The Life List of Adrian Mandrick by Chris White

Author:Chris White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

Chapter Nine

* * *

Very early the morning of his departure, Adrian returns his rental car and waits at the gate at Newark to jet to morning surgery. Luckily, he gains a couple of hours, and he should be able to make it back by 7:00 Colorado time. He and Evan finished the business of their mother’s death without raising their voices again. They gave most of her belongings to Goodwill, took the furniture to the senior center where she volunteered, and shipped her paintings to Evan’s address. Adrian sent the photos of himself, Stella, and the kids to the house in Boulder. There was a simple will in which June left all she had to both sons equally, but Adrian told his brother that when the house sold, he should take the profits.

Now, sipping a double espresso, Adrian thinks at least it’s all over. He can give himself that much. The freedom to let her die. His mother. He will get through this and start again.

He opens his laptop and stumbles about aimlessly. He enters the Backyard Birder’s chat room to see if the man beside the water has posted, and shakes his head, allowing himself a faint smile. He lays his chin gently in his hand.

This is it, he realizes, the one small comfort in his life now—the man’s naïveté, his simple joy in the simplest birds. It’s a lifeline. There are no life lists for him (he can barely put a sentence together) but he reminds Adrian of himself years ago, when each bird was a miracle. The purity of discovery and gratitude.

It is as if Adrian’s consciousness rises then, up and out, like a plane taking off, climbing through thick cloud cover, and breaking through into the blue sky above it all. Or like the very gannet the man by the water describes.

4601 (11/17/09): Just saw a Northern Gannet flying over the water at the beach. He was a ways out but they’re so big you can’t mistake there white wings tips that look like they are dipped in crude oil. They kind of look like a sentinel until they surprise you and dive like a B52. Night training last night. I had to be there late. I couldn’t even think because of the noise. Same old same old.

Adrian knows the Northern Gannet so well. The scene around him in the airport fades as he hits comment and types his few words of response.

mandrake3: Hey.

Once I saw about five hundred breeding pairs of gannets on a rocky coastline off the Scottish Island of Boreray.

A moment passes, as the sharp intercom alerts of the airport become more distant in Adrian’s ears.

4601: Wow. I can’t picture that I’ll be honest You must be a world traveller?!

mandrake3: Not so much. I haven’t been out of the country, other than Canada, in a year and a half. (Short trip to Indonesia just before that . . .) I’m a doc so I usually can’t go too far from home.

A longer moment.

4601: What kind of doctor? Surgeon?

mandrake3: Nothing too exciting.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.