Angel: Scene 7

25 June 2054

         A few days later, as she lay beside Ed in the afternoon sun, he turned, looking at her nude figure. “No one would ever recognize you now.”
        ”Of course not,” she said, stretching lazily. She extended one snowy pinion, mantling the feathers. “I have wings.”
        He shook his head. “Even discounting the wings. You started out a rather plain, slightly heavy woman, twenty-four going on thirty-nine. Now you look like a twenty-year-old model — with wings.”
        She sat up, spreading her wings to their full twenty-foot span. “It’s the flying and all this walking. It’s strengthened my chest and shoulder muscles, lifted my bust, and burned away the flab. And it’s you, Ed.
        ”I’ve always been slightly scared of the world, especially since the Aliens. I should be petrified, going off like this into the unknown, leaving behind everything that I knew. But I’m not scared any more. You are so strong, so confident, so tender, so loving, that I take strength from you. I’m happy. Against all odds, I am happy. I know it can’t last forever, given what we are, but every afternoon I wake up in your arms, happy to be with you.”
        He nodded, pulling her down onto his chest. “And I’ve been very happy with you, Alaina. I’m not in love with you, but I do love you a lot.”
        ”I’m not in love with you either, Ed, but I love you, too. You make me feel safe with you. Thank you for giving me courage.”

