Chapter Text
When Monty comes back into his human body, it feels like coming home yet overwhelmingly alienating. He sits on the Persian rug with his legs pulled up to his chest. He looks at his hands in front of him, fingers splayed open. Someone drapes a heavy soft thing around his shoulders and then Charles is close in front of him, wrapping the knitted blanket around Monty’s knees. His expression all kindness and concern.
‘It worked,’ Monty’s voice breaks as it adjusts again to human speech.
‘Welcome back, mate,’ Charles says softly.
Edwin approaches Monty, feet treading carefully, with a pile of folded clothes in his arms. Monty recognises them as some of the things Esther bought for him. The boys must have gone back to collect them.
Monty looks up at Edwin as he takes the clothes, feeling small and scared. Someone catches the corner of his eye and he meets Crystal’s eyes; she’s sitting on the old lounge, smiling gently at him.
‘We’ll give you some space to get changed,’ she says and looks at both of the boys in turn.
Everyone clears out into the hall. Monty pulls on the jeans and black shirt as quickly as possible. His movements feel jerky and slower than he’d like, but he has this desperate need to be decent and back in control of himself. The last few months of relying on others for food and directions and a place to stay has felt rather embarrassing. The communication barrier only made him feel even more pathetic.
Monty sits on the short lounge against the wall and rubs his hands against the worn brown fabric of the cushions. He doesn’t know what to do with his body. He calls everyone back in.
Edwin and Charles come through the wall; Edwin sits behind the desk and Charles lounges against it. Crystal enters last and sits cross-legged by the door to the storage closet.
‘What now?’ She asks Edwin and Charles.
‘That will depend on what Monty wants,’ Edwin says, examining Monty’s face. ‘As you know, we transformed you so that we could speak to you and help you find your own peace, whatever that may be.’
Monty looks away and to the pattern on the rug. ‘I don’t think I’d mind being human for a little while,’ he mutters.
‘We talked to Jenny and she is happy for you to stay in the second bedroom of her apartment, if you like,’ Edwin replies. ‘We would have offered for you to stay with us, but this office is not set up for a human.’
Monty has very few memories of Jenny. The only things he knows about her are the bitchy comments Esther used to make when she came home from the butcher shop. Monty figures that information isn’t much to go by. ‘Really? She’s okay for me to stay?’
‘Really,’ Charles says, and he’s grinning, his teeth showing. ‘Said something about being used to having other people around now.’
+ + +
Charles uses a yellowed landline phone with a coiled cable to call Jenny’s house. He confirms that it’s okay for them to bring Monty over now and the four of them leave the agency.
The city does not feel as overwhelming as Monty imagined it to be. They’re not amongst the highrises now, but walking down rain-slicked sidewalks lined by shorter brick buildings that seem to have small shops on the ground floor and residential apartments on the upper floors.
They have to weave around some people but otherwise no one really seems to notice him and Crystal. There’s so much anonymity here that Monty hadn’t realised he needed. Too many people knew each other in Port Townsend.
After a few blocks, Crystal leaves them to take the tube back to her parents house. They walk another block and arrive at a six-storey brick apartment building; Edwin rings the buzzer by the door, next to the number 608.
‘Yeah?’ Jenny’s no-nonsense tone comes through, crowded by static.
‘It’s us, we’ve got Monty here,’ Charles says.
‘Come on up,’ Jenny says. The glass door in front of them clicks and Charles pushes it open. They step into an old elevator and Edwin selects the sixth floor. Charles leans back against the mirror on the far side.
Monty has never been in an elevator before, so he startles at the initial sensation of the lift catching and the feeling of being jerked upwards. The rest is smooth after that, but it leaves a funny feeling in his tummy after.
Charles leads them down the corridor to a grainy wooden door marked with the numbers 608 in tarnished gold. Edwin knocks and a few seconds later, Jenny opens it.
‘Hey,’ she says to the boys and then to Monty: ‘Hello, new teenage person. I’m Jenny.’
Either she doesn’t remember their first introduction or thinks this one should be proper. Jenny holds out a hand and Monty takes it. He’s seen people do this before, but Esther never taught him. He grasps Jenny’s hand and she squeezes his. He feels like his grasp is much softer than hers, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
‘Come on in,’ she jerks her head and stands aside as Monty enters with Charles and Edwin following.
Edwin and Charles make themselves comfortable at the round dining table by the glass balcony doors. Edwin holds his hand out and Charles takes a book from his backpack to hand over.
