I
stood out on the quad as the dawn broke. The sun seemed even brighter
this morning. The clouds sharper, the wind crisper, the bird song
merrier. Maybe because I was about to set out on a great journey
whose true end I did not know, and I was already missing this place.
“Hey there,” said Ruth behind me. She put her arms over my
shoulders.
“Someone’s an early bird.”
“Just like you now.” She yawned. “Can’t avoid it. Are you
ready for this?”
“For what? A kiss?”
Ruth laughed, and nuzzled the feathers of my neck. “I’m sure
you’re always ready for that. No, I mean ready for the journey. For
the search. For the challenge.”
“To be honest, I think the greatest challenge would be getting
an old man set in his ways to back down.”
“That’s what we get for not simply letting Artemis or
Professor Windsor take the shot,” said Ruth. “What we get for
playing nicely. He might get really angry at us and try to kill us
with a bunch of Super Science. And if we ask him for a cure, he might
not have any answers we’re looking for. Still…it’s better to at
least try, isn’t it? I really don’t want to be an accomplice to
murder.”
“And yet you’re getting yourself involved here. You could just
stay home. But you deliberately got yourself involved in this
transmogrification mess when you –”
“Don’t you dare say I didn’t have to,” said Ruth. “You’re
suffering. I wasn’t going to stand by. Not when it’s you. Not
after all the years we’ve known each other, not now that we’re
figuring out what we mean to each other. You get it?”
“Yeah but – what about the rest of your life beyond me? Your
studies? Your family? Your friends? I get that this is for love but
what about your future?” I lifted her arms off my shoulders and
spun around, to see her neck covered with brown and cream-colored
feathers. “You wanted to be a lawyer and do everything you could to
defend the common people. Instead you are sacrificing yourself for
me. What about building your foundation?”
Ruth’s eyes looked watery. “It does sound crazy, doesn’t it?
But I could win every lawsuit against the big players and it would
all feel empty without you. I could go home to my family and friends
in Duluth and my world would still be empty without you. I don’t…I
don’t know what my future is without you in it. What exactly is my
foundation, if not you?”
“All your hopes and dreams and ambitions before you met me.
Don’t forget them. Not even for my sake. There’s going to be a
day, maybe tomorrow, maybe a hundred years from now, that I won’t
be there. That day, you will have to stand without me. That day you
will need a solid place to stand. Because I don’t want you to fall
and follow me right at my heel. Alright?”
Ruth sniffled. “Alright.”
I put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll get out of this if we
work together, alright? And in years to come, if we each have our own
foundation, we can put them together and make a big foundation, and
many can stand with us, and they can add their own foundations and
the metaphor is getting away from me.”
Ruth giggled. “I get it.”
“Then let’s continue packing.”
And so we set about our preparations – I to finish packing the
bags, Ruth to pick up waybread and chicken jerky from the market and
dried crickets from the pet shop, because at this point I’d
completely lost my taste for human food. I was very much looking
forward to getting it back. Crickets. Honestly. What a bunch of birdbrainsWhat were birds even
thinking.
As for what Rook was supposed to eat, well, there were plenty of
mule deer between here and there. Hopefully we wouldn’t have to
swipe a sheep.
I had that thought on my mind as I trudged up a grassy hill in the
noonday sun. But it was not my intention to answer the question up
here. My goal was to make a very special prayer.
I spread my rug upon the grass. I knelt upon it and put my hands
together.
Suddenly the day felt a bit brighter and hotter. I rose, and
squinted in the sunlight glare. I shielded my eyes.
If the day was so hot, why was I shivering?
“Hey there,” said the voice of a young man. “Looks like
someone wants to talk to me.”
That was not the voice of an angel of God.
“I certainly don’t want to talk to YOU,” I hissed.
“‘Scuse me?" A figure appeared standing in the grass before me, a buff, shirtless man, with perfectly coiffed blonde hair, a chiseled jawline, delicate lips and gleaming eyes. He had a hand on his hip and looked thoroughly disappointed. "You were making a prayer in my direction in the
middle of the day. What was I supposed to think? That you were just
having fun?”
“You were supposed to be thinking that the prayer rug had
nothing to do with you. You were supposed to remember all the times
you’ve seen monotheism in practice.” I rose to my feet and
crossed my arms. “You were not supposed to be spying on my private
prayer. I came up to this hill to be alone.”
“I kinda see everything that happens outside, babe.”
“What the hell do you mean ‘babe’? Didn’t your sister tell
you about me?”
“Yeah she did. She said you were a bit loony.”
“She has a lot of nerve calling ME loony. Spill it, what do you
want?”
