WHAT THE LITTLE BIRD HEARS
The next morning Wren carefully slides out of bed being careful not to wake Norman as she does. Her foot catches something hard and there’s a loud thump on the floor followed by a low whirring sound. She practically leaps toward the sound as it rolls under the bed. Grabbing it she quickly turns it off and stands still watching Norman roll over and open his eyes.
“You can slide undetected into peoples homes and kill them before they know what’s happening but you can’t get out of bed without waking up the whole building.”
“That’s not true I only woke you.”
“So where are you sneaking off to at this hour?”
“This hour? It’s seven in the morning! For your information I’m going to take a shower.”
“Fine, I'll join you then.”
Norman gets up and stretches then follows Wren into the bathroom. Soon they are in the shower their hands washing but not themselves. It takes them a little longer than normal before they are out and drying off.
“Wren something’s puzzling me.”
She wraps her arms around his neck and looks deeply into his eyes.
“What’s that lover boy?”
“Didn’t you tell me once that your cycle is exactly thirty days?”
“Yes…That should have been yesterday!”
Wren grabs her housecoat and throws it on as she races from the room and quickly starts pounding on her mother’s door.
“Mom, I have a problem.”
“Come on in and tell me what it is and we’ll see if we can work it out.”
“I think I might be pregnant!”
“What makes you think that?”
“My cycle has always been thirty days, never more, never less. Today is day thirty-one.”
“Now let us not get all in a tizzy. Many things can throw your cycle off illness, stress, injuries, pregnancy, not sleeping, fucking like rabbits in heat. Now how many of these things can we equate to you? Stress for sure, not enough sleep definitely and I think it safe to assume the last the way you and Norman carry on. Do not worry about it so much, let life take you where it will. If you are, then you are, at least you are married to a good man. Your new job has health coverage and it would be a wonderfully peaceful place to have a child.
Now wipe the tears from your eyes. There is no reason to be upset about this just think how many missed periods your grandmother had before I came along. How many times she cried herself to sleep because one was a week or two late. I always thought it was odd that you ran on such a clockwork schedule.”
“Thanks mom.”
“I will be here for you as long as the good Lord leaves me here for you. Now why don’t you run along? Your husband needs his breakfast before work and he is probably worried sick about you now.”
Wren hugs her mom and heads back in to Norman. She reenters their room to find Norman sitting at the end of the bed putting on his shoes. A look of shock mixed with fear covering his face as he looks up at her. Lines run down his face from his eyes where another well of tears is ready to swell over and cascade down his face. Wren instantly feels the regret of torturing him as she did by running out of the room. And just as fast pure ecstasy and joy flow through her fast and hard. She throws off her housecoat and with a slight leap lands herself directly in Norman’s lap knocking him backwards as she does. Her hands are pinning his shoulders to the bed while her knees rest on his upper thighs. She stares at his bewildered face looking deep into his eyes before she tries to suck the breath out him with her hard forceful kiss. Her mouth moves around on his face as she snakes her tongue into his mouth. She holds him like this kissing him until she feels his arms wrapping themselves around her lithe body.
“I think someone is going to be a Daddy.”
“You really think so?”
“Mom says it’s too early to know for sure that there are several things that could cause me to be late, stress, not sleeping, fucking like rabbits in heat.”
“Wren! I’m shocked to hear you talk like that. I didn’t think those words existed in your vocabulary.”
“I’m just quoting my mother. You know me better than that. But you know seeing as the subject is already brought up how about a quickie before breakfast?”
“I don’t know, it seems the gymnast in you has found a way out. It might be a little hazardous to my health.”
“I promise I’ll be easy on you.”
An hour later Wren is seeing Norman out the door to work and is heading back to the kitchen to clean up the dishes.
“Mom, what are you wearing?”
“Oh I forgot to tell you it’s Wednesday and we have a stress relief and planning session day on Wednesday’s.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain the outfit.”
“It does if you are going skydiving.”
