Ethel & Percy

‘What are they?’ inquired Ethel, tapping the pile of oddly rectangular leaves with her webbed foot.

‘No idea’, replied the male penguin through a full beak, as he fished out another bunch of leaves from their crinkly, white container.

‘Human stuff, I suppose. Look at the faces.’

‘Oh of course,’ said Ethel, ‘those are faces.’ She cocked her head to the side, entranced by these identical green and gold sheets. Though all the faces were in greyscale, she admitted it was impressive how detailed they were. She might’ve thought they were just meant to be nice pictures, if it weren’t for the strange figure each of the leaves bore in the top right corner - a straight, vertical line followed by two circles. Ethel suspected this figure gave the leaves a more specific value.

‘Why are they here?’ she wondered.

‘Beats me’, shrugged the male. All I know is they must’ve been stuffed in my burrow while I was out fishing.’

‘Really?’

‘Yep. Shoved right between my rocks.’

‘The nerve of these humans.’

‘Tell me about it.’

‘Don’t they all know there’s hundreds of us living here?’ Ethel stretched out her flippers, indicating the long, narrow breakwater.

‘Not all, apparently.’ The male stretched up to his full height and shook himself out.

‘You look rather familiar’, remarked Ethel. ‘Have we met before?’

The male looked at her for the first time, revealing tired eyes that belied his youth. ‘I doubt it’, he replied. ‘I’m mostly doing my own thing these days.’ He gazed away, down to the waves gently lapping the lower rocks. Teasingly familiar as his sad profile was, Ethel still couldn’t place where she’d seen him before. Perhaps if it wasn’t such a dark evening...

‘Well!’ the male said, pushing a smile, ‘what they were intended doesn’t matter now, does it?’ he bent down to inspect the leaves more closely. No matter how much he scrunched them in his beak, they didn’t just refuse to break apart but snapped back to their original shape. They seemed quite slippery too, and there was something appealing about that. Ethel closed her eyes as she gently rubbed her cheek against a smooth, waxy leaf, thinking of her rough, dingy home...

‘I think they’d make for rather nice burrow lining’, she decided. It’s just a shame they don’t crumple up more to provide some cushioning.’

‘Hm.’ The male now seemed more interested in the wrinkled white stuff that once contained the leaves.

‘Do you mind if I take some?’

The male looked back down at the leaves, frowning with indecision. ‘Umm...yeah, I kinda do. Sorry.’ Ethel’s heart sank a little. It had been some time since her home had truly felt homely. Even so, she would’ve been willing to let the matter go then and there, but the male had gone back to messing about with the white stuff. As he tried to tear it, with oddly increasing determination, he accidentally bumped some of the square-cut foliage with his foot, sending it cascading onto rocks nearer the water. He didn’t even seem to notice.

‘Do you think you’ll be using all of them then?’ Ethel ventured, tentatively.

The male stared at her, his brow furrowed again. ‘Probably.’

‘Oh, ok.’ Ethel began rubbing one flipper with the other. ‘It’s just that...’

‘What?’ The male’s eyes were beginning to shine with restrained vexation. Ethel was quite taken aback. Before she could decide how to reply, they were distracted by some garbled voices, a way off to their right. Illuminated by the soft yellow light from the metal trees, there was no mistaking the looming figures that came loping along the wooden pathway (which cut across the penguins’ rocky breakwater ever so rudely).

‘Urgh, the humans are already here to gawk at us’, groaned the young male, his frustration mounting. Ethel might’ve thought this was a pretty good time to leave, but now the male had turned to the closest light, she could see his whole body more clearly...

‘Oh my’, she gasped in recognition. ‘You’re Percy, aren’t you?’

He blinked at her a few times. ‘Yeah. How do you -’

‘I’ve seen you from a distance’, she explained, ‘watching the far-off lights...and I’ve heard of you.’ She found the next thing quite hard to say, even though it had been said to her many times, and she’d always appreciated it. ‘I, I was sorry to hear about -’

One of the humans called out to them, waving a gangly arm.

