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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN#/ISBN# issue/book “Question Everything” cc&d, v280 (the February 2018 issue) Order this as a 6"x9" paperback book:  |
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Bird Island, Chapter 11: Where No One Can Count You
Patrick Fealey
Bird stands on the seat between Wawp and Jess. Cars come. Jess’ hair blows in Bird’s eyes. Wind blows through Bird’s feathers.
Jess says, “This is our third time going out with them. This is their last chance. You remember Thanksgiving? We got there at three-thirty, starving, carrying trays of food, and there was no smell. You asked them when the bird was coming out and Mary said, ‘Oh we didn’t put it in yet.’ and Bob said, ‘How long does one of these things take, anyway?’ and he brought the raw white turkey out of the fridge? Remember?”
“Yeah. Six hours of chips and dip,” Wawp says.
Jess says, “And remember the other time we went over? We were going to hang out and swim in the pool? We brought our suits. And when we got there it was hot and sunny, but they changed the plans, decided they wanted to go to Newport to walk around? They had the pool every day and wanted to do something different. Bob sped around Ocean Road and you got carsick and when we got downtown it was foggy and windy and we were freezing in t-shirts? Do you remember that?
“I remember.”
“Where are they taking us, some kind of nature preserve?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m still worried.”
“Can Jess use the bathroom?” Wawp says to it.
“Oh. I was going to use it. But it’s okay. Go ahead!”
“ . . .”
“Go ahead!”
“ . . .”
“What is that hideous creature?” it says.
“You must be Bob and Mary’s new roommate,” Wawp says. “He told me you were from Japan?”
“I’m not from Japan. I was born in America.”
“The chicken and I will wait outside.”
The air smells like rotting eggs. Bird follows them in the grass. The sun is on Bird. The land is open and flat. No place to hide - no shade - no water.
“For an old landfill,” Mary says, “It’s pretty nice. An environmental success story, really. Hard to believe there was a time when people thought this was a worthless garbage dump.”
“The U.S. Navy started that idea,” Wawp says.
“They burried the garbage with fill and dirt and planted grass. Isn’t it beautiful now? You can’t even tell.”
“Like a golf course,” Wawp says.
Jess smiles.
The air is dead eggs. Very close. The eggs are on the ground, crawling out. The metal trees without limbs grow out of the grass. Wires hang in the sky.
“I forgot how – it smells out here,” Wawp says.
“That’s the methane from the decaying garbage,” Mary says. “It’s piped off to make electricity.”
“Some of it is getting away.”
The storm bird is low – sharp wings and a sharp nose it passes overhead like thunder. It is faster than any bird and it is not a bird. It is one of theirs.
“YEEHAAAOW!” screams Bob. “I LOVE THE BLUE ANGELS! I WOULD BE UP THERE IF I DIDN’T WEAR THESE GLASSES.” Bob is pointing and talking and balding.
“I didn’t know it was the Blue Angels today,” Wawp says.
“You didn’t? Today and tomorrow,” Bob says.
Wawp looks at Jess. Jess smiles.
“You didn’t tell me,” Wawp says.
“I thought you knew,” Bob says. “What? You don’t like them?”
“It’s not that,” Wawp says. “I was just envisioning a peaceful picnic.”
“Well, we could go somewhere else. But they’re pretty much everywhere you go today. We’re stuck with them.”
Wawp and Bob come with bottles and cards.
Bob is talking “Bernoulli’s Law.”
Bird smells meat.
Jess smiles and nods.
Mary’s cheeks stretch.
Wawp says, “What about these high voltage wires? I heard on the news lately it wasn’t a good idea to hang out under them.”
Bob says, “The computer modeling programs they have for wing foil designs are fantastic.”
Roaring blue fright with swept wings and sharp noses shoot through the sky, roll and dive and roll and go in a scream down the water with fire tails until they are small enough to hear Bob shouting:
“Now, the room where I work is a class 10 clean-room, which means you have full-body coverage except for the face. We’re smoothing these silicon wafers to a flatness within 50 angstroms. An angstrom is the diameter of a molecule of helium. Tiny. Your hair is like 500 angstroms in width. One speck of dust could ruin the whole chip. Now, in a class one clean-room, there you have no exposure, not even the face. You have to wear a mask and goggles and a filter pack on your back. But really I want to get out of the clean-room altogether and do more of the designing. That’s where the money is at. I wanna be pulling in fifty grand so me and Mary here can have our own place. No more roommates from Japan or anywhere. After the wedding, we’re moving out. We’ve already decided to move to the Boston area. No more commuting. A place with a pool and a Jacuzzi. And we’re gonna get us a new car if we can ever agree on which one. All we can agree on is a four-wheel-drive utility vehicle, but it doesn’t have to be four-wheel-drive. I could go with a Pathfinder, but Mary doesn’t like Nissans. What you have against Nissans I don’t know, but at least we’ve agreed on the color: metallic teal green. And we’ve agreed on the China. Finally. We were looking at this Chinastone stuff, which isn’t really China, but it’s stronger and made from a composite. But you can’t see through it. China is more fragile, but what the hell, I want the real stuff. Don’t we, hon? The set we settled on is called ‘The Kingston’ and it’s got a platinum band around the border. Pretty neat, huh? Platinum rings and platinum on the China? We like platinum.”
