he went out the door earlier than
usual earlier than usual for the gym but he wanted to get a workout in before the
memorial service that afternoon take in a dry sauna contemplate reflect on the dead
mans life
they didnt have much of a
relationship
they were related by marriage
the man had been a mover a shaker
of the community a community he didnt have
much in common with
despite their relationship he remained happily outside the bulwark the man helped affect
and sustain
when it sat he stood
when it stood he sat
as he left he called into the house
to his cat that he was on his way and hed be back in a couple of hours Take care
of the place Youre the man of the house while Im gone
that notion tickled him
beginning to walk down the drive to the
street under the cover of several small flowering trees he caught movement in the trees
across the street along it fast then a cry it was the neighborhood eaglet a flash of tawny and ivory colours
the eaglet broke out above a
barrier of two olive trees careened hard right and flew fast over his
head
he sidestepped backpedaled it went hard left for open sky as he kept backpedaling it abruptly reversed
tack came hard right broke speed reared back in the air wings spread and stomped
atop the wood electrical pole in his backyard
its stomp coincided with him making
the backyard gate
he didnt open it
they were maybe twenty meters
apart
the poles actual height was diminished
the property was cut into a hillside and
where it stood it was ten meters lower than where he stood
they werent eyelevel maybe a fifteen degree incline of his head
the eaglet was exquisite
Hello big guy he hailed
the eaglets head swiveled in his
direction fixed him in its stereooptic vision
You can see me better than I can
see you friend Good morning
in acknowledgment perhaps it
blinked once but it continued to hold
its gaze
he enjoyed how it disrupted his
raptor antenna that was why he saw it and
why he usually didnt see people he was
keen on what was above his head his eyes reflectively to the sky very few people were tall enough to obstruct
his vision
there was that but then he also found aviansthe last living
dinosaurs of keener interest their flight agility birdcalls
a gang of jays emerged from a
distant reef of trees
he heard them before he saw them
its lead made a beeline towards
the eaglet its comrades moved behind it as if caught in a backwash a blowback less direct loopy
erratic disorganised metal filings
pulled by a quick magnet
the lead jay obnoxious calling raucously
alighted on a wire just beneath and to the left of the eaglet
it ignored the jay
the rest of the jay gang sought
different trees and hidden in leafy boughs they screamed
the lead encouraged it hoppedflew
quick to a four by four crossbeam bolted to the pole scarcely a halfmeter down and
two meters over from where the eaglet stood
it provoked the eaglets attention
despite its bravado it kept to a crouch its wings batted then stilled
jay jabber and curse
then it descended to the pole pigthe
battleship grey canister suspended behind the eaglet jabbered and brayed and taunted
the eaglet shifted sidewise
keeping a peeper on the discordant jay
he couldnt help but wonder if they shared a
language two different species
the cussing jay then crossed up
to the beam to the right of the eaglet
the other jays harped loudly but held their treetop hideaways
the raucous one juiced up on some
avian crystal at a sudden began a spasmodic dance between other wires the crossbeam
and canister again and again tethered by an unseen loosed radius from the eaglet its center its nucleus
jay beggar
taunter bigmouth
not two minutes in the eaglet leapt into the air raucous shaddup and cowered
took two quick powerful wingbeats eating up plenty of airspace then struck a
glide then it dipped and rose onto the topmost bough
of a digger pine five yards down from his place one hundred meters
the jabbering jay then alighted
to the pole top and preened quietly
a triumph of sorts he
imagined above the soft steam of cackles
couldnt say hed ever seen anything quite like that
1844, Saturday,
10 6. 17
1319, Sunday, 11
6. 17
