After walking a few blocks we made it there. The neighborhood was filled with those nice condos. The type that would cost an arm and a leg. Walking up the steps to the house it had a pretty worn down welcoming mat with an autumn wreath. Near the door you could see a tiny pink tricycle. It was obvious they had kids. My boss moved past me and knocked on the door. It took a while but soon enough a middle aged woman opened the door. She had blonde hair down to her shoulders with blue eyes. She was wearing a basic white tank top and black shorts. She was also smoking.

“You’re the detectives?” She asked. She definitely sounded like a smoker. Her voice was harsh and loud. 

My boss nodded “I’m Aiko, this is my coworker, Elliot. Is your husband home?” He smiled for her trying to be polite. I could tell it was hard for him since the smoke was getting in his face.

The women sighed and turned to yell inside the house. “The detectives are here!” She yelled loud enough to wake up her husband it seemed cause you could hear him groan. You could hear him stomping down the stairs before he came over to the door. He had dirty blonde hair that was a bit messy but it was early though so it couldn’t be helped. He was wearing a basic white tee shirt and gray sweatpants. Looking at the two you could tell they just woke up.

“Welcome, sorry for my wife.” He gave a warm smile and extended his hand out. His wife rolled her eyes and went back inside the house.

My boss shook his hand smiling at him too. “No no, we’re sorry for intruding so early in the day. We’d like to talk to you two though, may we?” 

The man nodded and moved out the way so we could get inside “Yes of course! So sorry to have you working this early.” He chuckled a bit and my boss laughed with him. 

“I’m Aiko, and this is my coworker Elliot. I’ll be talking to you while he talks to your wife. Is that alright?” He moved inside the house, basically dragging me inside with him.

“Of course, I’m gonna warn you though, she can be hard to work with at times.” He laughed again, Aiko laughing with him.

“Thanks for the warning sir,” I thanked him before heading over to the kitchen to talk to the wife while Aiko continued talking and laughing with the husband.

The kitchen was pretty messy with the sink almost full with dishes. There were normal plates and then those plastic kid plates. There was even one of those plastic kid tables with princesses on it. There was a door leading into the backyard. It had a bunch of outdoor playsets in the back. The woman was toasting some bread as she smoked. She had a window open to get some fresh air. She noticed me and sighed before turning to me.

“Shouldn’t you be talking to my husband?” She blew smoke out the window.

“No ma’am, my boss is already talking to him so I’m here to talk to you. Would you mind sitting down?” I asked, gesturing towards the table.

She sighed and sat down. “Whatever, hurry this up, I have to pick something up soon.”

I sat down across from her. “So ma’am, would you like to state your name?” I took out a notebook and pen to start writing things down.

She groaned. “Alice White, I’m 39 years old.” She stubbed the cigarette out on an ash trash she had on the table.

“Alright ma’am, we’re here because we’ve been told there was a case of domestic violence going on. Is it only you and your husband living here?” I started writing this down as I waited for her answer.

“Me and my husband were just fooling around. There’s nothing like that going on here.” She rested her head on one of her hands. She seemed pretty bored. “We do have a daughter though. I sent her to her friend's house so she wouldn’t mess anything up here.” You could hear my boss and the husband laughing from the kitchen. Alice groaned again. “He always does that whenever someones over.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Does what ma’am? Tell awful jokes?” I replied as I wrote down everything she said.

She chuckled a bit. “I like you, but no, he always acts fake. He tries to make it look like I’m the crazy one here.” 

“I see, so, could you tell me what happened yesterday?” Everything she said was helping. In cases like this it’s best to know how both parties act and hearing what she said about his husband will help with solving this case. 

The rest of the case was just both of them explaining what happened yesterday. According to both of them they had a little argument during dinner over who worked more. The wife got upset and accidentally knocked a plate over spilling some food but that’s all that happened. No one got hurt but because of the noise one of their neighbors called the cops on them. Everything seemed to check out but my boss said we’d be back in a few days to continue. We packed everything up and left. 

Walking back to the office my boss tried making some conversation. “They both seem interesting, don’t they?” He looked at me. He was basically saying they were crazy.

I laughed a bit. “Yea, you could say that. Guess the apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree, huh?” During the entire investigation I couldn’t stop thinking about Dorothy. Sure, her parents seemed weird but it didn’t look like they were hurting her or anything.

My boss sighed. “I can see you’re worried. Trust me, if they are hurting her we’ll be able to take her away from them but so far they seem ok. A bit crazy, but they don’t seem harmful.” He patted me on the back. The rest of the walk was silent. Once we got to the office my boss stopped me from going inside. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? If you get too stressed you’ll get gray hairs you know.” He smiled at me.

“Fine, but make sure to get dinner alright.” I smiled back at him and handed him the file. He nodded at me and went inside the building. As soon as he went inside I started walking home. I stopped at my favorite coffee spot and got a cinnamon bun. Walking home the sun was already setting a bit. Walking past all the food stands and buildings felt nice. It felt like I was at home again. As soon as I made it to my apartment building I sighed and smiled. A few years ago I would have never even thought I would live in a place this nice. I unlocked the door to my apartment building and set my stuff down. I took off my brown coat and put it on a coat rack stretching a bit. I put the cinnamon bun in the microwave to keep it warm before taking off my blazer. I went over to the mirror to look at my back. I try to forget about them but it’s hard to. On my back were two wings burnt almost to the bone. Half of my feathers were gone. They’ve been gone for a long time. I hid them under my blazer since I hated people seeing them. No one knew I even had them. Not even my boss. I didn’t want him to know anyways. I hated being pitied. I got in the shower to relax for a bit. For some reason, seeing the state of that house reminded me of my past. I hated it. I buried it in the back of my mind just for it to be dug up because I saw a messy house. It was stupid. I got out of the shower and put on pajamas and took out the cinnamon bun to eat. After finishing I just watched T.V until I fell asleep. 

Dreams are weird. They’re either surreal or too realistic. The dream I had that night was too realistic for my liking. It wasn’t even a dream, it was more like a nightmare. It replayed my past but he never came. He never asked me to join the agency. Aiko. Wasn’t there. My life never started again. I woke up in a cold sweat. I didn’t sleep again after that. I just watched T.V until it was time for work.