30 June 2054

        They continued down the coastline through Delaware and Maryland, passing Washington, D.C. far to their west. They continued into Virginia down the peninsula of Northampton and stopped a short distance from the old but still used Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Traveling at night had allowed them to dodge the few cars that still used the coastal highway, but the bridge-tunnel would force them to travel on the road and make it too easy for them to be spotted.
        ”We can’t use the bridge,” Alaina protested. “If we go that way, someone is bound to see us!”
        ”Can you think of another way?” Ed looked at her. “I could swim the distance easily enough. Shall I carry you again?”
        ”Do you think I could fly across?”
        He looked across the bay unable to see any land in the darkness, “I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like a long way.”
        ”Yes, I know.” Her eyes followed his gaze. “If I read your map right, it’s about fifteen miles across. Maybe a little more. That’s a good ten miles farther than I’ve flown so far.”
        ”True. But you weren’t even winded when you landed on that last practice flight either. Considering you’ve been held down to my walking speed, that was your longest flight yet.”
        ”Then you think I could make it?”
        ”It’s possible.”
        ”Then I’ll try it. Let’s go!”
        ”Hold it,” Ed interrupted. “Let me carry your pack. You don’t need to carry any extra weight on your first real long-distance flight. You won’t have any place to stop and rest out there and if you have to land in the water, I doubt you’ll be able to lift off again.”
        ”You’re right,” she agreed as she removed the rolled pack Ed had modified as her wings had grown, making it possible for her to wear it around her waist and leaving her wings unhindered. She smiled in remembrance of the time she had called the modified pack her “saddlebags” and he had jokingly called her a Pegasus.
        ”You may not want to have any extra wind resistance either,” he advised as she handed him the pack.
        ”If you think so.” She hesitated a moment, then removed the gown she was wearing. “You know, Ed, maybe we could throw out all those extra clothes I was carrying. I can’t wear the shirts or the coat any more with these wings, and I don’t think those blue jeans would look very good under this dress.”
        ”Good thinking. I think the jeans would be worth keeping though. They’re tough enough to protect your legs when you walk, and they can keep you somewhat warm in colder weather.”
        ”Oh. Okay. Throw out the rest of those shirts though. Even if they are warm, I can’t wear them. Unless you can, that is.”
        The next few minutes were taken with emptying and repacking her clothes.
        ”Ready?”
        ”You go ahead, I’ll fly above you.”
        ”Okay. Let me know if you get tired.”
        ”I will.”
        Ed fastened the packs high on his shoulders and stepped out into the water. When he had made about two hundred feet, she ran out onto the small beach and pumped her wings. In moments, she soared up hundred feet, catching up to him quickly. She rose a little higher and found a breeze that let her glide effortlessly above him as he swam.
        Twenty minutes later, they were already crossing the center channel of the bay. A pod of dolphins approached Ed and started leaping over him playfully. One of them surfaced, whistling at him. “{HelloEdwray friend ####@@@@****}”
        ”{Hello friend}” Ed replied, treading water. The rest of the dolphins milled about, putting him in the middle of their pod, blowing and bumping each other.
        An adult female and a yearling separated themselves from the others and approached. “Nancy!” Ed exclaimed. “And Neptune!” He glanced up. Alaina was hovering above him, her body a pale silhouette against the black, star-flecked sky.
        ”Alaina! Can you come down here a moment?”
        She dipped lower, her wings beating powerfully as she hovered ten feet off the water. “Yes, Ed. What’s going on?”
        ”These are the dolphins we met in the Delaware Bay, plus Nancy and Neptune. Nancy, and later on her baby, Neptune, were some of my partners in the New Bedford Marine Science Institute.”
        Neptune raised his head out of the water. “Ed Wray, hello,” he fluted in a treble voice.
        ”Neptune? You can talk my language?” Ed said in surprise.
        ”Neptune talk human, slowly,” he replied. The leader of the pod whistled at Neptune for several seconds.
        ”####@@@@**** says please you join us, learn our language, we learn yours, help us talk to humans,” Neptune fluted.
        ”Alaina, the lead male wants me to join their pod!” Ed said.
        ”And what do you want to do?”
        ”I don’t know. It would be a unique opportunity to learn from them, and teach them. I could help forge a bridge between dolphins and humans.”
        ”Well, maybe you should go with them.”
        Neptune kept up a running translation for the lead male as they spoke. Now he said, in his fluting voice, “####@@@@**** has never seen human bird before, but you intelligent more than any bird. Human most, too.”
        She eased herself closer to the water, wings beating strongly, and lightly touched the male dolphin on the tip of his beak as he rose up on his tail to meet her. “Thank you. I would ask that you let him carry my things to the farther shore before you take him away with you. Would that be all right?”
        Neptune translated rapidly. The lead male looked back at Alaina, nodding his head and whistling agreeably. He dove and reappeared thirty feet ahead, swimming strongly towards the western shore. Ed started stroking for the shore again, but found himself riding high in the water as another dolphin rose under him and carried him swiftly after the leader.
        Alaina pumped strongly with her wings, rising back into the air. When she leveled off, the pod was moving away from her at nearly thirty miles per hour. Slowly she began to close the distance, beating the air with massive strokes. She caught up and passed them about a half-mile from the shore, streaking ahead to land breathlessly and wait for them. When the dolphins dropped him off in waist-deep water, she splashed out to him and pulled at his hand as they ran back to shore.
        ”Did you see?” she cried, panting still. “I passed you! I flew faster than the dolphins swam!” She jumped up into his arms and hugged him tightly.
        ”Oh, Ed! I can fly! I can really fly!” she exulted, planting kisses all over his face. Ed accepted her enthusiasm with a quiet smile. After a moment, she realized he was not responding to her excitement and let go, dropping back to the ground and looking at him sorrowfully.
        ”I guess this is where we part company, isn’t it?”
        ”I don’t know,” he replied. “They seem very enthusiastic, but they’re not human.”
        ”Well, I hate to put it this way, but . . . Are you human? Now?”
        ”Huh?” He stepped back and stared at her a moment. “Of course I’m human. Just as human as you are!”
        ”That’s what I mean.” She stepped close and laid her palm on his chest. “Think about it. How many Normal humans would accept you as you are? These dolphins are willing to accept you. Go with them, at least for a while, and see what happens. If you decide you don’t like it, you can go on south like you originally planned.” She wrapped her hands around the back of his neck and pulled herself up his chest. She planted a wet kiss on his smooth, thick-skinned lips, and dropped back to the ground.
        ”Well? What are you waiting for? Give me my things and get going!”
        He stared at her for a moment, then pulled off her pack and held it out to her. She grabbed it, held his hand tightly for an instant, then pushed him back towards the waters of the bay. He bent down, giving her a quick kiss. “Thanks. For saving my life. And for keeping me company on the trip. I’ll never forget you, my Angel.”
        ”And I’ll never forget you either, Ed. I’ll miss you. Now get going before I change my mind and ask you to stay. They want you, which is more than I can say for anyone else we’ve met.”
        He paused another moment. “I said, get going!” she shouted.
        Swiftly, she grabbed her saddlebags from the sand where she had dropped it and turned away. She tied it around her waist, listening for his departure. When she didn’t hear him leaving, she glanced back at him, then spread her wings and launched herself into the darkness of the night sky. She circled around to the north and flew to a higher altitude. Then she banked and glided back over the beach where she’d left him. He sat on the back of one of the larger members of the pod, heading out to sea, but he was still looking back at the beach.
        ”I’ll miss you, Ed” she whispered to herself. “But I’ve got to find a place where I will be welcome, like the one you’ve found for yourself.” A short distance south of the beach, she landed and put the gown back on, then rose into the air again, angling westward for the Virginia mountains.