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Brood of a New Age

34.

The branch on which the eagle was perched, barely a meter above the dusty ground, cracked as he repositioned his feet to better handle the fat rat between his long curved talons. With brutal but seemingly surgical precision, the large bird of prey tore flesh, including fur and bones, from the carcass that had just been thrown to him by a zookeeper. Pinkish-brown matter oozed from the torn-open body to the ground. Graziella stared at the most magnificent bird in the outdoor aviaries of the Birds of Prey exhibit, paying no attention to the squealing children running around and the bleating adults trying to have a great day at the Bronx Zoo. It was, after all, a gorgeous day. The sky deep blue, now just before noon only 27 degrees warm and Graziella should have been happy, or at least satisfied, that she didn't have to spend ANOTHER day at Bunny's house in Hoboken with the exhausting wives or around their horrible children. At least here she could unwind a bit. Lost in thought, without taking her eyes off the bird, she played around with her tongue at her new tooth gap. And it was also an incisor - its absence looked stupid and she lisped again because of it.

Graziella winced as Maria sat down next to her, moaning loudly, took off one of her flat shoes and massaged the bottom of her feet.

"Ahhh, my feet are killing me. I should have known when Tony gives me a day off and invites me to hang out with you guys that I'll only be harnessed to watch the other kids. I'd rather wash and hang five thousand curtains."

"Me too," Sonny admitted, joining them with three water ices in thin transparent plastic bags. He sat down next to Maria on the bench that stood in the shade of tall trees in front of the aviaries.

"Why aren't you with the others?" asked Graziella a little coldly although she didn't want to sound rude at all. Sonny and Maria were the only participants of this trip whose closeness she could stand.

"I reminded Bunny that I work for YOUR dad and that's why I have to watch out for you the most. So thanks for wandering off. Besides, the other monsters are getting fed at the Food Corner right now and after that they'll spend forever at the petting zoo torturing the poor goats and bunnies there."

"And I'll bring Maria her purse, which she left on the table in the Food Corner and will need at least half an hour to find her to give it back," Sonny said, showing his bright teeth, which looked all the brighter in his deep dark face (even more so with his thickly swollen cheek and chapped lower lip). Maria smiled just as broadly and it was pretty clear that she had purposely forgotten her purse only that Sonny had a reason to escape. They were - what did they call it? - conspirators. Graziella giggled at this.

Sonny handed Maria a yellow water ice and held one of the two red ones out to Graziella. Briefly the girl looked doubtfully and a little sadly at the plastic bag, then a pile of tissue serviettes was passed to her to protect her dress. She smiled gratefully at Sonny, grabbed the water ice stick, bit off the upper plastic section, and spit it out on the ground like Maria and Sonny.

Then they all sucked on the brightly colored flavoured icicles. It wasn't gelato classico italiano but it was sweet and tasty.

After a few seconds, Maria sighed and looked at her water ice with a nostalgic, loving gaze.

"Oh, I already liked that when I was a kid."

"Only old people like lemon flavor," Sonny teased.

"And only boys like you like raspberry," she bantered affectionately, ruffling his short frizzy light blond dyed hair. He laughed, they both looked straight ahead. And both lost their laughter.

"Oh!" said Maria, disgusted. "What are you looking at, Graziella? That's disgusting!"

"Yes. It is," said the girl, kneading the deliciously cold and damp plastic in her hands and watching the eagle, who was now gleefully pulling the innards out of the rat as if the people staring at him and the world outside his enclosure didn't exist.

"It makes you sick to your stomach," Maria grumbled. "Why are you looking at this?"

"I don't know," the child replied wearily, looking down at her lap on which lay the unfolded napkins.

Maria stroked her warm forearm with fingers cool and damp with condensation.

"You look so tired again," she said disapprovingly. "And you fell asleep in the car on the way here. Are you still sleeping that badly?"

Graziella nodded but couldn't help a wry smile. She didn't sleep quite as badly as before Nashville's passionate story about his gargoyle encounter. But the evenings with him and that she thought about many things at night and often during the day robbed her of sleep she actually needed.

Sonny looked at her, sucking on his already pale water ice with slurping noises, and she was grateful that he didn't squeal that she had fallen asleep on the terrace in Hoboken two days ago, too.

"I should have stayed home with you. Then you could have had a nap," Maria said.

"I'll sleep later when we get home," said Graziella, who had already made plans to do so. After all, she had to be fit for her next meeting with her best friend. At the thought she had to smile again.

