Around the Bend: Monday's Bread

Still the man threw the bread. Slice after slice came whirling and flying. It fell on the gulls, and at their feet. It fell on their heads and on their tails. It fell from the sky like the clouds were slicing themselves up. Now the gulls with orange eyes tilted their greedy heads and looked at the bread and wondered what to do with it. Some screeched to the others to keep away from the feast under their webbed toes, though they had no room left to eat another crumb. Some stood on the bread and swayed, as if they were drunk.

Now all the gulls were glassy-eyed. They had food inside their throats to their beaks, yet some still tried to eat more. They gobbled. They gagged. They jerked their heads to get the last piece down. They sat down because their crops were too heavy to carry.

"Let us give thanks!" said Gull.

All the gulls bowed their heads and waited until their leader had finished his prayer.

This has been a great day!" said Gull when he was finished. "A day to remember. We have much to be happy and rejoice over!"

But the man went home sad. He had thought to take the abundant loaves of bread home, because it was free, but he knew his wife would not want to eat it. Though it was good bread, she would complain that it was not fresh.

"Food for the pigs!" she would say.

So the man had gone down to the beach and thrown it all away.