Bob’s mate Mary’s lip curls up on one side and Mary’s jaw hangs open. Mary’s eyes are always on Bob. Jess nods and smiles, “Uh-huh.” Wawp is slipping into the sun without anyone. Bird waits for the food. Beers are opened. The food box gets closed. It is hot here and there are no trees. Bird walks into the shadow of the food box and stands by Wawp’s beer. Bird breathes through Bird’s mouth. Bird has a stomach. Bird is a stomach. Bird hungers, therefore, “AAAAHHWW!”
Wawp says, “In a minute.”
“A BIG CIGARETTE BOAT,” Bob says. “IT’LL TAKE US FROM GALILEE TO BLOCK ISLAND IN FIVE MINUTES. WHEE-UWW!!” Bob reaches out and pulls Bob’s arm back. The sound coming from him is like the big birds coming down across the water.
“Yeah, you’ll be there in five minutes and you won’t see a thing,” Wawp says. “Not the water, not the birds or the fish, and the rest of us will be choking on the smoke.”
Jess looks at Wawp.
Bob laughs.
“Is anyone else hungry?” Jess says.
“Yeah, I’m starved,” Wawp says. “I think Bird is starved.”
Meat. Meat.
“What do we got?” Wawp says.
“We have roast beef and ham,” Mary says. “This is healthy ham because it’s made from turkey.”
“Why not eat real ham?” Wawp says.
“This is healthier.”
“Is that possible?”
“Turkey is better for you than ham.”
Jess is looking at Wawp.
“Why not eat turkey, then?” Wawp says.
“You mean turkey turkey?” Mary says.
“Yeah,” Wawp says, “Turkey.”
“I don’t like turkey.”
“I’ll have the roast beef,” Wawp says.
Wawp takes apart the white paper and looks into the food. Wawp bites and breaks off a piece. Wawp breaks the meat into pieces for Bird.
Thunder birds lower the sky and Bird shakes below them. And Bob is talking again about the Bernoulli. Wawp leans back with Wawp’s beer and says, “The beer is good.”
“YEP,” Bob says. “I GOT SOME GREAT IDEAS FOR SOME BEER COMMERCIALS I WANNA WRITE. DO YOU THINK BUDWEISER WOULD BE INTERESTED?”
“Sure. Write ‘em a proposal.”
Bird is pulling the meat. Bird swallows. They talk while Bird eats and they eat. Wawp goes into the food box for another white paper and shares the meat with Bird. Bird will eat as much as Wawp will give Bird. Wawp knows that Bird will hide meat for another time. Wawp doesn’t like it when Bird hides food. Wawp says, “If you knew where all the food you’ve hidden was, you wouldn’t bother me for a year. You’re feeding the possums, skunks, and landlord.” But Bird will not hide food in this place.
Mary says, “After this we can go look for burrowing owls. They live in burrows along the edge of the flats.”
“Owls live here?” Wawp says.
“Sure,” Mary says. “We saw one last time we came, right Bob? Burrowing owls come out during the day.”
“We counted a hundred and one species that day, right hon,” Bob says.
“Fucking owls?” Wawp is looking at Bird. “There are owls here? You didn’t tell me that.” Wawp is up and his talk is hard at Bob.
Bob says, “Why?”
“Owls attack and eat crows. It’s their number one predator. I wouldn’t have brought Bird.”
“They’re small. Ground owls are small. Relatively. They wouldn’t bother him.”
“How do you know?”
The sky thunders. Jess covers her ears. Bob shouts. Bird sees the blue and yellow of the human bird and it leaves behind a white stream.
“WE’VE SET A TENTATIVE DATE FOR THE WEDDING,” Bob says. “IT’S GOING TO BE IN NARRAGANSETT.” The human bird touches the earth on the other side of the water. The dead eggs are free in the air. “AND I WANTED TO ASK YOU, BROTHER, IF YOU WOULD BE MY BEST MAN. YOU REMEMBER THE DEAL WE MADE BACK IN COLLEGE? YOU BE MY BEST MAN AND I’LL BE YOURS?”
Wawp looks from Bob to the horizon. He looks at the water and back to Bob. “Yeah, sure, yeah. Thanks for asking me.”