“Well, I’d like to know you were worshipping me –”
“Absolutely not.”
“Well then I’d love to know what exactly you were praying
for, or who you were praying to, if not these.” He flexed his bicep.
I had been asking for the courage to be as good a friend to Ruth
as she was to me. But I wasn’t about to let frikkin' Apollo know that, even if
he hadn’t been the sort of fellow to pretend he was divine. “Not
your business, sunny boy. I’d love to know what your actual
business with me is.”
“Offering advice for your flight,” said Apollo. “You’re
gonna be on an Odyssey and you’ll need to use whatever tricks you
can to stay safe. Like, everyone’s got a camera on them, right? And
Hephaestus can spy on cameras? So if you fly by day, everyone’s
going to be taking pics and a certain Olympian will be able to track
you. Not to mention Zeus will be able to spot you real easily, if you
try to fly high enough to avoid everyone. So unless you want to swear
absolute fealty to me and be under my special protection –”
“Absolutely not happening.”
“ – then you’ll have to fly by night, low enough to avoid
jet planes and radar. Like, maybe less than fifty feet off the
ground. Look up NOE flying.”
“Fly by night. And risk meeting your dumb sister again?”
“Hey, she can be a bit of a jerk but she’s not that bad. In
comparison.” Apollo coughed. “Leave it at that.”
“Stiff competition among Olympians. And it sounds like I’ve
pissed off Zeus already, eh?”
“Well, yeah.” Apollo scratched his head. “You very openly
refuse to call my family gods.”
“How many times do I have to make it clear? I’m a monotheist!
What did Daddy Zeus think I was going to do? I have an obligation to
deny any earthly creature’s claims to divinity! If that’s what
your dad hates he should have zapped every monotheist in North
America by now, which is to say, damn near everyone!”
“Yeah, well, none of them have met us gods. You have. And yet
you still don’t get it.”
“I refuse to ‘get’ anything.”
I heard voices from lower down the hill, and turned to see Guy,
linked in arm with the really tall girl who sang contralto in the
school choir. They were ahead of a few other students. All of them
were looking in my direction. “Hey,” said one of them, “I
wondered where those caws were coming from. It’s the crazy furry.
Um. Feathery?”
“That’s Rani,” said Guy. “Situation’s a bit more
complicated than that. But check out the handsome fellow they’re
talking to. Hey there, big guy.”
“Hey babe,” said Apollo in a highly intrigued voice. “You
don’t look half-bad yourself. Want to make some music with me?”
“Hey!” I squawked. “Absolutely not! You keep your hands off
him, you old lech!”
“He’s an adult!” said Apollo. “He can make his own
decisions.”
“Sure, and then you’ll get bored and dump him! I know how
Olympians work!”
Apollo scowled. “You know how my dad works. I’m different.”
“Yeah? Then why did Daphne run away from you?”
Apollo sucked in a breath. “That is a low blow, birdie.” he
took a harmonica out of his pocket. “And just to clarify, I was
talking about actual music, dumbass.”
I scoffed, and looked away from him, down the hill. The girl who
had linked arms with Guy was scolding him about something, while
everyone else was staring at me and Apollo up above.
“Correct me if I am wrong,” said one of the other girls, “but
bird-brain looks like they’re actually…having a conversation with
the hot guy?”
“That’s about the size of it,” said Guy.
“So what,” said the girl who had been berating Guy, “did the
crazy furry forget how to talk American or something?”
I squawked in frustration, then spread my wings, causing Apollo to
jump back – seeing a three-meter wingspan unfold out of nowhere for
the first time has to be startling even for a Great Spirit. I flapped
my way into the air, hard as I could to get myself away from this
absolute mess.
As I rose, I heard the girl saying, “Damn, that has to be the
most expensive furry outfit of all time.”
And I heard Guy saying, “It’s not expensive, but it is
costly.”
…
I landed in front of Ruth, right outside the science building.
Despite the brown and white feathers covering her arms, she seemed as
chipper as usual. Perhaps because she had spotted me. “Hey
there, my favorite feathered friend. You about ready to go?
“I am definitely ready to get out of here.”
Ruth looked concerned. “Did something happen?”
“I ran into Apollo and made an ass of myself.”
Ruth grinned. “That’s funny. You look more like a bird. Matter
of fact…” She frowned. “You look like my favorite bird. Cream
neck, gray beak, blue-gray wing feathers, black flight
feathers…You’re a Peregrine Falcon.”
I blinked. “What?”
“And how handsome your feathers are,” muttered Ruth. “Hot
damn. Any discerning bird would say you’re a perfect mate.”
