layla didn’t steal anything!” she shouted. “You really need to stop calling her a thief. Especially now that she’s…”

“She’s what?” Xavier questioned, noticing how she had stopped abruptly.

“…away,” Aria lied again. “She’s away…on a trip…Los Angeles, and your ma, and pa, and the twins. They were in a hurry so they’ll be gone a while.”

“I see,” Xavier nodded. “Who are you then?” Aria cursed herself inwardly wondering why on earth she had not thought about a suitable lie to such an expected question! Of course he would want to know who he is with.

“I..I..I’m a distant relative, a cousin,” she stammered. “But you don’t know me.”

“Weird,” Xavier frowned. “Ma and pa decide to go to Los Angeles overnight and the next day the house disappears and everyone suddenly dresses different. Am I missing out on anything else?”

Aria knew her story didn’t quite add up so she quickly changed the subject.

“What did those boys want with you?” she asked.

“Yes,” he stood up. “I don’t know. What do you think?”

“I don’t know either,” she lied. “Maybe you stole something?”

“You’ve got the wrong Damon there,” he laughed. “That’s Lya…”

“Say it!” she cut in, her eyes turning red.

“I’d rather not,” he said, noticing her change.

“Good,” she smiled and her eye turned normal back. “Now let’s go meet my mum. Pray she’s in a good mood today.”

She led Xavier down a wide hallway and he frowned all the way, wondering how such a large hallway fit into a small house. At the end of the hallway, there were two wooden doors facing each other and she opened the one on the left and walked in.

“Come on in,” she urged him.

Xavier walked in and paused at the door, his nose twitching to the sharp smell of rotten oranges. He turned around trying to trace where it came from and found out it was from a cauldron a middle aged woman was stirring at the end of the room.

“Xavier Damon,” she said wiping her wet hands on her apron. “I’m Celine. Aria’s mother.”

“You’re my aunt then,” he said. “Glad to meet you.”

Celine turned to frown at Aria and the pair quickly communicated with their eyes, faster than Xavier could understand.

“Yes,” she smiled. “Welcome home son. I know you’re wondering where everyone is. They’re out on…”

“He’s not wondering mum,” Aria cut in. “Because I told him already that they are in Los Angeles.”

“I see,” Celine nodded. She turned to Xavier. “Feel at home. Your family would be back soon.” But he was not listening.

“What’s that,” he asked pointing at a calendar on the wall of the room.

“A calendar, duhh,” Aria rolled her eyes.

“The date,” I mean.

Aria and her mum exchanged quick glances, realizing once again that they had not yet explained to him how he slept on the 31^st of August 1922 and woke up on the 2^nd of September, 2022.

“It’s not really --- we’re just…”, they chorused.

“Okay, I’ll allow her explain,” Celine said and gave her daughter a nod.

“We’re just celebrating,” she said. “A hundred years from now, we’ll all be dead right?”

“Right,” Xavier agreed.

“Exactly,” she said. “It’s a one week feast where we pretend to be a 100 years from now. We want to see how life would be then.”

Celine frowned at her and she got the message immediately – they had just one week to lie to the last living werewolf. After a week, he would start to suspect.

“For clarity,” Aria muttered walking up to him. “Its only our family that celebrates this feast. Don’t ask anyone why it’s 2022 at school. You’ll sound pretty weird.”

“School?” Xavier frowned and they both sighed, wondering how they could keep up with the lies. Or weren’t there schools in 1922?

“Yes, school,” Aria said. “Got any problem with that?”

He scratched his head. “The thing is…I never went to school. Ma couldn’t afford it.”

As he said that, Celine realized how peaceful his werewolf parents must have been. Even the best of them occasionally harassed humans when they were in need but these ones minded their business and lived as paupers.

“Another thing we might be changing,” Aria smiled turning to her mum.

“How?” Xavier asked confused.

“What she means is, ‘Get ready’,” Celine smiled. “Tomorrow would be your first day of school.”