Shhh! Scribbler at Work

Ad Astra

(prompt: 'space' 2/3/2018)

"Do you come here often, my dear?" Preston was sincerely interested. He hadn't seen her before, he was absolutely certain. I could hardly forget a face like that, he thought as he tried to keep his eyes from drifting over the rest of this luscious creature.

Prunella preened. She couldn't help herself - nor her furiously beating heart. And although her head nodded, she answered, "No. It's my first time, actually." For more than one thing, she thought and quickly ducked her head for fear this handsome fellow would see her impossibly fast-growing interest in him shining brightly in her soulful eyes.

Her unmistakable shyness brought out Preston's most manly chest-puffing persona, as he unconsciously gruffened his voice. "You thought this a lofty place to visit to dine on delicacies not usually found on the ground floor?" And before Prunella could answer, he continued, "I must admit the view is spectacular up here. SO spacious. Such a sense of freedom. And at night! Exactly like the words of the song '...above us only sky' - it's not difficult to imagine that we could almost touch the stars up here." Prunella ducked her head again - this time with a series of modest little nods.

"Ohh my dear... How I hate to disappoint you. Despite the luxury of looking down on the hoi polloi going about their usual mindless busyness so far below, you will need to search elsewhere for fine dining - or any kind of dining at all, actually." And he hastily added, "unless of course, you have brought your own?"

Prunella's disappointment was clear in her distressed eyes. "You mean... uhrr... I've come all this way for only a high-rise bed for the night? Is that what you're saying?"

Hanging his head and keeping it quite still for a moment or two, Preston answered. "It's true  dear lady, though I am loath to be the one to burst your dreams. I understand how you feel. After much bitter experience, I still find myself incurably drawn to the spectacle I see through this thing." Lifting his head as though it bore the heaviest imaginable weight, he stared sadly at the window, barely able to see through it despite the distraction of his own reflection... and that of the priceless Prunella.

In his best professor-type voice, Preston elaborated. "Although you can't see their legs because they're in beds, I assure you they are indeed 'two-leggeds' exactly like us— uhrr, well not quite, because they don't have wings. AND these are the creatures who feel sorry for those of our ilk who live their lives in birdcages!" He stopped to clear his throat, loudly, several times. "Look at them. Eating their hearts out, but they're behind glass that cannot open, on those peculiar perches they cannot leave, being fed whatever THEIR masters decree. No choice, my dear. No choice at all."

As Preston brushed an unbidden tear away with his smooth grey wing, Prunella saw a flash of wondrously iridescent feathers. She gasped at such beauty; appetite magically evaporated; heart suddenly celebrating her freedom and being with this wondrous soul generously sharing 'his' hospital ledge.