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“Way up high”

by Roger Zelazny

***

Suzi met Herman in the garden when she went to school.

It was a very old garden, there were no people. In summer the grass was so high and the apple trees made the green roof above the head. Only Suzi knew how to go through this garden and not to cut legs.

That’s why that warm day before the holidays, when Suzi met Herman, she was alone. She saw him sitting on the stone enjoying the sun, his eyes closed.

“Oh!” said Suzi.

He opened one eye, looked down at her and said “hi”.

“Are you a bird?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I’m too big for a bird.”

“At school I read about very big birds that can fly high above the mountains.”

“I can fly high, too,” he said and showed his big wings. They were brown and leather.

“So, you are not a bird?” she asked.

“Can you see feathers?”

“No, but I can see your beak and wings.”

“Planes also have wings, but planes are not birds,” he answered.

“So, you are a bat. A big bat.”

“I’m not a bat!”

“Ok,” said Suzi. “What are you?”

“I am a pterodactyl.”

“Pterodactyl…. What is it?” she asked.

“Pterodactyls are better than birds and bats because they are bigger and can fly higher and faster.”

“You are boasting!”

“No, I’m just telling facts,” he said. “Pterodactyls are very good.”

“Ok, you are good,” she said.

“Thank you, little girl. What’s your name?”

“Suzi.”

“I am Herman. Nice to meet you, Suzi.”

The girl needed to go home but Herman asked her to stay with him.

“Why are you sitting on a stone?” she asked.

“Because I am cold blooded and I like to feel the warm sun.”

“Cold blooded? Like a snake?” she asked and made a few steps back.

“No!” he said. “Snakes! Dirty and small, hiding in the grass. I am different. I fly in the sky. I feel the clouds.”

“This is very interesting but I need to go.”

“No, please, don’t go. I want to talk. I am so lonely.”

“But I really need to go home. Can’t you talk to other pterodactyls?”

“No, they are far away. My mum and dad are not here, too.”

“Mum and dad? So you are a little pterodactyl?” asked the girl.

“I am big! But my dad is bigger,” he said.

“Listen, I really need to go.”

“I can carry you to your home. But you need to promise to come here tomorrow and talk with me.”

“I don’t know…”

Herman looked sad and she thought she saw a tear in his eye.

“Ok, we will talk tomorrow.

“Great!” Herman was happy again. “Where do you live?”

“At the end of the street in a house with a blue roof.”

Herman took the girl into his hands, opened his wings and flew into the sky. Suzi closed her eyes. She tried to say something, but the wind took her words away. The garden looked small now.

“Herman, please, let me go!” she shouted. “We are too high.”

“It’s not high. I can fly higher.”

“No, I want to go home.”

“Ok,” he said. “You don’t like flying.”

“I like it. But I need to go home or my mum will get angry. If I tell her that I flew with a pterodactyl, she won’t give me pocket money because I lied.”