N for New Zealand: Taking Flight

I am the Kakapo.

He walks towards me with a swagger in his step and a sneer on his face. I try to focus on my work, tearing off pieces of rubber from the windshield wipers. As he gets close, he slows down, his rubber soled shoes no longer thumping loud on the cemented ground. But I hear his every breath. I watch him from the corner of my eye as he attempts to sneak up behind me. When he’s just two feet away, he swishes out his cell phone and holds it high posing with me in the background. Oh. Always ready for a pose, I turn around, looking square into the camera.

A few feet away, a couple of girls ooh and aah over us. And suddenly, I am famous. “Mom, look! It’s a Kakapo!” says a little Dora-toting kid. “Can I take her home with me please? Please, please, pretty please Daddy?” she whines, with a puppy dog face. Sigh, who can say No to that! I am enjoying the attention when suddenly he lunges at me.

By sheer force of habit, I take flight, wings flapping and throat screeching, up into the air. But I can’t. We’ve lost that ability to fly, you see. New Zealand has no predators anymore. As a result, we see no threat and so we’ve forgotten how to fly. The best we do is fly a few feet up and land back down – on cars or the road. Not me.

All day, I just practice how to fly again. Hope is one thing I won’t give up.

***

The A-Z Challenge

Every year, in April, the Blogging A-Z Challenge kicks off with a bang and now in its seventh year running, it continues to garner even more participation than ever! Click here to read more on the challenge! And if you’re participating too, do leave your blog site in the comments! I’d love to visit!

Click here to access the complete works of the 2016 A-Z Blogging Challenge! The Kakapo is one of the many birds on the New Zealand islands, that has lost its ability to fly. Guess evolution plays out in many different ways!