His First Flight

The young seagull was alone on his ledge. His two brother and his sister had already flown away the day before. He had been afraid to fly with them. somehow when he had taken a little run forward to the brink of the ledge and attempted to flap his wings he become afraid. The great expanse of sea stretched down beneath, and it was such a long way down, miles down. He felt certain that his wing would never support him, so he bent his head and run away back to the little hole under the ledge where he slept at night. Even when each of his brother and his little sister, whose wings were far shorter then his own, run to the brink, flapped to their wings, and flew away, he failed to master up courage to take that plunge which appeared to him so desperate. His father and mother had come around calling to him shrilly, upbraiding him, threatening to let him starve on his ledge unless he flew away. But for the life of him he could not move.

That was twenty-four hours ago. Since then nobody had come near him. The day before, all day along, he had watched his parents flying about with his brother and sister, perfecting them in the art of flight, teaching them how to skim the waves and how to dive for fish. He had, in fact, seen his older brother catch his first herring and devour it, standing on the rock, while his parents circled around raising a proud cackle. And all the morning, the whole family had walked about on the big plateau midway down the opposite cliff, taunting him for his cowardice.

The sun was now ascending the sky, blazing warmly on his ledge that faced the south. He felt the heat because he had not eaten since the previous nightfall. Then he had found a dried piece of mackerel's tail at the far end of his ledge. Now there was not a single scrap for food left. He had searched every inch, rooting among the rough, dirt-caked straw nest where he and his brother and sister had been hatched. He even gnawed at the dried piece of spotted eggshell. Tt was like eating part of himself. He had been trotted back and forth from one end of the ledge to the other, his grey body the color of the cliff, his long grey legs stepping daintily, trying to find some means of reaching his parents without having to fly. But on each side of him the ledge ended in a sheer fall of precipice, with the sea beneath. And between him and his parents there was a deep, wide chasm... And above him he could not see nothing. the precipice was sheer, and the top of it was perhaps farther away than the sea beneath him.

He stopped slowly out to the brink of the ledge, and, standing on one leg hidden under his wing, he closed one eye, then the other , and pretending to be falling asleep. Still they took no notice of him. He saw his his two brothers and his sister lying on the plateau dozing, with their head sunk into there necks. His father was preening the feathers on his white back. Only his mother looking at him. She was standing on a little high hump on the plateau, her white breast thrust forward. Now and again she tore at a piece of fish that lay at her feet, and then scraped each side of the beak on the rock. the sight of the food maddened him. How he loved to tear food that way, scraping his beak now and again to whet it! He uttered a low cackle. His mother cackle too, and looked over at him.

"Ga, Ga, Ga," he cried, begging her to bring him over some food. "Gaw-ool-ah", she screamed back derisively. But he kept calling plaintively and after a minute or so he uttered a joyful scream. His mother had picked up a piece of fish, and was flying across to him with it. He leaned out eagerly, tapping the rock with his feet, trying to get nearer to her as she flew across. But when she was just opposite to him, abreast of the ledge, she halted, her legs hanging limp, her wing motionless, the piece of fish in her beak almost within reach of his beak. He waited a moment in surprise, wondering why she did not come nearer, and then, maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. With a loud scream he fell outwards and downwards into space. His mother swooped upwards. As he passed beneath her he heard the swish of her wings. The monstrous terror seized him and his heart stood still. He could hear nothing. But it only lasted a moment. The next moment he felt his wings spread outwards. The wind rushed against his breast feathers, then under his stomach and against his wings. He could feel the tips of his wings cutting through the air. He was not feeling headlong now. He was soaring gradually downwards and outwards. He was no longer afraid. He just felt a bit dizzy. Then he flapped his wings once and he soared upwards. He uttered a joyous scream and flapped them again. He soared higher. He raised his breast and banked against the wind. "Ga, Ga, Ga. Ga, Ga, Gaw-ool-ah." His mother swooped past him, her wings making aloud noise. He answered her with another scream. Then his father flew over him screaming. Then he saw his two brothers and his sister flying around him, curvetting and banking and soaring and diving.

Then he had completely forget that he had not always been able to fly, and commenced himself to dive and soar and curvet, shrieking shrilly.

He was near the sea now, flying straight over it, facing straight out over the ocean. He saw a vast green sea beneath him, with little ridges moving over it and he turned his beak sideways and crowed amusedly. And around him his family was screaming, praising him, and their beaks were offering him scraps of dogfish.

He has made his first flight. (Laim O'Flaherty)