i am drinking gin & tonic at a party with a group of strangers. its outside, beside a barn house, near the sea. there is a field of tall, almost ripe corn behind us. suddenly a flock of human sized birds appear - they are flying really fast and are amazingly colourful with long tail plumes. they fly over our heads to the field of corn then one of the smaller ones turns and comes to land near the group almost crashing into some people. he gets up & we realise that its a boy (about 9) in a bird costume. he then starts hassling people for a G&T
i walk away from the group to the house. round the back there are two brothers (about 3 & 7) sitting with their backs to the house. i go & sit beside them. the older one is fairly chatty - the smaller pudgy, slightly bald kid says nothing. - i ask him if he's ok. he just throws his left arm out to hit me. i realise that instead of having a han with fingers he has a stump with a big sucker (like an octopus) in the middle of his palm. i ask if he gets teased about it. his older brother explains that for a 3 yr old hes really strong & beats up the other kids if they try. the boys get up & run off to play.
my boyfriend arrives in a burgendy V8 rover. we decide to head down to the sea. we are to meet some of our good friends there. we walk down across two sloping fields towards the sea. its begining to get dark. we catch glimpes of the sea through the hedges. its like molten steel with amazing shimmering colours on top. i can tell take the waves are going to be spectacular.