"I'm still glad you're here, Maria." Then she looked at Sonny. "And that we're sitting here together now."

Sonny smiled gratefully in a way a boy almost twice her age shouldn't, and Maria gave her a quick lemon-scented smooch.

"We love you, too. You are so sweet, princess."

The corner of Graziella's mouth twitched, Sonny noticed. But she continued to smile unperturbed. Which showed how fond she was of Maria even when she gave her those kind but belittling pet names.

Two smaller children hopped around in front of the aviaries and stopped in front of the eagle.

"Coool!" the boy screeched that the eagle fluffed its feathers at the disturbance but didn't bother to glance at the annoying humans outside its kingdom. "Come on Mom, that bird eats yucky!"

"Eww, he's SO nasty!" shrieked the girl and Graziella wrinkled her nose as the girl pointed at the eagle. Her mother came in with a stroller with a toddler sitting in it swaying and making gurgling noises. She pushed down the girl's hand as if afraid that the large bird of prey, despite the waist-high fence a meter from the aviaries and the enclosures secured with vertical steel wires, would bite off her cheeky finger.

"Don't look, Ariana. They're all disgusting when they eat. They're just animals after all."

"Right! Cool animals! I'd love to have an eagle for a pet!" the boy said again, way too loudly, and trudged after his sister and mother.

Graziella looked after the group and was kind of annoyed and sad at the same time. At least that's what Sonny seemed to notice.

"What's the matter? Tired, though?"

Graziella looked at him. Then at Maria. Then she returned her gaze to the eagle behind the fence and the wires that would keep him forever in the aviary, which was large but still far too small for him. Although he actually belonged in the sky. Like her swallows in Italy. And for a moment, a piece of rat dangling in his beak, his big yellow eyes looked at her with an expression that " just an animal" should not have. It seemed emotionless and indifferent as a bird's look was. But ... also stoic towards the facts. Towards its here and now and that nothing would ever change. How could people doubt that there was some understanding behind those eyes?

"Do you think... gargoyles would feel good in a zoo like this?" she asked uncertainly, not daring to look to the side to avoid the astonished looks she felt on her.

"What strange questions are you asking?" she heard Maria say.

"I'm serious. The question. What do you think?"

"Who cares," Sonny said, a little bored, scraping his feet in the gravel. Then he made a reflective noise and sounded like an adult.

"Here, maybe they wouldn't be hunted anymore. The bars protect them from the humans."

Graziella looked to the side and his serious black eyes were on the eagle as it struggled to gulp down the rest of the rat. Maria didn't seem at all pleased with his good answer.

"Sonny, what are you talking about? It's the other way around. There are bars and fences here to protect people from the wild animals. And gargoyles are supposed to be huge and strong. What cages are supposed to hold such creatures? I can't imagine any parents who would want their children to go to a zoo and see such things." As soon as she said that, she scrunched up her face and rolled her eyes. "Forget it. Lunatics like Joey and his brood would go see it. And so would everyone else. Oh Graziella, why do you think about such terrible things?"

"Are they terrible, Maria?"

"What?"

"Gargoyles. Do you know they're terrible?"

"Of course they are."

"I don't mean what you THINK. I mean what you know. Have you ever seen gargoyles?"

"Everybody has. On the news. Or on the flyers," added Sonny.

"Yeah- but have you guys ever talked to one? Everyone says they're bad monsters but no one tries to talk to them."

"Well- they don't walk down Times Square at night to answer questions."

"Maybe because they're afraid. Of all the people who want to hurt them."

"Graziella. You talk like you know them. But you don't."

Graziella lowered her head and muttered, almost miffed, "How do you know they're horrible if you've never talked to them?"

"Yes. You're right. We don't know for sure. That's what you want us to say, isn't it?" asked Sonny.

"Graziella ... it shows what a sweet child you are to be so concerned about these things. But don't talk so loud about your doubts about gargoyles."

"Why? Because Alessio and his brothers-?"

"Not because of those bozos," Sonny said coldly.

Maria raised her head and briefly looked like a squirrel looking around for predators before venturing out of its nook.

"We mean because people who speak for gargoyles are often treated badly. Like these members of P.I.T. That's a group that wants friendship between gargoyles and humans. Do-gooders and idealistic college kids mostly. Just last week one of these guys got attacked on the street because he was handing out flyers for P.I.T.."

"I heard about that too," Sonny confirmed. "The poor schmuck got beat up bad."

"Just because he was handing out the sheets?"

"No. Because he had a different opinion than the Quarrymen who beat him up."

"That's why don't speak your mind too loudly."