‘Is that a greeting of some sort?’ wondered Ethel.

‘Who cares,’ said Percy, flapping the concern aside.

‘Indeed. Anyway...I’m so sorry about Penelope.’

Percy froze. Oh no, thought Ethel. Maybe I shouldn’t have…

After an eternal few seconds, Percy’s eyes welled up, but he kept them from overflowing with another strained smile. ‘Thank you’, he murmured, bowing his head. He looked like he wanted to say more, but was hesitant to do so. After a few moments, he did speak again, as if he was too tired to keep holding everything in. ‘You know, it’s been a while now, and it hasn’t’, he stopped smiling and a tear rolled down his face, ‘it hasn’t gotten easier.’

Ethel placed a flipper on his shoulder. ‘It will’, she assured him. ‘Or at least, it did for me. Not easy, but yes, easier.’

Percy raised his head, looking at her with newfound recognition. ‘Wait a minute, are you...are you Ethel?’

‘Yes’, she said, smiling. ‘I’m Ethel.’ They shared a moment, letting these new understandings of each other sink in.

‘Seals are the worst, aren’t they’, declared Percy, starting to sob.

‘Yes’, agreed Ethel, welling up a bit herself. ‘They really are.’

The humans started making even more commotion. Some were pointing and exclaiming.

‘For the love of krill!’ squawked Percy, tears still rolling down his face. ‘Seriously, have they nothing better to do?’

‘Hang on,’ cautioned Ethel. ‘This feels different.’ She followed one of the humans' pointed fingers carefully, down to the thick pile of leaves. All of sudden, several humans were clambering over the metal barrier and across the rocks towards them. Ethel and Percy waddled frantically down to the water’s edge and dived in the sea.

~

The following evening felt much quieter, despite there being far more penguins moseying about. It’s probably too cold for those bare-skinned fools, thought Percy smugly, his dense plumage providing a perfect brace against the wind. He was perched on his usual rock, once again pondering the myriad of lights across the bay. Penelope had always found them more alluring (Percy suspected they were just silly human things), but now, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his evenings. He was reflecting on why he’d been so protective of those weird, barely useful leaves. Perhaps he’d grown too used to only looking out for himself. Perhaps the leaves had just been something colourful and new, in his grey, unchanging world. Either way, they were not the most meaningful discovery he’d made last night.

‘Thought I’d find you here.’ Percy turned about to see Ethel, flippers splayed for balance as she ambled across the rocks.

‘Oh hey’, he replied, shuffling to make room for her.

‘Nice night for it’, she remarked, as she reached Percy’s side.

‘You’re not wrong’, he agreed. ‘Check this out.' He grabbed what looked like a small, flat black rock and dragged it across to her. ‘Seems one of the humans dropped it as they climbed over the barrier last night.’

‘I still can’t believe they did that.’

‘I know, right? But hey, check it out.’

‘What is it?’

‘I’m as stumped as last time.’ admitted Percy. ‘But it’s kinda like those weird leaves isn’t it?’

‘Because it’s rectangular?’

‘Not just that.’

Ethel stooped to do some inspective pecking. Percy watched with vicarious fascination as she discovered that the rock opened, revealing hundreds of off-white leaves, bound at one end to their black covering. He hoped she wouldn’t mind that they weren’t as smooth as the green and gold leaves but, as she rubbed her cheek against one, her face gave nothing away. After a few seconds’ pause (was she pondering what the squiggly markings meant?) she suddenly tore out a leaf and crumpled it up. Upon seeing it remain this way, she grinned. Percy relaxed.

‘You can take the whole thing, if you like,’ he offered.

Ethel spun to face Percy. ‘Really?’

He nodded.

‘Why thank you!’ Ethel was positively beaming now. ‘It...it really does mean a lot.’

It took Percy a moment to realize he was smiling too.