Drabble: "Birdwatcher"

"Birdwatcher"
Rating: G
Pairing: W/E ... others, if you squint
Disclaimer: Belongs to Buena Vista and Bruckheimer. I derive no profit from this.
Summary: Post-AWE, Will's POV - response to "Fly" prompt at blackpearlsails, inspired by the screenwriters' allusion to a William Turner in history who studied avians.


Turner’s eyes opened as salt water swirled over them; oddly, he could see clear as a well-cast bell. Against the gray sky was an askew square of sail, ropes gathered to two figures.

He’d heard Swann’s protests to Sparrow’s insistence they leave, even as he was being anchored to the sea, over the rush of waves replacing the tympani of his own heartbeat.

He could stay Below, relinquishing all he’d loved, become the ghost of Calypso’s Will. Or he could remember Beckett and the awful ships, and defy the downward current.

Turner knew which would keep his two birds flying.

Holy Nighthorsie, Gasman*!

Well, this is an argument against sleeping late. I went back to sleep after waking up super early this morning and proceeded to have a nightmare about gas prices. I was in some parking lot or a small diner or something in this town near where my parents live, and every time I looked outside at the big gas sign across the interstate, the price had gone up. It started at $5-something, then a few minutes later went to $16-something. I think when I finally woke up, genuinely alarmed and heart racing, it was up to $23-something.

Then my sister called while I was trying to get back to sleep, and I told her I was having a bad dream about gas being $6 a gallon. "Oh, that's not a nightmare," she sagely observed. "It's just reality."

It's a good thing I like my own company and that of you guys, or I'd really resent being kept at home during vacation by gas prices.

In other ramblings, I had a shepherd's pie last night (made with beef, not mutton) that tasted GOOD. My only experience was in college, and PFM's shepherd's pie was ... decidedly not good. My most vivid memory of it, in fact, was the campus paper that "revealed" in its April Fool's edition that it was baked with underground building materials left over from the renovation of the Administration Building. (I think they were trying to tell the truth and simply put it in the April 1 edition to avoid a lawsuit.)


*It's pronounced "gas-man" despite how it runs together. As soon as I typed it, I was reminded of an episode of "Friends" where Phoebe and Chandler are discussing superhero names and someone makes the misfortune of running "Spider" and "man" together.

Chandler: "It's 'Spider-Man.' He's not Al Spiderman, Accountant."