New Birds

The Chick Part 23

Samantha followed Marshall about the stork enclosure as he explained their care and feeding. She kept glancing about for Simon. Yesterday, when she entered the aviary for the first time, he had chased her into a corner and intensely scrutinized her. It had her wondering how such a brutish bird won over the beautiful Phoenix. But that was yesterday. She was quickly growing very fond of these intelligent, willful birds. Phoenix was present and gorgeous but held no mastery over what he once was. He was all now and new. Simon was not only full of his past lives, but he also evoked a certain willingness to improve on them. Still, his assertive nature was slightly unnerving.

"So, what's first?" she asked, satisfied Simon had chosen not to study her today.

Marshall held up a broom and a shovel. "You can sweep or shovel? Once we make a few piles, we have to separate the feathers from the other waste. The feathers go in that blue bin marked feather meal. The waste in the compost bin."

"How exciting." She took the broom.

Marshall smiled. "I thought you said you wanted to help?"

"I do. I think." She looked about the white splashed ground, but her sight soon veered upward, to the top of the aviary. The height of it made her dizzy. She pointed to the slightly sagging rope bridges. "But can I have a look from up there first?"

Leaning lightly on the shovel, he looked like he was thinking it over.

"I will eagerly sort feathers the rest of the day." She pressed.

'I might hold you to that." He took the broom back from her and they headed towards the North ladder.

* * *

The sight from the bridge was spectacular. Not just these sacred trees but even beyond the wall, where the sculptured brown peaks of the other mountains sat row after row, fading into a milky blue sky. All of it made her breath hitch.

"Tilly says these may now be the oldest trees in the world," Marshall said. "Some are almost four hundred years."

"Old, but not so old," she said. "There once was a Yew that was over four thousand years old in a country called Wales. And a Bristlecone pine that was closer to five thousand years in what was once California. And a cryptomeria, a cedar, named Jomon Sugi in Japan, that was also around four thousand. And these are only a few single individuals. If we talk about the root systems of some of the colonial specimens, they reached ages of 10,000 years old. It is a little sad now that our oldest survivors are still very young." She glanced over at him. He was staring at her.

"What?" she said, looking down at the outfit Tilly had lent her. It was a bulky, knitted blue sweater that went almost to her knees.

He shrugged. "Nothing. You just know a lot."

"I had access to books and Kelly's endless energy, and since I preferred reading to running, I made my way through many topics while she ran her marathons." She held out her sleeve for Marshall to smell. "Pine and crane. Just like Tilly."

His eyes, a blend between smoke and leaf, searched hers. She dropped her arm and looked out across the top of the trees again. The wind was picking up, and the bridge swayed with it. Samantha reached for the rope railing, placing her hand down on Marshall's wrist instead. She removed it and muttered an apology, but he hadn't noticed. He was looking down at the tall white columns. "See the middle nest." He pointed.

She looked to where a mother stork was feeding a lean brown hatchling. The chick was lifting itself upward, its stubby wings raised, its mouth open to receive the food. An unhatched egg sat beside it. "It looks different from the other stork chicks you showed me," she said.

"Because it's a crane." He slid his hand down her sleeve and into her palm, interlacing his fingers with hers, given her hand a slight squeeze. It was an action that she wasn't sure he was even aware of, for his attention was still on the nest. She didn't mind. She enjoyed the feeling of their palms pressed like this, fingers locked. It was the first time anyone ever held her hand.

"Heidi has accepted it. We need to let Louis know so he can tell Tilly." He led her back across the rope bridge. When they reached the ladder, and he let go of her hand, she was slightly disappointed.