Lola's Gift to Palemale
If we were to give Palemale gifts I think he’d want some Wind in a nice little box wrapped with red ribbons and a bow. But Lola will probably be ahead of the game and get him that before any of us.
He’ll probably pick up the box and put it close to his ear and shake it, and Lola will give him one of those looks that will say ‘put that box down you, and wait ‘till Christmas! Question is how do you get the Wind in a box? It’ll be hard too keep such a high spirited thing like the Wind cooped up in there all this time. Palemale will know something is wrong though. He’ll know that the Wind is not about, and if he suspects that it’s locked up in a box it’ll break his heart. It’ll also break his heart to spoil Lola’s surprise--what a spot to be in.
I can imagine him sitting next to the Christmas Tree listening to the restless Wind trying it’s best to remain silent in that box all wrapped up with pretty red ribbons and a bow that only Lola knows how to make. Then he’ll most likely sit there and worry that he didn’t even get Lola something for her Christmas. And what can he get her at this late hour. She’s fussy about new twigs, and picky about pine cones.
In just a few hours it shall be all be over and that may be a thought which will console him. In just a few hours the Wind will also be free. He’ll probably think of getting her a nice strip of soft bark for her to line her new nest. But the best kind in Central Park comes from only one tree in the Ramble, and that’s her tree and she’ll know that a piece of bark is missing. Nevertheless it’s kind of unethical to give your wife a strip of bark for Christmas which came from her very own tree.
I think Palemale will sooner or later loosen up that red ribbon on the box and slowly open up one corner of it and just allow the Wind to slip out and go free. And maybe he’ll call Lola over to sit with him on his branch high up on a Pin Oak where they could have a good look at the waxing moon tonight. And from where they perch it’ll be very dark and quiet and there’ll be just a muffled roar from the traffic across on Fifth Avenue. And there may be a tall evergreen just in front of them whose long limp branches may lean into their view as the Wind rushes up and into the crisp, cold sky whistling merrily as it goes through the bare branches of London Planes and Lindens all around them. And Saturn may be high up in the sky by then—right across from the Moon, and there may be a few thin clouds low enough to catch the first rush of the excited Wind causing the sky to dance and frolic and Saturn will glitter since planets are not allowed to twinkle. But by the delight of the Wind now free, anything is possible and Saturn may twinkle all it wants.
And Palemale may lean over to Lola until their feathers brush, and he may look deep into her clear, beautiful eyes reflecting all the dazzle of the frolicking Universe, and he may whisper to her with their hearts blazing,
“The Wind Is Free! Let Us Rejoice”
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