She looked a little different. Her feathers shone like water and fell neatly over one another — not an inch out of line. I had noticed her since the last few days. She had been learning to fly but for a beginner, she was very good. While her radiant beauty caught my attention, it was truly her calmness that was alluring. I knew that she was the one!
Since yesterday, she had managed longer flights, circling in the sky above the human nest in her backyard and then swooping down on to the roof — clumsily at first and then she got a hang of it.
I decided to approach her today. So I woke up early, puffed my feathers, cleaned and sharpened my beak until it shone and made sure my feathers weren’t out of place. Just as the sun popped up over the horizon, I saw her take off.
I rushed to follow her but my claw was caught in a twig. I quickly got the twig off me and took off.
Now, where did she go?
A human flier was flying alongside so I caught a glimpse of myself in the windows. I looked perfect. I noticed a human offspring pointing excitedly at me from the window.
Yeah, yeah I know. They look very cute. But I am not falling for that cute smile!
I remembered the beak-pecked engraving of my grandfather on my nest tree. He had been smacked with a large stick by one of these offspring. The blow was so hard, my grandfather was knocked right out of his bird body.
They may look smaller than the adult humans but they are way more aggressive than the older ones.
Nevermind them! Where did she go?
I looked everywhere and soon spotted her right up ahead. I quickened my pace to catch up with her.
“Hey!” I called after her, now panting slightly, “Where are you off to?” I asked, keeping pace with her.
She didn’t answer.
May be she didn’t hear me.
“I SAIrrrD, WHEeeRE ARrrrE YOU OrrrrFF TO?” the winds were too strong, making it very difficult for me to talk. I wondered whether she heard me or did I just manage a gurgling sound.
She didn’t answer again. Females are like that. They tend to ignore us. Especially beautiful ones like her.
“Oh come on!” I said trying hard to grab her attention, “I saw you a couple of days ago. You were just learning to fly at the time! I stay near your nest. You must have seen me some time, right?”
Ah well, she didn’t even look at me. She was looking straight ahead and flapping her wings effortlessly. Either she was flying at an incredible speed or I had just become tired because I was finding it difficult to keep up with her. I thought it best to let her be for now and try talking to her tomorrow again.
“Ok look, I guess you are not in a mood to talk, so I will not bother you right now. But if you feel like going worm-hunting some time, I stay very close to your nest.”
I slowed down and watched her disappear into the clouds. I think she did glance behind once or may be I was just too hopeful.
***
The next morning, I followed her again.
“You don’t like worms?” I asked, trying to restart the one-way conversation we had yesterday.
She didn’t reply again and kept flying, adroitly dodging a few other birds. Surprisingly, today we did not come across any of the human fliers. There were a few in the distance but nothing zooming past us.
“Do you mind if I fly with you?”
No reply.
“I guess that means you don’t mind.” I muttered. I had decided to pursue my first love until she said yes. No way was I going to let anyone else fly away with her.
So we flew quietly for a while. I had put on my special wing enhancers to make sure I do not get tired like yesterday. Oh and they also made me look better. At least, that’s what I thought. I hadn’t flown across this part of town. There was a river flowing down below and there were some human nests along the banks. It was a lovely checkered decoration with a beautiful river cutting right through the middle of this pattern. I glanced at her once or twice and found her looking straight below at the scenery.
Almost suddenly, she started her descent. Once again, I followed her.
“What? What is it? Did you spot a juicy rat or something?”
By now, I had realised that I wasn’t going to get a reply but still I continued to talk. May be she will answer. As we neared the ground, I realised she was aiming for the roof of a human nest. With a loud thud, both of us landed on the roof and then, went clippety-clop on the tiles as we approached the window. It was slightly open and the humans were talking.
She watched them intently.
I looked at her and then the humans.
“These are humans,” I explained because I thought she had seen one of them for the first time, “And that’s how they talk to each other.”
She continued to look at them.
“Take my advice. Stay away from them and especially their offspring. They can get very violent.”
I knew she was listening but did not respond. She scratched under her wing and then continued to look at the two humans.
Trying to get her attention again, I said, “If you don’t like worms, I will teach you how to collect fruits.”
“Oh no! The humans have spotted us! Move back, quick!” and I took a few steps backward as the human approached the window. I half expected the human to hurl a stick at us but he simply closed the window with a click and returned to talk with his mate again.
I stared at the window, heart pounding with fear and relief.
I think she sighed once and turned around sadly, spread her wings and took flight.
“What was that?” I asked her once we were airborne again, “Did you come all the way here to just look at two humans talking?” I asked quizzically. “You could have seen those in that human nest in your backyard! And trust me when I say this, we sure were lucky today that they didn’t poke us with a stick or something.”
As always, she did not get involved in this conversation.
“I think you were lucky I was there by your side so they did not dare to throw anything at us,” I boasted, “Next time, just tell me when you want to go anywhere, I will come along!”
After that, the journey back home was again in silence. I spent the evening telling my friends about our little adventure. I tweaked it a bit here and there — like in my version the human tried to poke us with a stick and I bravely protected her with my large wings and pecked at the stick until the human retreated into its nest but some of my friends knew me too well to believe my story. They simply rolled their eyes. However, I did get a few awestruck gasps from their little ones, who were listening keenly.
That night, I fell asleep wondering why she was so quiet?
***
I woke up early the next day and decided to bring her a surprise.
So here I was, holding a small worm in my beak and a little berry in my mouth, and hopping along the branch to her nest.
She was still asleep. I carefully laid the worm and the berries in front of her.
“Good Morning!” I called softly, hoping she would wake up but she didn’t even stir.
I didn’t know her name. Nevermind, I thought, I will ask her today.
“Hey! Wake up! Look what I got for you!”
She opened her eyes so suddenly that I was startled. I almost fell off the branch. Rebalancing, I approached her again, “Look what I got you today.”
She was already looking at what lay in front of her and then with an awkward jerk, she looked at me.
This was the first time, I looked into her eyes. At first, I thought she had very dark eyes but then I noticed it — her eyeballs moved forward and backward with a weird buzzing sound and then stopped with a click.
