New Birds

Blue Ribbon Blues Part 11

The judge wore black except for his white bow tie and red fedora. It appeared his eyebrows were penciled in, one thicker than the other. The ribbon carrier who trailed him was a young girl, perhaps ten. She wore a white shirt with a lace collar and a canary yellow skirt. The polished brass tray she carried held five large ribbons. The judge stopped in front of Louis and gingerly selected the blue one from the tray. Applause from the stands was adequate, if not thunderous, as Louis stepped forward to claim the win. His left hand gripped the satiny ribbon, while his right palm gently slid into the judge's dry and serrated one. If he wasn't sure before, he was now certain that this judge, along with his hat, had witnessed at least an entire century and a half of life.

"Thank you," Louis whispered, fearing his voice might crack with anything higher. This was his fourth straight win of the day, and he was finding absolutely everything about this moment emotional.

The young girl handed the old judge a cloth that smelled strongly of disinfectant. The Judge gave his hands a wipe and handed it back to her before moving down the line towards the second-place winner. Louis looked down at the ribbon in his hand, dazed with how splendidly everything had gone so far. This win was for all water birds, reintroduced and natural, wading, sea, and fresh. It was his greatest triumph.

His first win, best natural marabou, was mainly due to Simon's height. He stood a good four inches above the next largest specimen. To say Simon was all grace and discipline through that first round would have been a great exaggeration, but he hadn't acted up either. From there they went onto the Best Natural Stork round, where something astonishing happened. Simon became a seasoned show bird. It was as if he had taken pointers throughout the first showing and had applied them to the second. He adopted a majestic-looking stance, always held his head high, moved well with Louis, copying his pace effortlessly, and made occasional eye contact with the judges. Louis almost swore that the great bird even held in his breath when the judge measured the circumference of his upper body. He won the round easily. They followed this by winning best overall Stork, which included four reintroductions - a saddlebill, a milky, a black and a Jabiru. There was some prolonged discussion over Simon and the saddlebill, but eventually, they awarded the blue ribbon to Simon. And now this. His fourth win.

The old judge made his way slowly over to Beloved Angel, the pied avocet. When he stopped in front of her, another eruption of applause rang out. The applause was greater than what Simon had received, and Beloved Angel's owner gave a wave to the crowd, before snatching the second-place ribbon rather roughly from the judge's hand. Her quick action seemed to unbalance the judge, and he placed a hand on the young ribbon carrier's head to steadied himself before moving on.

Once all the ribbons were handed out, the winners lapped the ring a few times to the continuous applause of the audience and the other contestants before falling out of line to congratulate each other. The second-place winner gave Louis a warm smile, but when she leaned in to shake his hand, she whispered, "If I would have reported your bird's aggression yesterday, they would have disqualified you, leaving me the clear winner. So, I believe I am entitled to a portion of your prize money as compensation for remaining such a good sport about this farce."

Louis sighed. This was one problem with bird shows. Half the contestants rarely lost with grace. "I am sure if you thought my bird had the slightest chance at this prize money, you would have gone to the disqualifying team with bells and whistles blaring yesterday, so no, I will not give you a dime from my bird's winnings. They have all remarked on how superbly well behaved he is, so complain if you want. It won't stand. Have a good day."

As he led Simon from the ring, he raised his ribbon triumphantly, causing another cheer to erupt. His smile was now ridiculously wide.

Once back in the stall, Simon reached out and nipped Louis's thigh hard enough that it ripped his pants and drew blood. After an entire day of good behaviour and stellar performance, this surprised Louis. He had been under the impression that Simon was beginning to like him. Clearly this was not the case. Louis had removed the beak cap for the showings for obvious reasons, but as the trickle of blood made its way down his calf and into his sock, he now looked over at the beak cap wishfully, wondering how to proceed.