| Mr. Birdsong found a norwhale tusk in the cave, and began to carve the ivory to fit Occham Willie's stump. He thought the twisted tusk a fitting metaphor for the bird's mental state. Willie's vocabulary continued to grow during the weeks that followed, but the more lucid he became, the more melancoly he became as well. As soon as he was fitted with his new leg he began to hold forth, delivering long didactic soliloquies, obsessing over the white ocelot that had bitten off his leg. He could often be heard pacing at night on the ridge pole of a cabana (scratch click, scratch click, scratch click), muttering and raging into the night. Soon he lost all interest in female parrots and took to flying off at night, with a dagger clamped in his beak, in search of the offending cat. |
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Copyright © Michael B.Stevens, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005. All rights reserved. Format modified Aug. 2005