"Also because of Tony," Sonny muttered, easily withstanding Maria's looming hard stare because she never was or ever would be a threat to him. Graziella was confused by his words.

"My dad? What does he have to do with this?"

"He doesn't like the Gargoyles either. Not at all. They're bad for business he says," Sonny meant and Maria rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"What business?" poked Graziella.

The adolescent and the adult looked at each other. A hurried wordless exchange as a result of Maria turned to her and said. " In general. For all businesses. If all people are afraid it's bad for all businesses."

"Probably would be better if they were in a zoo or game preserve," Sonny said hastily as if to steer the subject away from Antony Dracon. "If they came in a zoo, they'd be safe from the Quarrymen and the Quarrymen would have no reason to hunt them anymore. Because, after all, they're captured."

Maria laughed bitterly. "They won't be satisfied until all the gargoyles are dead. Endangered species or not. Locked up or not."

Graziella narrowed her eyes and glared at Maria, who didn't even notice her gaze because she had turned to Sonny who now argued.

"That huge leader, he spoke in court. Then surely the others are intelligent too. They have the status as sentient beings. But conscious beings do want to be free," he said. "They would complain about the bars and fences, wouldn't they? That's what I think."

"Yeah- me too," Graziella agreed, and she and Sonny exchanged a warm look that was almost friendship.

Maria waved it off almost angrily.

"Children, I love you. But I don't want to think about gargoyles. Not on such a beautiful day."

"Do you think ... all these Quarrymen are good people? Or are they evil?"

Maria seemed momentarily overwhelmed by the question. Something that looked very worrisome in an adult. Then she took a deep breath and came down off her high horse a bit. But Graziella noticed that she looked around cautiously again before continuing to speak a little more quietly.

"I think all people are good and bad at the same time. Bad things can be done for reasons you think are good and right. I can't blame anyone if people are afraid. But ... these Quarrymen- everything they do I find disgusting. Like kids running around throwing firecrackers into a crowd to cause a panic."

"It's not the gargoyles' fault, though. What do you think of the Quarrymen?" she asked with a cautious glance at Sonny. He held the cold pack of ice to his lip as if it would hurt him much more than Graziella's missing tooth. By now Graziella understood that he got spanked regularly by his dad - Mister Glasses. And she not only felt filial pity for the much older, so strong looking boy but would deeply regret it if he would now defend those scary people in the hoods. But he did not disappoint her.

"I don't want to have anything to do with idiots who greet jerks like Alessio with drums and trumpets. That alone proves how screwed up these guys are."

"Why are they here in New York? Why did they choose this huge city full of people to ... fly around?" asked Maria, not particularly hateful but displeased. "I think everyone just wants to live in peace and go about their lives without being afraid."

"What if the gargoyles feel the same way?" asked Graziella.

"What?"

"What if they are afraid? Of the many people who hate them. What if they're not evil at all? What if they're just like you and me? And just look different."

Now Maria's eyes narrowed and for a moment Graziella felt ashamed that she was asking questions that caused her favorite adult in America to give her that look. But that was exactly what caused Maria's features to relax again. She eyed Graziella briefly, put an arm around her shoulders, and for the first time spoke as if Graziella were an equal in conversation and not just a child.

"If they really weren't a danger to people ... I'd like to invite a gargoyle for coffee and talk to him in a civilized way. But that's not going to happen. Because they often avoid people. And they are right to avoid humans. I would do it the same way. If I cared about my life."

"Even if they are not evil ... why do they stay here? I would have moved long ago - I don't know, deep into a forest. Where people aren't shooting me out of the sky or waving hammers around," Sonny said, tossing his empty plastic wrapper into the trash can next to him. He also took Maria's off and Graziella gave him her own even though it still had a residue of warm pink water in it.

Maria and Sonny got up to get the day, with the wives and their children, over with as quickly as possible. Graziella gathered up the napkins from her lap, threw them away, and looked again at the eagle. Now he had his back turned to everyone, no more thin silver wire ropes in front of his beak but bare concrete walls behind decorative branches and shrubbery. Yes, she thought to herself. Why do they stay? If no one wants them here and they don't have a single friend.

The most problematic part of this chapter: the plastic spat on the ground ... a mortal sin. But first of all - it is 1997 and at that time not so many people were woke for something like that. Secondly - all three are actually little mobsters and is that compatible with environmental protection?.. no idea. And thirdly, Maria already spat plastic on the ground in 1960 and doesn't change anything now either.

Thanks for reading, Q.T.