Avalon 9

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You see these guys everywhere. Watching. Taking it all in.

If you walk down the beach, they're there. Go to the market, ditto.

We have all seen the Hitchcock movie. We know what happened in Bodego Bay, to Suzanne Pleshette, the school teacher, still tortured by her love for Mitch. But he only had eyes for Tippi, the icy-cool, fur-wearing blonde carrying a bird in a gilded cage.

Tired of being tamed, benign nature turned on them, became malevolent. It had had enough meddling. Short sightedness. Abuse.

I think that's a Bonaparte's gull—winter plumage, named in honor of an emperor, a conqueror—in the photo, watching us.

Avalon was like Bodego Bay: serene, comfortable. A faraway retreat to get away from it all. We were on vacation, relaxing. We needed the peace and quiet. But I knew we were under surveillance. I made sure we stayed between the lines. I smiled at the birds, even waved, but I slept with the lights on, just in case.

(Actually, Bonaparte's gull was named after a nephew of Napoleon, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who was a leading ornithologist in the 1800s in America and Europe, but that does not fit the tension in the story.)

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