– Felix
Before Felix knew it they were in the air. He could hardly believe what was happening—who would have thought Amelia would turn out to be so beautiful? And she was interested in him!
A tiny alarm bell rang deep in his subconscious—he almost stopped flapping as he pulled himself up mentally. She’s not allowed to say no. Not on date day.
Ok, I get that, he told himself. But she obviously wanted me when we were fledglings. He decided there was nothing wrong with a little hoping, maybe even a little fantasizing about a real date, or a heroic moment when he swept in and saved the day just like she’d done. Maybe, just maybe, it would be ok to even think about—but something appeared in front of his face, blinding him, changing the air flow. His wings stalled as he panicked, wobbled, spun head over tail. His cloaca opened in fear.
“Bumpy?” Amelia’s voice sounded distant. “Are you alright down there?”
He drew a frantic breath, his heart hammering so fast he was sure it was about to burst. Another breath. And another. His wings regained control, hardly brushing the ground as he levelled out. He managed a strong swoop, felt the air smooth his flight feathers and stabilize his underwings. A few more flaps and he was safely by her side again.
“Sorry,” he said as calmly as he could. “I missed what you were saying. There was a…” he was about to look back but caught himself in time “…thing,” he finished lamely.
“I said ‘like hello, nice to see you again.’”
“Oh,” he said. He turned on the charm as his panic settled. “Nice to see you again, you look lovely by the way.”
Whew. He’d gotten away with it. She hadn’t noticed how close he’d just come to a…well…a less than gracious moment in the sky anyway. He relaxed, so when she turned the topic to school and he was back on solid ground, so to speak, he was happy to chatter.
“Henlings are lucky,” he told her. “You don’t have lessons like us.” Warming further into his topic, he decided it couldn’t hurt to reassure her about his skills. “But I guess you don’t need to learn about foraging and nest-building and all the hard things, that’s where I come in. But—”
Amelia fluttered her eyelashes. Those beautiful, incredible, long, soft—
The ground was above him again. This time it was serious. In another nanosecond it’d be impossible to pull out. Not in front of Amelia! He fought the pressure of a doubled gravity, tore himself free, panted for breath. Head spinning and minus a couple of feathers, he regained his bearings, recalculated his flight parameters and casually sidled back up to Amelia. Again.
He changed the subject. “Don’t you want to know where I’m taking you for our date?”
“Oh?” she said. “You’re taking me? It’s usually the other way round, but ok, I like it.”
Oh hawk! Felix mentally slapped himself in the face. Another thing he didn’t know.
“Well.” His voice was smooth, but his mind was panicked. But he couldn’t back out of it now. He already looked like a fool, no point looking totally stupid. “The apes are making a new concrete ribbon. The park itself isn’t great—” Ok, he added to himself. It’s actually hot, bare, and treeless. “But see that excavator over there? I bet it’s dug up a stack of grubs.”
He made sure Amelia was comfortable in the cool shade of a machine before checking out radiator grills for insects. He counted sixty eight midges on a single four-wheel drive; two squashed butterflies, four ladybugs, and a smeared dragonfly on a hatchback; and a moth impaled on the hood ornament of a vintage saloon. He flew to the four-wheel drive. The considerate ape who owned it had installed a wrap-around mesh that must have swathed through every insect swarm known to bird.
Ignoring the midges, he beaked a once-beautiful orange butterfly out of the grill and presented it to Amelia.
“Oooh,” her eyes sparkled. “I’ve never had one of these before. Thank you.” She picked at her delicacy, Felix fetching the hood ornament moth for himself. The gentle sea breeze brought smells of barbecued mammal—mostly cow, with the occasional whiff of pig—and the sounds of partying apes. His belly grumbled, but Amelia was still delicately hard at work on her first butterfly. He cast a side-eye for nearby worms.
It was a beautiful day, filled with gentle weather, cool breezes, and delicious smells and before Felix realized it, they’d reminisced shared histories and envisioned hopeful futures for most of the day. Even the seagulls put on a show.
And the ending was perfect. Natural and calm. Although…there was that one moment—I’m sure she didn’t even notice—when he tried to kiss her. Well…not kiss her. Not really. He was just…open to it if she was. But she wasn’t so they didn’t and she never said anything about it so it must have been ok. In fact, she didn’t tell him he did anything wrong at all so the whole date must have been perfect for her as well. She probably wasn’t allowed to kiss on date day anyway.
Dizzy with the lighter-than-airness feeling of oh-I-really-want-this-to-be-love-please-let-it-be-love, Felix’s take-off was actually perfect.
Evolution: it's for the birds 