Wanderlust
After the Sekai Takai, Robby disappears. Without a single trace –
Almost.
A solitary text to Eli – a gif of a bird in freefall. He's eighteen; stretching his wings in a way Hawk never will.
.
.
.
There are photographs. They follow Eli everywhere – home, to CalTech, to Okinawa, and back home again.
A pigeon in Seville. A peacock in Kerala. An ibis in the Masai Mara.
.
.
.
No words, save the postmarks – until Eli's twenty-fourth birthday.
He flips the card – a kiwi in a burrow – and finds a one-way airplane ticket. Beneath, in a long-remembered scrawl it says: from one ex-asshole to another.