‘Wow, do you guys want to live here too?’ Jenny snipes.
Charles grins, genuinely ecstatic. ‘Nah, we’re just going to hang around in case there’s anything you guys decide you need our help with.’
Jenny nods once, turns to Monty and raises her eyebrows at him like she can’t believe those two. ‘I’ll give you the tour.’
She shows him the kitchen to the left of the front door and divided from the living space by only a wall, the balcony overlooking the neighbouring building and the alley below, the bathroom and laundry squished into one room and finally: Monty’s room.
Jenny opens the door and turns on the light. It’s bare right now, just a light grey carpet, white walls and a two-pane window that Jenny has cracked to let in the frigid air. Jenny promises it will be all his. Monty is overwhelmed by the excitement of having something to make his own but also having no idea how that becomes a reality. He never did this with Esther, she only gave him the couch.
He speaks up, hoping that Jenny will forgive his ineptitude. ‘Um, how will… I mean, what should I do first? I’ll need a bed at least, right?’
Jenny nods. ‘I can take you to Ikea today for a bed. You’ll probably want a bookshelf, maybe a desk. Storage is sorted, there’s a built-in wardrobe.’ She steps into the room and slides open a door that reveals another cavern of empty space with some shelving on one side.
Jenny looks back at Charles and Edwin, chatting about something at the dining table. ‘Let’s make them help,’ she says and winks at Monty.
+ + +
The Ikea trips entails: Charles getting absorbed in the displays and suggesting impulse purchases to Edwin; Edwin vetoing at least half of those, but seriously getting on board with some others; Jenny cursing about her new life as a ‘teenage ghost herder’; Jenny and Monty successfully finding a bed frame, mattress, sheet set and bookshelf for Monty; Charles and Edwin helping Monty and Jenny lift all the flat-pack boxes from the shelves, onto a trolley and then into the tray of Jenny’s pick-up. Most importantly: a crow plushie that Monty becomes attached to quite quickly and Jenny happily buys for him. (The other furniture comes out of the agency’s fund).
When home, the four of them lay out the boxes with the bedframe on Monty’s bedroom floor and Jenny runs the show, mostly getting Charles’s help while Monty stands by the wall. Edwin has not touched a flat-pack in his life (or death) and sits against the wall while marvelling over the fact that people build half-made furniture like this now.
While screwing one of the supporting beams to the headboard, Jenny addresses Monty, ‘Oh, I should probably let you know that I have another sort-of roommate.’
‘Oh?’ Monty asks.
‘Yeah, um, it’s the Night Nurse, she’s the one that’s meant to be minding these two. Anyway, she needed somewhere else to do her paperwork and I like her attitude, so she’ll be popping in sometimes to hang out.’
Monty smiles. He likes meeting new people and he figures that it wouldn’t be so bad to have another person around, given that he’ll be spending more time here. ‘I look forward to meeting her.’
‘Trust me, she is nothing to look forward to,’ Edwin interjects, not looking up from the hardcover tome resting against his knees.
‘Yeah?’ Monty jests. ‘I think you’ll find I’m a little easier to get on with than you.’
Edwin looks up at Monty and raises his eyebrows. Charles just cackles. Monty swears the corner of Jenny’s mouth twitches up.
+ + +
Monty might be easy to get along with, but the Night Nurse is not.
It’s Monty’s first night at Jenny’s and he sits on the lounge, watching a documentary about astronomy. He’s not entirely keeping up, but Jenny put it on with the explanation of ‘I heard you like stars’, and then went to make some dinner.
Monty doesn’t care to correct her that he likes astrology not astronomy because the documentary is interesting and Monty has become a sponge for knowledge since he became human the first time. There was nothing else to do in Esther’s house except watch television and read while he waited for more orders.
He hears jingling from outside the front door, a key slides into the lock and then it opens. A ginger-haired woman comes in. ‘Hello,’ she calls in an accent Monty doesn’t recognise.
‘Hey,’ Jenny calls back from the kitchen.
The Night Nurse walks halfway into the living area before seeing Monty. ‘Who are you?’ she asks.
Monty finds this rather blunt, but smiles anyway and stands up to greet her. ‘I’m Monty.’
‘He moved in today,’ Jenny comes out of the kitchen to join them.
‘Why?’ The Night Nurse looks at Jenny, eyebrows scrunched together.
Jenny’s voice hardens. ‘Much like you , he also needs somewhere to stay. You know as well as I do that a living person can’t stay at that agency.’
