Strawberry Banana + Rainbow Sprinkles!
Title: From The Wooden Cross
Prompt: Strawberry Banana 24: Birdwatching
Topping: Rainbow Sprinkles
Rating: G
Word Count: 1, 426
Summary: Cora watches some birds and thinks about her life.
Story Note: Cora has not been fully developed! I was on this dollmaker and saw this really cool base, and I thought, “Hmm. I should turn that into a character.” And voila! Cora. I’ve got the basics but not the nitpicky details. So bear with me. Also. There isn’t really a huge wooden cross in the Esplanade in Boston. Forgot to mention in my introduction, but the story takes place in 2043-ish.
“A chickadee… a female chickadee, that’s what you are,” Cora murmured, curling her index finger and lifting her arm up, a makeshift perch for the small bird that was fluttering toward her. She smiled faintly when it land and cocked its head to the side in confusion, staring at her with its beady black eyes, barely blinking. How could this human be up so high? it seemed to be asking her. She wasn’t even sitting on a tree branch…
She was sitting on a tall wooden cross, that was how she could be up so high.
She couldn’t remember-or rather, she didn’t know when this cross had been erected. There was no brass plaque that indicated any year like the other monuments had. It was just… here. Right in the middle of the Esplanade, with Storrow Drive behind her and the Charles River in front of her. The Hatch Shell was off to the side somewhere, but she didn’t care very much for that. She only like sitting on this huge cross that seemed to have been made just for her. Maybe the person who had made it had used it for the same purpose. Maybe the person, like her, climbed this cross every day to watch life pass him or her by, to watch the birds and the wind and the water of the Charles River.
“Such a pretty bird, you are,” she cooed in a soft voice, locks of her blonde hair flying into her eyes due to the recent gust of wind. She looked down at the long skirt of her bright red dress; it was rippling in the wind. She shook her head a little, making sure that her beret of the same hue hadn’t fallen off. And all the while, this little chickadee was watching her. Like the bird was watching her rather than the other way around. An odd sort of bird-watching, she thought, bringing her hand a little closer so that she could get a better look at the bird. Yet it flew away at the sudden movement, and all she could do was watch it flee, watch it become a little tan dot against the pale blue, cloudless sky.
She stretched her hand out, wondering if any other birds would come to her, or if all she could do for now was lean against the intersection of the two large wooden stakes and watch them pass her by. What other birds would show up? Sparrows? Robins? More chickadees? Maybe even a cardinal or two? Maybe they would be attracted to her because of the color of her dress. But then perhaps the color of her sleeves would scare them off. After all, it was a slightly blustery day, and since this dress of her had short, dainty sleeves, she had taken care to put on a golden-colored long-sleeved shirt underneath. And since when did a cardinal have gold feathers? Or blonde hair and pale skin, for that matter?
She delicately placed one hand on the stake on which she was sitting to support herself-and how tightly the two stakes were bound! She was surprised that after all this time, the cross was still sturdy. This cross was still able to support her, still able to keep her from falling to the ground, collapsing in a heap, requiring medical attention. Or any sort of attention at all. She didn’t get much. But that was all right, because she didn’t require much.
“Don’t you ever come down from there?” a voice said behind her; she didn’t turn around, but she did smile.
That was the one person who actually gave her attention. Alexei. He had only just moved here a couple of months ago, yet he was still a comforting spirit. She could remember perfectly the first time that he had met, the first time he had been walking along the Esplanade. She’d been bird-watching, just like she was doing now, and he’d called up to her, asking if she was all right. She hadn’t looked down at him at first, only murmured that yes, she was all right, there was no need to talk to her, he could just move on. But he hadn’t moved on. He’d stayed there and said, “Hi… my name’s Alexei… what’s yours?” in his little Russian accent. She’d been shocked, no doubt, and she’d swiveled around to look at him, one eyebrow raised, but he was simply smiling up at her, like a naïve idiot. “What’s your name?”
After a pause, she replied softly, “Cora.” Of course, he’d asked her what she was doing up there, and she’d only said that this was like another home to her. She hadn’t gone into a lot of detail about why she always sat up there on that cross. And Alexei hadn’t asked her a lot of questions. The two of them had made light conversation, talking about the weather, about the color of the sky, about the birds. He’d even complimented her on the white dress she’d been wearing that day. He always complimented her somehow. He himself was almost like a little bird. Sure, he didn’t fly, but he was little and kind and always came back to her. Just like the birds in the trees at the Esplanade. He always came back. Even now, even when the weather was chilly, even in the middle of March, he always came back.
She finally swiveled around on the smooth wooden stake, looking down at him and smiling. He was wearing a pretty white scarf. Pure-looking. Just like the snow that fell to the ground during the winter. Just like the dress she’d been wearing when they’d first met each other. “Hello there, little Alexei,” she said, not moving toward the rungs that were engraved in the longer of the two stakes, the one was that planted into the ground at a strange angle, an angle that caused her to have to lean against the corner that was formed from the intersection of the stakes. “And how are you?”
He smiled up at her, cheeks bright red from the weather. “Come down here, Cora. In all the days I’ve come to see you I haven’t even seen you on the ground. I don’t even know how tall you are. What I do know is that…” He moved toward the cross, climbing upon the first two rungs and reaching out to touch the hem of her skirt. “You have the prettiest dresses. Where did you get this one? Did you make this one, too?” He smiled. “You’re like a little model, you know that? Always sitting up here on your cross during the day and looking at the river. I’m surprised that people haven’t come to ask you if you wouldn’t mind if they took a picture of you for future reference. Hasn’t anybody asked you for your name?”
She smiled faintly once again as a cardinal flew toward her, landing on her outstretched finger. “Yes, of course someone has asked me for my name. He just hasn’t asked me if I wouldn’t mind if he took a picture of me for future reference. You see, little Alexei, I’m not a model. Yes, I may make my own dresses sometimes, but I am not a model. I am merely a thinker. It’s what I was destined to do, you know… other people may have expected more out of me, but really, what am I good for? What good am I, little Alexei? Can you tell me?” She brought the cardinal a little closer to her, but it, too, flew away from her, and she watched it fly away, a blur of red against the pale blue sky. “Even the birds don’t like me. They may pay attention to me, but only a little bit. And as soon as I wish to get close to them, they fly away. Just like that. What kind of mental person would want to befriend someone like me?”
Alexei continued to climb up the cross until he was sitting on the other side of the intersection, facing the river while she faced the highway. “Me, silly.” he replied. “Only I’m not that mental. Just a little.”
“You must be, to be friends with me,” Cora remarked.
“Someone who isn’t friends with you is mental,” he corrected. “Even the birds come back to you, don’t they? That must mean that they like you, mustn’t it? A friend is someone who always comes back to you.”
She couldn’t help but agree with him.