Another day in paradise

Rosa playing her game of waves chasing her

Another glorious day in paradise.

“Nirvana! Nirvana! Nirvana!” shouted Pawo at the top of his lungs as he took a deep breath of salty air and extended his wings as far as they would go and looked out over the Atlantic Ocean towards Africa.

“It truly would be nirvana if God realised he made a mistake by creating seagulls and fed them all baking soda.”

Pawo scowled at Elizabeth with whom he had just finished doing yoga, thereby welcoming in a new day. “You don’t agree?” asked Elizabeth.

“No,” replied Pawo, “they are God's creatures. We need to be nice to them and welcome them into our paradise.” Elizabeth disagreed as she bent down to pick up her towel and shook it violently to get rid of all the sand. Pawo covered his eyes as she did that.

“You’ve never been dived bombed by one of those ugly creatures, have you?”

“Dive bombed?” enquired Pawo not quite sure what his yoga partner meant by that term. “You’ll know it when it happens. That’s when they shape themselves like a missile and come hurtling down towards earth in your direction.”

And just as Elizabeth was forewarning Pawo, she happened to look up and notice one beginning the early stages of shaping itself. “Watch out!” she shouted to Pawo and instead of waiting for him to realise what was about to happen, she flew at him, knocking him over thereby escaping the wrath of the seagull. “That’s what I mean,” she told him and he stood up quickly and dusted himself off.

“Wow! That’s never happened before, has it?”

“You’re right. I don’t know why that one decided to try, other than it had heard what I said about them and decided to give you an example.”

Pawo shook his head and turned to walk back to his nest. He stopped and turned to look at Elizabeth who had begun her walk to her nest making sure she kept her distance from Jeremy who always watched them and especially Elizabeth, every morning after her yoga session with Pawo.

“What does baking soda do?” Pawo asked in all seriousness.

“Phut!” Elizabeth made an awful sound.

Pawo copied her. “What does that mean?”

“Well,” Elizabeth walked closer to Pawo making sure he would protect her from the evil eye of Jeremy. “Phut,” she repeated, “they eat it and explode.”

“Explode!” shouted Pawo, “oh no! That’s so violent.” And then he hesitated for a second. “Does it work?”

“Like a charm,” smiled Elizabeth, “like a charm. The only problem is that the beach gets covered with blood and guts.”

Pawo shook himself. This was a side of Elizabeth he had never seen before and wasn’t sure he liked. “Still too violent for me, goodbye for now,” and with that the two birds parted company and Elizabeth continued her walk back to her nest.

“Are you going to shower now?” asked Jeremy as she unfortunately had to walk too close to him.

“Buzz off,” she replied as she did every morning he was out there.

“Need someone to scrub your back?” he asked as he did every morning about this time. Elizabeth ignored him. But just as she was about to enter her nest she turned to make sure Jeremy wasn’t following her she happened to look out towards the water and stopped. “Is that Rosa out there?” she shouted to him.

Jermey stood up and looked in the direction Elizabeth was pointing, “I think so,” he agreed, “with I think her bestest friend Anjali.”

“What is it they are doing?” He didn’t seem too concerned but used that as an excuse to engage his cousin in a longer conversation. However, she knew all his tricks and refused to get sucked into one of his inane conversations.

“I’ve got a great idea, Jeremy. Why don’t you go down there and find out?” and with that, she entered her nest and slammed the door behind her. Another day and another rejection. Jeremy sighed heavily and shook his head. He then began walking towards the water’s edge. As he got closer, he heard Rosa screaming with delight as she walked towards an outgoing wave and then turned and ran back as the wave tried to chase her. Yes, he had seen Rosa do that many times. “Uncle,” she would say to him every time he came closer, “uncle, the waves love to chase me.” Jeremey would nod his head in childish agreement but refrain from joining her in fear Elizabeth might see him and have more ammunition to use against him. “Just be careful,” he shouted to Rosa and her friend when he got closer to them.

“Good morning, uncle,” shouted Rosa not stopping her walk out towards an outgoing wave. “This is the best game in the world. I never grow tired of it.”

“That’s obvious,” replied Jeremy, “does your friend know how to play it? I haven’t seen her here before.”

“No, this is her first time. I’m trying to teach her,” and just at that moment as Anjali was walking outwards a wave turned around unexpectedly and began its inward journey catching Anjali by surprise and nearly washing over her. Rosa laughed. But if it weren’t for the quick wittedness of Jeremy who quickly flew down to Anjali grabbing her wing and lifting her into the air, it would not have ended well.

“Rosa,” Jeremy said. “I think you should stop playing this game especially by yourself or with your friend who doesn’t know how to play it before something bad happens.”

“Oh,” replied Rosa sounding a little sad. “Your probably right. Ok Anjali, let’s stop. Why don’t we go back to my nest and see if Brenda has woken up.”

Anjali jumped for joy, “that’s a great idea,” and then the two young birds walked side by side back to Rosa’s nest. Jeremy for his part stood there for a moment and looked out at the rising sun. He had to shade his eyes as the sun was getting strong. ‘Time for me to go for my walk to the crab sanctuary and see if any young crabs have wandered off the reservation and then I can have breakfast,’ he thought to himself.

“Jeremy,” he heard his name shouted and yes, his heart stopped. It was Elizabeth. It was the first time he had ever heard her call him in such a tone. He stopped and turned. “That was very brave of you,” she said looking out of one of her windows. “I was amazed at your bravery.” Jeremy’s heart was beating stronger and faster than it ever had. He began walking towards Elizabeth believing his luck had changed, but it hadn’t. “I just wanted to let you know that was an incredibly brave act. But nothing has changed other than that. So please continue your walk into oblivion,” and with that Elizabeth closed her window.

Jeremy dropped on to the sand and collapsed. “Why me?” he asked looking up at the sky and then noticed a seagull making a beeline for him. He immediately got up and as soon as the seagull swooped down, he kicked it with all his force which sent the bird spinning out of control to the cheers of some humans who were in the middle of their daily walk picking up garbage from the beach. He bowed, dusted himself off and continued walking towards the crab sanctuary not bothering to look back to see if Elizabeth had noticed. “Just another day in paradise,” he said to himself. “Just another day in paradise.”