‘Really, I just can’t escape these children,’ the Night Nurse sighs and looks up at the ceiling
That one stings. ‘I’m not exactly a child,’ Monty snipes.
The Night Nurse’s gaze snaps back to Monty. ‘Oh but you are, you look just like all those children I’ve had to mind all this time, especially those errant boys.’
‘Hey,’ Jenny interjects, ‘be nice, please.’
‘Does this not get to you as well?’ The Night Nurse is blatantly pointing a finger at Monty now and he might not know much about etiquette, but he knows this body language is considered rude.
‘Not as much of an adjustment as having a stranger coming and going from my home at all hours of the day and night,’ Jenny replies, frustration building.
The Night Nurse looks taken aback at that. ‘You said that I could use this flat!’
‘Yes,’ Jenny raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes to enunciate, ‘but there is still an adjustment period. I’m not used to having this many people in my space, okay?’
‘Does that mean I should find somewhere else to do my paperwork?’
Jenny throws up her hands. ‘Do whatever the hell you want. But he is staying whether you like it or not.’
All of a sudden, the air in the room feels too much for Monty. Maybe he shouldn’t have come here. Maybe Charles and Edwin strong-armed Jenny into taking him in. It could get quite crowded with three people in a two bedroom apartment. There’s clearly already a lot of tension here and he’ll probably make it worse.
He leaves the documentary playing and beelines for the front door, letting it slam closed behind him even as Jenny calls his name.
+ + +
Monty goes straight to the roof of the agency’s building. It’s the only place he knows that’s high and he misses being high, being free . Right now, his body feels so heavy, like the burden he is.
There’s a metal rail wrapped around the top of the roof, likely to prevent workmen falling off. Monty sits in front of it and folds his arms over a rung, resting his chin on his arms. He looks down at his dangling feet, at the people and cars below, the trees and the buildings. Having this bird’s-eye view, this part of London laid out before him like a map feels comforting.
He sits there, people and bird watching. Too much of a bird to fit in down there and too much of a person to belong in the sky. Monty feels a stinging sensation in his eyes and behind his nose. He scrunches his face up, but cannot stop the first tears falling. They slide down his face and off his hands and land somewhere below. For a while he sits there, quiet tears and loud sniffling.
‘Monty?’ Charles’s voice.
Monty jerks up and hits his head on the next rung up in the railing.
‘Jesus, sorry mate, I was trying not to shock you,’ Charles stands over him and puts a gentle hand on the top of Monty’s head. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Um,’ Monty thinks about what he should say. He knows many people say they’re fine even when they’re not, but it feels different being caught in the act. He realises Charles probably means his head. ‘Yeah, I’ll be okay, it doesn’t hurt that much.’
Charles sits down next to Monty and swings his legs over the side too. ‘You’ve been crying, haven’t you?’ Charles asks gently.
Monty stares at the main road below. ‘That’s a bit direct,’ he mutters.
‘Jenny called the office,’ Charles says, ‘and let us know you might make an appearance. She sounded worried.’
Monty stays quiet.
‘She didn’t say why. She said that we’d talk about it later or you could tell your side first,’ Charles says. ‘You know, whatever you’re going through, you can talk to me, or Edwin or Crystal. We’re your friends, we might be able to help you or at least just hear you out.’
Monty looks back up at the grey sky. A group of pigeons swoop around together, just playing, and then fly away.
Monty finds his voice. ‘I feel like I’m… I’ve just been nothing but a burden since I got here. You guys had to figure out what to do with me and Jenny had to make room for me and now Edwin is going through all this paperwork so I can, like, not be sent back to America where I’m not even recorded as a person anyway.’
Charles hums and turns his head to look at Monty. ‘Would you prefer to be a crow again?’
Monty’s mouth scrunches as his eyes sting again. ‘Sometimes? But when Esther turned me back into a bird none of these feelings went away. And I was just a crow on my own who couldn’t communicate or do anything much.’
‘Sounds like there’s a lot going on in that brain,’ Charles says. He puts a hand on Monty’s shoulder and squeezes. ‘How about this? You stay with us tonight, Edwin and I will put on our disguises and take you and Crystal out for dinner and we can play Clue. You might feel better in the morning after a good sleep.’
Monty nods. ‘That sounds nice.’
Charles stands. ‘I’ll call Jenny and let her know we’ve got you. Stay up here as long as you like, but we should probably go to dinner once the sun goes down.’
Monty stays out a while longer, sitting with the wind chill and the dried tear tracks.