Nothing starts without them

The drive home seemed longer for some reason. A simple yet bench marking excursion was exciting. With so little practice socialization was a muscle like her leg muscles, in need of slow and regular movement. I've gotta do this more often! Sophie said to herself as she drove the familiar road without the distraction or company of music.

"Call it a juicy slurp of something delicious!" The small and highly-pitched voice surprised Sophie, but then she was hearing it out of context so being surprised, that was, well ...  understandable. The Anna was making her presence known without her shimmering body. This was a first.

"You're reading my mind."

"No, I'm giving you a clue so you imprint the feeling," the bird was setting a pattern in the old woman's system. "Repetition, we do it all the time. A sweet spot becomes a place my whole body recognizes. A flower. A glass tube with sweet water. You're having one of those and it makes a lot of sense to move it around so your whole self will know one when you have it again."

"Thanks, you're a lot better than the radio." Sophie settled herself into the seat with a comforting wiggle.

"What's a radio?" The Anna really didn't know what a radio was.

Sophie pushed the black plastic button. Classic FM started in. Violins. The deep floor of a cello. "That's the radio, music coming through the air into those two places in the wall of the car. Speakers."

"I like it." For the rest of the drive home Sophie left the radio on low and the Anna said nothing more until the little truck pulled into the long driveway. It was getting dark by the time she put the truck into Park and turned the key off in the ignition.

"Nothing starts without pollination. That's what's happening with your memory, Sophie Lei Makue. In a very real way those words, and names that you're forgetting are remnants. Being pushed through to make room for pollen."

The tiny bird was retreading the old woman in ways she couldn't possibly object to. She wasn't sure that made sense, but it was better than frett'n. Could she believe that? Maybe. At the very least it was going to be fun to teach her grandchildren how to listen, and talk to tiny birds.

"I'd like to introduce you to a couple of really great little humans." Sophie said before leaving the truck.

"You mean your old man and the little woman who cleans the big house next door?" That really set Sophie into a belly laugh. "No, not my husband and Caz although I think I will be telling my old man about you. He'll be glad to know we've got a thing going here. No, I mean to introduce you to my grand kids. They're coming to visit."

"When'll that be?"

"In a couple of weeks. They'll stay for the whole month of March."

"Salmon berries might be starting in, and there will be many of us if the flowers pop."

"They're city kids, so there might be some in between time before they can learn to listen." Sophie was hedging her bets with the tiny bird hoping this creature was truly a personal god, an Aumakua the children could get to know before they turned five.

"So they are twins, aren't they?" The Anna was buzzing and backing up outside the truck window weaving between the lacy arms of the Cedars.

"Yes."

"We'll all just have to wait and see about how good their hearing is. The Salmon berries won't have to wait though, they're well on their way and count on us dipping our needle snouts into their nectar. And besides I've signed up for the long haul. You can count on that."

Sophie Lei Makue liked the sound of that.

Next.