“I think so.”
“Then if she’s not cool with something she can just turn into a bird and fly away, so what are you worried about?”
Corinthia had never thought about it that way.In one sense it was relieving.In another sense it filled her with cold-sweat panic that Rosemary might want to fly away.“Do you think… do you think she’s waiting for me to say something?”
Drew marked the fence in several places, seemingly taking time to think about her response.“Kids today, some of them don’t like to put labels on relationships.People our age, though, we’re old-school.We gotta know where we stand.”
“Are birds old-school?”Stevie asked.
“The oldest,” Drew said.“They come from dinosaurs, right?”
“I’m going to see her again at the Wildlife Festival,” Corinthia said.She had envisioned arm-in-arm strolls, sugary fried treats, and perhaps a souvenir photo with Jay the Scrub Jay, the event’s mascot, who was always played by one of the library or environmental center staff in costume.
“Drew will be there with her food truck,” Stevie said.“I’ll be doing guided hikes most of the time, but when I get a break I’m coming out for snacks.And I’m going to ride on the eco-buggy.And maybe go to the raptor demonstration if I have time.”
“Who’s wearing the scrub jay costume this year?”Corinthia asked.Every year, someone had to wear the stifling scrub jay costume.She’d done her time once or twice.
Stevie stared at her.
“What?”Corinthia said.
“Didn’t you know?”
“Didn’t I know what?”
Stevie looked anywhere but at Corinthia.“We went over the roster from previous years…”
“And?”
“And everyone else has had a turn in the rotation and now it’s back to you.”
“I am not wearing six feet of fake feathers and a bird head that smells like gym socks.”
“I’m afraid that you are.”
Corinthia fell silent.Perhaps it was unreasonable to fume at the injustice of the world over having to wear a hot and stinky bird suit, but Corinthia did a very good job of fuming anyway.
“You don’t have to wear it the whole time.You can take breaks.Go to the native plant talk.Heck, you can give one yourself, now,” she added, gesturing to the backyard.
“I did want to see the raptor demonstration—”
“Don’t wear the bird suit!”Drew said.“The raptor might think you’re a snack.”
“Very funny,” Corinthia said.
24
Onthedayofthe Wildlife Festival, Corinthia stood in the largest stall of the library restroom and faced down the uninhabited bird costume like an old enemy.Was there anything more lacking in dignity, she thought, than climbing into such a monstrosity in the inelegant confines of a bathroom stall?
But there was nothing for it.Corinthia knew her duty; it was right and fair that it was her turn, and Corinthia could never say no torightandfair.
She tugged off her shoes and set them neatly to the side.She stripped down into a tank top and a lightweight pair of stretchy shorts, feeling uncomfortably uncovered.She pulled the costume itself off the hanger—the head hung on the purse hook—and shook it out, hoping to dislodge any spiders that might have taken up residence over the last year of disuse.Then she carefully gathered it up, stepped into one leg, and then stepped into the other.
She had put the bird costume successfully over her ankles.Unfortunately, this did not improve the overall lack of dignity.So she drew it up over her bare legs and over her torso before stuffing her arms down the bulky sleeves.There were hand covers, too, like oversized blue mittens, but these also hung on the purse hook, beneath the bird head.
Corinthia reached for the back zipper—flailed for the back zipper—and finally realized that someone else was going to have to zip her up.She sighed.“Stevie!”she called.
While she waited, she stepped into her sneakers and looked in the mirror.
