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Eleanor's Eyes

The bird had no idea. Perched on the end of a thin branch all it knew, and cared, was that She was watching from the ledge above, ready to strike in an instant. The tension was palpable though not for the passer by whom would only see a little sparrow sitting perfectly still on a cold, crisp February dawn, and whom at most would perhaps wonder how the little bird kept from freezing solid.

The passer by was a woman named Eleanor. Late for work, Eleanor did not see Her, poised above, with the intent of death. In fact Eleanor would have missed the entire sequence of events that took place upon the little sparrow’s panicked flight if it were not for the fact that Mrs. Mellonby’s washing had frozen stiff over night.

She leapt. The bird sprang. The branch sprung. An icicle fell as Eleanor looked up at Mrs. Mellonby’s oddly distorted frozen sheets.

Dr. Philpot at the hospital said Eleanor was lucky the icicle was so small. If it had been bigger she could have suffered far worse. Dr. Philpot was proud of his collection of glass eyes and had chosen an almost perfect match for Eleanor. Except for the fact that it didn’t move like her other eye, you couldn’t tell it was not her own.

Eleanor left the hospital a few days later. At the crosswalk her new glass eye remained still even though her head turned both ways. Mrs. Mellonby’s sheets were still frozen on the line but Eleanor did not look at them. Instead Eleanor looked up past the sheets to the ledge.

That afternoon Eleanor returned to the building where Mrs. Mellonby lived. She had a large cardboard box with a hole cut in it and a can of tuna. It was for Her.

After the box was set up Eleanor went to the toy store. She asked the clerk for a bag of marbles. There were many colours and Eleanor picked one that matched her new glass eye. “Don’t you want them all?”, the clerk asked Eleanor. “No thank you”, Eleanor said. “This one is perfect”.

Then Eleanor went back to Mrs. Mellonby’s building to collect her box. Just as Eleanor had planned She was inside.

Dr. Philpot came to Eleanor’s Christmas party. On the door there was a welcome sign and a reminder to please not let the cat out. Dr. Philpot was quite proud of his work and at the punch bowl he remarked to several people how well the new eye looked. One of the guests congratulated Dr. Philpot and asked if he too could have his pet’s eyes fixed to match his own.

Posted by pike at February 11, 2006 07:46 PM