part II

darvis opened his eyes to a pelican rooting its way through a duffle bag near the hull of the vessel. “no dice, freak beak. you’re shit out of luck.” darvis said in a suprisingly unalarmed tone. the bird had looked up at him as if he were pathetic for not having carried any rations this far out to sea. “now get out of here before I decide to have you for breakfast.” darvis raised his arms, stood on his toes and puffed out his chest as far as he could and began to muster up his most menacing and convincing impression of a predator. his half assed threat was cut short. “wait a second.. what type of animal would prey upon a pelican?” thought darvis.

darvis knew that stella was an expert at animal classification and decided to rouse her from her sleep. “hey stella, wake up sleepyhead I have a pop quiz for you!” darvis shouted. stella, rubbing her eyes and shaking her head glances over at darvis with the all too familiar death stare. “are you talking to yourself again..I thought we went over this already..” “no, you have a visitor this morning!” darvis points over to the now impatient looking pelican. “looks to me like a regular american white pelican. we must not be too far out at sea yet.” stella said. “so, what type of animals prey on our little friend here?” darvis asks. “well, this little guy is part of the pelecanidae family and is related to other sea birds like cormorants and tropic birds.” stella proclaimed proudly with the convcition of a veteran wildlife lecturer. “so to answer your question, he doesn’t have many predators that can get at him. perhaps only sharks and other large birds of prey have a chance.”

darvis quite impressed with the sheer volume of stella’s knowledge presses on almost teasingly. “so professor, do you think we could capture him, train him and make a fisherman out of him?” darvis asks in a terribly executed snide british accent. “no, this isn’t a circus act.” stella replied back. “he is quite docile and unusually personable for a wild bird – provided he actually is a male.” stella states as she continues to examine the pelican. “maybe we can find out. does he have a dodo with some berries on it?” darvis quipped. stella ignoring his incessant need to be comedian of the year replies “it doesn’t really matter if it is male or female now does it?” “I guess not.” darvis exclaims sounding put in his place.

suprisingly, the pelican continues to remain near the hull of the vessel despite the ongoing banter between stella and darvis. the pelican has a very large frame with a long protruding wingspan. its beak, a large canary yellow contrasts its cotton white body. this pelican in particular had a very majestic dispostion with an unusual aura of wisdom and good fortune eminating from its berry-like black eyes. unbeknownst to the young seafarers, historically the pelican represented self-sacrafice and piety, often times providing her own blood to her young if food was scarce. perhaps this happenstance wasn’t a coincidence?

“so what are we going to do now that we don’t have any food?” stella said sternly after having looked through the empty duffle bag. “wait a second, have you checked the storage hatch yet?” darvis offered as a last ditch attempt at advice. stella opens the rusty latch of the storage compartment after some effort. inside she finds a fishing rod with some bait and the sack of non parishables she had told darvis to place inside of the duffle bag at the beginning of their journey. “well I guess we’re not going to need this little fella to catch fish for us anymore.” as darvis says this he wastes not a second continuing where he left off in scaring the poor seabird away. this time however, darvis lifts up one leg and extends both of his arms out as if they were talons and screams off into the distance. his screams echo off of the calm water and sound reminiscent of an ultrasound machine on steroids through a guitar distortion box. quite an obnoxious sound. as stella looks over at darvis as if this charade were a daily occurrence, she sighs while removing her clothes and plunges into the inviting water for her morning swim.