"It's your turn today Rico." Kowalski sat by Rico on the edge of their artificial floe.
"Huh?"
"I want you to teach me how you communicate." Rico didn't look any less confused by this. "Don't worry. You don't have to do anything different. I'm just going to watch you. Monitor your actions and gestures." Rico stared at him a moment longer before shrugging. Kowalski quickly pulled out his clipboard.
"Perfect. A gesture of ambivalence." Rico grinned. "And amusement." He blew a raspberry at Kowalski who rose an eyebrow. "And if I'm not mistaken… contempt." Rico laid his head on one side and smiled at the other penguin. After a second he stood up and gestured for Kowalski to follow him. With an expectation of surprise, he complied. He didn't know what Rico intended to show him but was somehow disappointed when he fetched his kite. Kowalski watched in silence as Rico unfurled the string and then in a complicated gesture he threw it into the air. A breeze promptly caught it and Rico hastily unwound more string as it rose higher. Rico grinned across at Kowalski.
"Is this meant to show me something?" Rico nodded. Slowly Kowalski studied the other penguin… the string… the kite… the breeze… then he looked back at Rico.
"What?" Rico gave a low chuckle and began winding the string in. Kowalski waited until Rico had recovered the kite but all the other bird did was offer it to him.
"I'm meant to be studying you not playing," he objected. Rico thrust the kite to him more forcefully and grunted. Kowalski sighed. He knew how stubborn Rico could be. The quickest solution was to accept the kite, then he could get back to his assignment.
"Fine," he took it. Rico grinned again and gestured up at the air. Kowalski gave him an irritated look but never-the-less complied. Mimicking Rico he unwound the string and prepared to throw it up. Before he actually did so though he remembered Rico had been forced to unwind more string. Methodically Kowalski unwound the rest of the string and then turned to aim the kite. He waited until he felt a breeze ruffle his feathers and threw the kite.
It flew like a paper airplane… and landed the same way. Thwarted, Kowalski watched as Rico retrieved the kite from the water and brought it back. He handed it back to Kowalski but this time he wound the string himself. The intelligent penguin watched as Rico wound the string back in to a length he alone could apparently judge.
Then Rico stood next to Kowalski and held the kite with him. They waited in silence, Kowalski trying to tune into whatever senses Rico was using. He wasn't waiting for the breeze across the floe… but then just as Kowalski noticed a ruffle in the trees across the path he felt Rico pull the kite. Together they launched it into the air just as the breeze began to stir in their habitat. Kowalski could feel the tension in the string which had been lacking before. Rico quickly guided his flippers as he unwound the string and Kowalski watched in awe as the kite began to soar.
"It's like flying," he murmured. Rico nodded next to him, intent on watching the path of the kite. As it soared above them Kowalski felt a new sensation. It was, he realised, freedom. It was as though he and not the kite were flying above them all. The ideas that had plagued him on the ground, the assignments and problems, none of them mattered. There was only the here and now. And here and now was good. He smiled.
"Thank you, Rico."