“Leave the bird lust aside for right now, buddy. We’ve got our
last preparations to make.”
“Hey!” said a familiar voice. I turned. There stood Guy, and
the girl from earlier. Both of them were visibly out of breath. Guy
placed the rug in my hands. “You, hah, forgot this, hah. Not
something, hah, you want to forget. Right?”
I bowed low in gratitude.
When I looked up, he seemed sad, and the girl next to him looked
confused. “I don’t get it,” said the girl. “Can you not speak
American? It isn’t just an act?”
Goodness, the world looked watery all of a sudden. I shook my
head. I tried to blink away the tears. The world still looked watery.
Dammit. Apparently birds could cry. Or I could, at any rate. I wasn’t
sure what exactly I was anymore.
“What the hell happened to Rani?” said the girl.
“The Morrow Lab,” said Ruth. “Crazy stuff happens in that
place.”
“Speaking of which,” said Guy, “Can we three talk inside?
Ayaan, you’d better stay outside, it’s not exactly safe in
there.”
After three of us had hustled into the building, leaving Ayaan
outside looking perplexed and worried, Ruth gazed around at the empty
hall and then gave Guy a skeptical look. “It’s perfectly safe in
the hallway, dude.”
“Hard to say if some experiment won’t go haywire and bust down
doors,” said Guy. “But yeah, you got me. I just didn’t want to
talk in front of Ayaan because she’s kind of into me and…um…I
didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’m hoping to take a path
where she can’t follow.”
I tilted my head in confusion.
Ruth put her face in her hands. “Jesus Christ. The Bird Solution
is seducing everyone, isn’t it? Why on earth would you want to
subject yourself to a condition that will swiftly cut yourself off
from the rest of humanity? I did it because I was being an idiot and
because I know I’m sticking with Rani for the rest of my life, so
if this condition is irreversible I can at least talk to them –”
“And to the birds,” said Guy. “Isn’t that worth the
trouble? To be able to communicate with a species beyond humanity,
for once? It would be a great advancement for biology, for animal
welfare, for environmental stewardship, all kinds of things.”
“That’s…fair. Maybe worth the cost to one’s own life. But
I know my own family is going to freak out about this entire
situation when I tell them the story, and that’s if I’m even able to,
at the end of all this. What about yours? What about your own friends
and family back home?”
Guy looked grim, for the first time I’d ever seen. He crossed
his arms. “There is no back home.”
“What?” said Ruth, looking shocked. “What happened?”
“You’ve heard of Laughlin, Nevada?”
Ruth gasped. “The Hoover Dam. Nobody in Laughlin got out in
time. Oh my God, Guy, I’m so sorry.”
“And my parents weren’t exactly wealthy,” said Guy. “There
wasn’t much of anything for them to leave me, even if the
subsequent political upheaval hadn’t caused absolute chaos in legal
paperwork. So I can coast on my student loans until I graduate, but
after that…what do I do? Where do I go? I’ve got no foundation
left, no idea of where I want to go, nothing to return to…but I
have this bit of Mad Science, and I can run away with the birds if I
want. So why not? Um…why is Rani looking at me like that?”
I realized I hadn’t blinked in the past minute, or looked away
from the lad. Ruth glanced at me and chirped, “Parental instincts
activated?”
I nodded.
“Easy, love, you’re not turning into a stork. We’re being
his friend here.” She turned back to Guy and crossed her arms. “Why
not? Well, it depends on whether you’re running away from humanity
to escape your problems, or sacrificing your humanity for the sake of
others. If it’s the former, there’s no guarantee you’ll be
happy with the results. If it’s the latter, you might be able to
bear whatever hardship you find, because you know the path you’re
on was your decision. Think about it. Don’t make a decision too
quickly.”
“You’re one to talk,” I chirped.
“Precisely,” said Ruth. “I was an idiot. I’m not going to
let anyone else be. And as for keeping secrets from people, lad, I’m
not going to let you do that either.” She pointed at the outer
doors. “You are going to go out there and tell Ayaan, a potential
friend who clearly likes you and could help you stay on your feet,
what you are hoping to do. She does not deserve to be left in the
dark and then left behind because you couldn’t figure out any other
options for your life but the most drastic. Have I made myself
clear!”
“Yes’m,” said Guy, and saluted. Then he hurried out the
doors.
“Okay,” I said, “You told me to be a friend to Guy but I
think you’re doing it a lot better than me.”
“Easier for me when I can communicate with him,” said Ruth.
“I am suddenly very tired of being a bird."
“I don’t blame you,” said Ruth. “I’m not looking forward
to the further progression of this condition myself.” She took me
by the hand and led me further into the building.