Penny Lane Nicholas

At the sound of his stomach rumbling, Grey lifted his feathered wings and took to the sky to get a view of the beach. It was a sunny day with the sky clear and blue, as always.

Scanning the ground with his sharp seagull eyes, he saw the humans below him playing with sand and splashing the water over each other. He knew that he could never play on the sand like that. That was much too undignified for him. Besides, the sand was always flaming hot.

He continued to flap his wings high above the humans heads, looking for food to add to the food cache. Ah- the human food cache! Or, as humans called it, a trash bin. Just look at all the food they threw in there, he thought.

Grey angled his wings and glided down to the cache. No humans in sight. He could take what he needed.

Just as he put his beak on a bag of human “chips,” the shadow of another bird appeared.

“Look out!” Someone screeched. Grey turned around to see another seagull hurtling towards him. What the-

“Oof!” He grunted. The seagull that landed on him got up. And looked him up and down.

She had very dark patches of grey on her wings. She had big, round eyes and a long delicate beak. Her feathers were ruffled from flying so… wrong.

“Wow. You’re handsome, mister. Sorry for landing on you. Thanks for protecting those chips for me, mister, I’ll take them now.”

“What-” Grey started, but he didn’t know how to finish that sentence. “No, I wasn't- I got these chips first!”

“And I have wings,” She mentioned, and lifted one of her wings to show him. “See?”

“So?”

“So I thought we were stating the obvious, mister.”

Grey huffed. “Well, we- I wasn't. I was trying to tell you that these chips are rightfully mine.”

“Just cause you got them first?”

“...um… yes.”

The seagull snorted.

“Who are you, anyway?” Grey asked.

“I’m Charcoal, but my friends call me Coal. Ya know, if I had friends.”

“...right,” Grey muttered. “I’m Grey.”

“And I have legs!" Charcoal squawked.

“I wasn't stating the obvious! I was telling you my real name,”

“Mister, your real name is obvious. I might call you mister, or mister grey forever.”

“Not forever, because I’m going to leave right now with these chips, and you can’t stop me.”

“IS THAT A CHALLENGE!?” Coal screamed, and she sat on him.

“What the-”

“Hah. Now you can’t leave with my chips.”

Grey moaned. Then something wet, cold, and bubbly touched his foot. What is that? He thought. It was most likely water- but the tide didn’t usually come this far, did it?

Oh wait. It did. Almost once or twice a day, the waves would come so far up the beach, that they could reach the humans food cache- or trash bin.

Which is where we are- right. Now.

“Coal!” He squawked. “Go! Get out of here! The tide- it’ll wash you up for sure!”

Charcoal flapped her wings but barely made it an inch into the air. Grey flapped as well and went much higher than her. “Coal! COAL! What are you doing!? The tide- it's almost here!”

“I can’t fly…!”

“What!?”

I CAN’T FLY!!”

Grey asked no more questions. He gripped his feet onto Charcoal’s back and heaved her up into the air. They had only gotten two feet up when sea water splashed against the trash bin, just underneath Coal’s feet.

“Woah!” Charcoal yelped.

As the tide went out, Grey lowered Coal back to the sandy ground and collapsed, gasping for breath.

“Grey? Grey! Mister Grey!? Are you alright? That was mighty brave, Mister. You're so strong!”

“Coal,” Grey asked, still panting, “May I ask why you can’t fly…?”

Charcoal shuffled her feet and looked down. “I was born with this… thing. Called ‘no wing syndrome.’” She grinned. “I made that name up myself. Anyway, I just can’t fly cause the bones in my wings are angled wrong. I can only glide. That’s what I was doing when I crashed into you.”

Grey smiled. “I’m glad you crashed into me, Coal.”

“Why is that, Mister?”

“If you hadn’t, we never would have met each other.”

With smiling faces, the two of them walked along the beach and watched the sunset together.

I had just prepared myself for the honor of being Winter’s first snowflake. I was in my room of clouds getting on my brand new snow-white gown with lace at the bottom. Oh, how splendid I looked. There was a knock at the door and I stepped out.

“Snowflake number 12 septillion, you are looking quite splendid today.”

That was the manager, snow cloud number 1.

“Yes, thank you,” I said, admiring myself- again.

“Everyone’s ready for you. Congratulations on being winter’s first snowflake, 12 septillion!”

Out I went, and sure enough, all the other snowflakes were there, ready to cheer me on. I had put on an extra layer of frost just for the occasion. It's not everyday that you get to be the first snowflake of the winter, after all!

“12 spetillion!” yelled my best friend, 12.95688 septillion. “Oh, you must feel like you're on cloud nine!”

Snow cloud 9 was everyone’s favorite. Manager snow cloud 1 huffed and floated away.

“Why, I do! I can’t believe I was chosen by the manager!”

I chatted with 12.95688 septillion for half an hour until the manager got everyone’s attention.

“Ahem. Attention everyone! It is winter once again, and we’re here because it is time for the first snowflake of winter to fall!”

Everybody cheered.

“And now… I present the first snowflake of this year’s winter, 12 septillion!”

I stepped forward. I had never gotten this much attention before.

I knew that when Manager snow cloud 1 finished his speech, it was time for me to jump through the clouds and fall to the ground of the earth.

I took a deep breath, waved to all of the snowflakes, and jumped.

I slowly floated to the ground in the chilly air, and I heard a child’s voice.

“Look…! The first snowflake of winter!”

The wind pushes the trees like music

And the trees are dancing, swaying

The ground is littered with their sticks

And the flowers are sparkling, twinkling

The freezing lake’s ice is slick,

And the snow is falling, twirling

The sky’s clouds are full of balls of lace,

And the leaves spin down with grace,

And the leaves are dropping, spinning

And the tree’s colors are changing

To red, orange, yellow

Like the sunrises of which are mellow

In the fall the thorn make’s its prick

And the wind is roaring, soaring

Spring

Warm, colorful

Blooming, loving, shining

Sunshine, trees . . . Ice, chills

Sleeping, dying, decaying

Dark, windy

Autumn

Rain falls steadily

Abidingly turns to fog

As dusk approaches

The world was once luscious and green.

There were no jagged rocks.

Nothing to trip you and laugh as you fall.

But the world hadn’t formed completely yet.

The sun cast it's rays and heated the soil

The rocks had begun to sprout through the grass.

Towering, tough, terrible rocks

They pierced through the luscious green

Their shadows hiding what once was seen

The sun fell behind the mountains

And it's rays never reached the same world again.

Rushing, dangerous, shining waters

Sharp blades sticking out from underneath

The roaring, thundering waters

Watch souls strolling by

Feeling the spray on their knees

The river has seen them all,

The young, the old, the dumb, the wise

The lame, the deaf, the blind

The river understands them all,

The pained, the ill, the sad

The calm, the loved, the joyful

When a single soul comes one day,

A glowing, shimmering, golden soul

The waters part and let them through

To cross to the other side.

Where the grass is green

And the trees tower high,

Where there is no one else

But the chattering of creatures

The waters parted and let them through

To get to the other side.

Every rose has a thorn

Every leaf will be torn

All music has to stop

All joy has to drop

All good things have an end

But that doesn’t make them dead

Memories can last forever

Let them die? Never