The Bird With Faulty Wings

A short story I dreampt and placed into reality; about a college freshman who tells a story to his cousin, subplot of a random hookup.

There I was, about to hook up with a girl in the dark on a bed who I had just met at an homecoming party. We were lying there, close to each other, as I hovered above her and began to kiss her; she was a horrible kisser. At first I tried to figure out why this experience was going so badly, I hadn’t hooked up with anyone in a while and I figured that I was at fault. Our lips barely met, and when they did the motion was out of time. I decided it wasn’t even worth trying to use my tongue; I had to go see my aunt and cousins for dinner anyway.

                The walk to the cafeteria wasn’t bad, but the whole time the girl was talking to her friend like she owned me. She was a horrible kisser, what right did she think that she had over me? This girl was talking so distantly in the future as if we were going to get married, “Next week we’re going to go to the mall, and after that he’s going to come over and meet my parents.” I had just met her, I didn’t even know her name and she’s talking like that, I figured there had to be something wrong with her. It’s not worth it to regret your decisions though so I just trudged on and went toward the cafeteria where I’d meet my family.

                Once I got near my family the girl got the hint and didn’t stick around. I greeted my cousin and my aunt cordially. It was nice to see them because we hadn’t seen each other in a long time and seeing a friendly face as a freshman in college is very welcome. We got our food at the cafeteria and began to eat, catching up on each other’s lives, going back up for seconds and thirds. After we finished, my aunt told me and my cousin to go put our plates away when we were done because she had to use the restroom, seeing as we were both full we decided to get up with her and put the dirty dishes in the window for the dishwasher to wash.

                As my cousin and I started talking with our free time, we came near a huge television on the wall of the cafeteria and stood to watch it for a little. A nature show was on, about a bird that couldn’t fly. On the screen they showed a whole bunch of birds flying into the orangey-pink glow of a New Jersey sunset over the shimmering waters of the Hudson, and after this magnificent scene they show this little bird who just stays on the shore because one of his wings are broken.

                I turned to my cousin and started to talk about how I was having a sort of déjà vu, remembering a time that told a story to her just like this the last time that we hung out. She said she didn’t recall. I began to tell her the story about this bird that had broken wings and couldn’t fly with the rest of his brethren. Scientists found the bird and gave him artificial wings so he could fly. The bird was happy about this, because finally he was able to do all of the things he was able to do when his wings worked, but there was a problem; the bird’s new wings were heavier than his old wings so although he was able to keep up with his other bird friends, he wasn’t able to fly as high. Even though he felt left out, he was still grateful because at least he had more mobility then he used to, but as the days went on he began to grow more and more jealous of the other birds. Right when the jealousy was about to break him he discovered a talent that none of the other birds possessed. Because his wings were more powerful than the other birds’, he was able to perform beautiful aerial maneuvers. While all of the other birds had to fly in a straight line to where they were going, only able to turn slowly or dip up and down without much grace, the bird with the artificial wings was able to fly in loops, corkscrews, helixes and even dive-bomb like the majestic eagle. All of the other birds then became jealous of the bird with artificial wings, and even though when they wanted to get back at him they flew above him and began to speak, he was able to reap immense joy out of simply flying with style and beauty.

I turned to my cousin and she told me dryly that she still didn’t recall, but that it was an interesting story. I said that she was crazy, and as we began to walk away from the television screen to the salad bar at the center of the cafeteria, I saw the girl who acted like she wanted to marry me. “Do you see that girl over there?” I said to my cousin.

“Which one?” she asked, “the one with the glasses?”

“Yeah her, I was hooking up with her before, she’s a terrible kisser. She started talking to her friend as we were walking here about how I was going to go to the mall with her and meet her parents after that, I don’t know where the hell she got that from honestly.”

“Some people are weird, Chris. Just don’t talk to her anymore.”

“Yeah you’re right; I’ll try to avoid her.”

As we were walking around the salad bar I kept trying to get her to recall the time I told her the story at her house. “It was during the fall,” I'd explained, “I my mom made those really good artichoke heart hors d'oeuvres, I was wearing that terrible olive and white knitted sweater.” She still didn’t remember. We stayed at the salad bar in silence for a minute, just looking for something to snack on while we waited, and then her mom came up behind us and asked if we were ready to go. We all walked outside and said our goodbyes, it was really nice.

As I was walking back home I noticed the girl was behind me with her friend. I wasn’t going to say anything of it because I did sort of ditch her after all and I guess I’m a nice guy. I heard her talking to her friend again and I decided to look back. She took off her glasses and said, “I like to wear glasses the first time I meet people because that way you get to know who the actual person is without them actually judging you.” In the halogen light hue that came off the streetlamp near where we were I could see for the first time how crooked her eyes were. Her face was a little misshapen, and judging by the nature of her conversation and the way her and her friend looked, a little socially awkward. When she saw me looking at her I gave a friendly wave and made the right to go where I had to go. I got to the door, swiped my card to get in, walked up the steps, and read once I got into my room until I passed out for the rest of the night.

Author's Note

Generally ignore grammar unless you feel it interferes with the story, I'd like your genuine opinion about that. I tried to give it a more naturalistic tone as opposed to a 'writer-as-god' tone, so after I proofread it I realized that I kind of like the mistakes better. That could be my ego though so if you disagree, again please make me aware. Also, I have a bad habit of using unnecessary semi-colons, so punctuation criticism would be appreciated. If you find the anything else to be distracting to the piece please, please let me know. With all that said, this is my first short story so any comments and criticism about anything would be greatly greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy it, thank you!