Pale Male’s Christmas

If we were to give Pale Male 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 it in there all this time. Pale Male will know something is wrong though. He’ll suspect that the wind is not about and if he knows that it’s locked up in a box it’ll break his heart. It’ll break his heart to spoil Lola’s surprise too. What a spot to be in.

He’ll probably sit next to the Christmas Tree and listen to the wind trying it’s best to remain silent in that box all wrapped with pretty red ribbons and a bow that only Lola knows how to make. Then he’ll sit there and worry that he didn’t even get Lola something for Christmas. And what can he get her at this late hour. She’s fussy about new twigs, and picky about pine cones.

He’ll console himself that in just a few hours it’ll all be over. In just a few hours the wind will also be free. He’ll probably think of getting her a nice strip of tree 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 Pale Male will loosen up that red ribbon on the box and open up one corner of it and just allow the wind to 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 as it goes through the bare branches of London Planes and European 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 waft of the rushing 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 Pale Male may lean over to Lola until their feathers brush very close, and he may look deep into her clear, beautiful eyes that reflect all the dazzle of the frolicking sky and he may say to her with his whole heart flaming with passion,

“Merry Christmas!”