The seagull hopped out of the oily green water, looked at me, and shat all over the sand.
This accomplished, it waddled over to the nearest rotting fish and cocked its head back.
A few pecks later, the rancid sunken eyed morsel was on a one way trip down the bird’s gullet.
Then, the tidbit stuck fast.
The seagull wheezed and hopped around for a bit, then fell to the ground.
Serves you right, I thought, and I almost walked away.
Instead, I pulled that fish head right out of the damn bird’s throat.
———-
I dedicate this story to the rancid parking lot by the seafood processing center in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where a fish head fell out of the sky and nearly hit me. Then, as I sat on my 5 gallon bucket pumping naphthalene-rich water out of the ground, I had the dubious pleasure of watching a seagull chick pick up the head and spend the next twenty minutes attempting to swallow it whole. I considered what I would do if it choked, and eventually decided on the same course of action in the story. In the end, the bird got the head down, and wandered off among the trash and ratty bushes looking for more manna from heaven. Anyway…Every Friday, writers from all around the world write 100 word (or thereabouts) flash fiction based on a photo posted that Wednesday on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ blog.
I welcome constructive criticism; without it I cannot grow as a writer. The weekly photo that inspired this story is below:
glossarch 
Love the backstory. Enjoyed the voice in the story itself – so sarcastic and yet tender at the same time.
Thanks!
Enjoyed this, well-written. Enjoyed the backstory too, though I’m glad you didn’t have to follow through. Nice work.
Thanks. Trust me, I am too.
Dear Danny,
I don’t know which I enjoyed more, your story or your explanation. You get the golden fish head award this week for proper use of “shat”.
shalom,
Rochelle
Thanks, I do try to keep my profanities grammatical.
Dear Danny,
This is one of your best stories and upon reading the follow up report I can see why. Experience always shows. I’d have waited a few hours to make sure that the seagull had done everything in its power to accomplish his job alone. They are very proud and willful creatures and do not react kindly to meddlesome strangers, no matter how well intentioned.
Aloha,
Doug
Thank you, that means a lot to me. Like my narrator I actually do not like seagulls at all. As I watched it try to get the head down I did have a debate over what to do if it choked. In the end I decided it was a living creature that deserved help regardless of what I thought of it
Disturbingly raw.
Thanks, I was going for that!
I liked this. We have blackbirds in our garden that often seem to try to swallow things that are too large for them and look like their choking. I would have done the same as your narrator.
I expect the blackbirds are more pleasant than the seagulls!
Danny I actually like explanation
better. Good job on both..
Thanks. That was one of the grossest work sites I have ever been to. I also detest seagulls but I would have saved the bird if it came to that.
Yuk!! Maybe not my favorite story for a right-after-breakfast reading, but an excellent story, nonetheless. 🙂
janet
Haha thanks. Just trying to get t your day off to a good start
Loved that you added the bit about Gloucester at the end… grew up near Boston, and this story had the feel of there, even before I read that. Not sure what it was, but probably the straight forward approach of the narrator. 🙂
Perfect! I’m glad you caught the tone. I am not a Boston native but I definitely picked up the attitude.
Nice!
Wow, I really enjoyed your history of the story you wrote. The story is a good one, giving you an ethical choice that you decide objectively, but the real story is somehow darker and reveals a dystopia that exists in our own environment.
Thank you, I had not seen it that way but I like your interpretation a lot. Perhaps I was subconsciously thinking along those lines as well
Fish head falling from the sky — yikes! I liked your story and background of it. In both, I liked the curiosity of the viewer, to see what would happen. Hey, I’ve never seen that before, so why not look to see how it ends up? Then the curiosity turned to kindness in helping out the gull. Good stuff.
You have a much nicer view of the narrator than I did. In my mind he was going to let the gull choke to death, but then reconsider s
The stories are born from realities.
Indeed. Thanks for coming by, nice posts recently by the way!
I like how your real world experience influenced your story here. When I read it, I thought of some flu virus affecting the birds and the beginning of some horrible pandemic. Anyway…excellent!
Thanks! No flu just a bird taking on a bit too much.