Things You Wish Your Mother Told You

1. Learning to walk in one day.

I know that most of you have heard this story, but it's such a good one that I can't help bringing it up.

My alien child, the strange and bizarre creature that they handed me after drugging me so that I wouldn't ask too many questions, learned to walk in just one day.

He stood up and fell down and stood up again,

Slowly, but at breakneck speed for such processes,

He took one step and then another,

Falling often in between,

And wouldn't tolerate my help.

He didn't want to be rescued.

He would occasionally kick and scream,

But every single time, he stood up again.

I was astonished,

And I never saw another thing like it until the day that I watched a bluebird learn to fly.

I had 'rescued' it,

Thinking that it would die from falling.

Most of them don't, you know.

The mother stays near and feeds them and protects them from predators,

Understanding that falling is a natural aspect of flying,

Unlike we silly humans,

Who just don't understand the purpose of 'down time'.

2. Alice O'Connell's flight lesson.

This is a summary of a chapter of a book I wrote 20 years ago.

It's a good story, but not a good book,

Being my first, you see.

They say you have to write two 'throw away books',

Before you have the chops to write a good one.

I've written and thrown away several,

But this ONE, I can't throw away,

For reasons like this:

The Wacam were so strange to Alice.

She had nearly killed herself saving their planet earlier,

She prevented the Chaor from destroying this world as they had done her own,

And they were having a party tomorrow in her honor,

But she may not be allowed to attend.

The party would serve adult foods and beverages,

And as a very strict and inflexible rule,

No one could be allowed to attend who could not get there on their own.

Alice's shapeshifting skills, being brand new,

Would sorely be put to the test.

When Laris came to see her before going to sleep that night,

He told her, 'I believe that Terra Earth has produced its first true magic user'.

She had smiled, and following the directions that he'd given her,

Showed him what she had been practicing.

She pulled the mana energy out of the air around her,

Wrapped it tight around herself like a warm blanket in winter,

And envisioned herself as Wacam, feathered and taloned.

When she opened her eyes, Laris was staring at her in disbelief.

She had sprouted black feathers and tiny wings,

But the transformation was incomplete,

She looked like a weird cross between a human and a raven.

'You're going to have a hard time learning to fly if you can't do better than that!'

'Stop laughing at me!'

'It's kind of hard, considering that you look like a half-plucked chicken!'

'So, eat me, then. This is the first time I've shapeshifted.'

'No it's not, but if you keep up the practice you will learn it.' He kissed her head and

flew off to his sleeping quarters.

Alice spent the entire next day learning to fly from Tido, the mate of the First Prime.

When it was time for the party to start, Alice prepared herself.

She would wait a few minutes, until things were settled some,

She planned to make an entrance.

It worked.

When she arrived,

Her round owlish wings outspread, all noise in the city seemed to stop.

Every eye turned to her where she stood on the landing platform.

The bright lights gleamed from her rainbow-black feathers,

showing a faint, pearly, greenish shimmer about them.

The tip of each of her feathers was etched in brilliant gold.

Her waist-length head feathers also gleamed with green and gold tints.

Her skin, where it showed, was creamy white, with black markings.

She was absolutely stunning.

The shimmering tunic that she'd had made to offset her plumage did so excellently,

And her emerald eyes, the only part of her that remained unchanged, glowed with pride.

'I got here on my own power,'

She bowed low before Wehsac, the first prime,

'May I attend?'

'Of course, Lady,' Wehsac bowed so low at the waist, that his own glorious crown plumage brushed the floor at her feet. 'After all, you are the guest of honor.'

A spotlight shined on Alice, and as was the custom, she began to sing. The melody was something like a lark in the clear air, and every note held deep meaning, it went something like this:

What if you fall?

Start feeling small,

Or hit a wall,

And crash to the dirt?

What if your mistake,

Leads to more pain than you can take,

Brings heartbreak,

What if it hurts?

But what if you fly?

Free, in the sky,

The clouds passing by,

Soaring through the air?

It's okay to crash,

To fall on your ass,

Your fire burnt to ash,

But don't you live there.

Get up off the ground,

Take a good look around,

Find something profound,

And let yourself care.