“My mom goes skydiving? You mean jump out of an airplane type skydiving?”
“Is there another type? Have you ever been skydiving?”
“No, I did take the ground courses though when I did some hang gliding one semester in Costa Rica.”
“Why don’t you come along? It will help you get rid of some of the stress the Predator has put you under lately.”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, I have an extra suit that I think would suit you just fine.”
Margaret grabs Wren by the arm and drags her into her room and into her closet. Soon Wren is dressed in a jumpsuit with fabric attached from under her arms to her outer legs and between her legs. An extra helmet is shoved into her hands and once again she is being drug out the door. It doesn’t take long before she is catching up with herself inside the Buick as they head into Illinois.
“You better braid your hair so it stays untangled. You know what a hundred and twenty miles an hour can do to your hair.”
An hour from home they pull up at a small airport. Walter walks up to the Buick and opens the door for Margaret and stares at Wren as she gets out.
“I see you brought an accomplice with you.”
“Captured would be more the term I would use.”
“Wren, you can still back out anytime you want.”
“No, I'm here, let's do it.”
They join the others from Margret’s job with all eyes on Wren.
“Everyone this is my daughter Wren.”
“THE, Wren Robbins the bike racer?”
“Wren this is Tony he’s the one who brought you to my attention when you were racing.”
“It’s a pleasure and an honor to meet you, could I get your autograph?”
A hard smack from Walter lets Tony know he is a little out of line.
“Sure but how about later I don’t seem to be prepared right now.”
They all climb into the tail of an old freight plane as they adjust their shoot packs. An instructor giving Wren some catch up instructions as to what to do and how everything works. As they climb and head to the drop zone the talk is of processors and problems each had found during their week and possible solutions. The talk is way over Wren’s head and she sits looking out the window at the passing clouds. She is quickly pulled back to reality though by a loud buzzer.
“Okay team we’ve reached the drop zone. Everyone keep a slight eye open for Wren since she is the novice amongst us. Now is everybody ready?”
A quick check from each person ensues and with that the ramp at the back of the plane starts to drop open. Everyone lines up for the jump and one by one they leap into the air off the ramp.
“Now Wren you do not have to jump if you do not want to.”
With that said Margaret leaps out with a twirl doing a pirouette in the air as she clears the plane. Wren walks back into the plane about half way along its length then turning on her heels starts a mad run at the ramp leaping into nothingness in a dive befitting her middle name. Her arms out and outstretched she can feel the wind being slowed by the fabric and understands just what her Mom meant by would suit her. She stretches out her arms and legs and slows herself down considerably. She feels like a leaf floating to the ground in some distant autumn beyond memory. Quickly she discovers that if she bends one arm or the other she can control her direction of flight. From her time in a hang glider she recognizes the feel of a thermal and just manages to catch it. Her descent again slows considerably as she finds just the right position to spiral the thermal. Now she truly feels she is a bird. She can see the others far below her as their shoots start to pop open one by one. She feels free as there is nothing but her and the sky as she flies seemingly slowly toward the ground the wind rushing past her like nothing she had ever experienced even on her bike there was nothing to compare it to. She is lost in her thoughts when a loud chirping sound brings her back to her present position hurtling toward Illinois at over a hundred miles an hour with no brakes. She pulls the cord for the shoot and instantly her descent is halted as it yanks her to a much slower twelve miles an hour. She bends her knees slightly as the ground comes up to welcome her home with a thud.
“You have never been skydiving before?”
“No.”
“You handled that like a pro. I was really surprised at how you caught that thermal and just rode it down to the shoot point.”
“Okay everyone grab your lunch and I’ll see you back at the office.”
Wren and her Mom turn in their shoots and head back to the Buick, an overly large smile spread across Margret’s face. Wren can’t seem to stop giggling as they walk across the field to the car.
“What has given you such a fit of giggles?”
“The rush of the jump seems to have gone to my head. For once in my life I finally felt like my name fit.”
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