Flight of Love and Absurdity

She was a falcon.

She would perch herself in the branches of the tree right outside the window of my office, spread her wings and let out this shrill screeching sound that would make your hair stand on end. Her piercing golden eyes, bright as a star in the night sky, would stare at me intently while I worked, trying to decipher what it was that she wanted from me.

"I can't understand you," I would call out to her every day, as if she could hear me. "Just talk to me like a human being, will you?"

She didn't say anything though. She just stared and stared and watched me with those golden eyes of hers. At night, she would fly higher than the stars and nest herself in their midst. I would hear her cry out into the darkness of the night like some great beast of prey that had taken up residence in this world with me. The sound was heart-wrenching and beautiful at the same time. It made me feel almost... *something*. Something so deep inside my gut that it was almost too painful to bear. But I couldn't remember what it was or why it felt like that.

When I awoke each morning, I found myself staring at my reflection in the mirror but all I saw were Marina's long black locks staring back at me. My smooth skin turned dark and rough as if scorched by fire but without any trace of burns or scars anywhere on my body. Most days, I'd spend hours standing in front of a mirror trying to see if there was something that I could identify with myself about my reflection but it seemed no matter how hard I looked, all I saw was Marina staring back at me with those enchanting golden eyes of hers.

It took some time before I realized that she had been talking to me all along but only one word at a time: "Luca." Her voice was melodic and soothing even though she always said nothing more than my name. She must have repeated it hundreds of times throughout the day while perched on top of our favorite tree outside my office window because it became engrained in my mind until finally one day when she wasn't there anymore, I answered her call for the first time: "Marina." Just one word but somehow we both knew that it meant so much more than that.

* * * * *

The strangest part of all this is not knowing who or what Marina really is or where she came from because a few weeks ago when I walked out my door looking for her, she was nowhere to be seen except for this large feather lying on top of our doorstep which was most definitely not a bird's feather because it was shaped more like a... well... long piece of hair! And also because it didn't look quite real at all - like something plucked out from someone's imagination except for the small red stain on its tip which looked suspiciously like lipstick!