Читать книгу More Short Stories to Read on a Bus, a Car, a Train, a Plane (or a comfy chair anywhere) - Colin Palmer - Страница 8

FELICITY

The world had clipped her wings.

Nothing but squalid living quarters for almost two years; dirty, grimy, overpopulated and the underlying stench of waste only bearable because the reek of unwashed bodies was closer, infinitely closer and impossible to avoid. Standing in ankle-deep foul water was an almost a permanent requirement as the ability to move was restricted by the bodies pressing from all sides. Movement was at the whim of the group.

She automatically swallowed an errant grasshopper, her stomach clenching and heaving in distaste. Shrimps were her favorite but so rare that she couldn’t even remember their delectable flavor – it had been a long time, a very long time. She shouldered at the pressing body on her right side, the disgust at the flagrant violation of her personal space enough to help her empty tummy settle a little more.

‘Come on sunrise,’ was her thought and perhaps this time she could conjure an escape. Success was her only motivation, to live was her incentive. She closed her eyes and dreamed standing up, the only possible way to sleep in this decrepit, insipid environment.

A wave rolled through the group as they woke with dawn’s first light. Many a feather was rustled as one after another opened their eyes to another dreary day of existence. The sun broke through and the horizon was littered with a thousand sparkling jewels of yellow light which brought the group into a concerted movement forward away from the squalor that was home. They moved in a jostling formation to the shallow waters of a fenced-in lake and she saw her chance as a break in the crowd appeared to her left.

Up, up, up she rose, the calls from friends and family below, startled but seemingly unsurprised. She saw the fence line approaching, she was almost there when suddenly, she came to an abrupt halt and crashed down onto the still waters.

Two people standing behind the fence shook their heads and laughed. “That Felicity,” one guffawed, “when’s she gonna learn?”

“At least we know that netting works now,” added the other.

They walked away still laughing, past the sign that read:

FLAMINGO ENCLOSURE

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