I sat on the lawn chair outside, in the backyard and remembered that day. Home from college, sipping coffee on that chair. I wore my pajamas, read the paper and looked at the nature around me. The backyard extended from the house about an acre and behind the yard was a small grove of pecan trees. It was summer. the pecans were forming, they would ripen in the fall.
My parents had gone to the shore for the weekend. I watched the house for them. Later I would mow their lawn. I was never the type of girl to have parties while they were gone and they knew that. I was a book worm, a nerd, sorority girls didn't interest me, just nature. I was studying to be a biologist, nature was my wheelhouse.
The cool breeze caressed my legs in the warm sun in this morning. I envied my parents going down to the shore. All the birds and the wildlife, one time at Hilton Head beach we saw an eagle. I had only seen eagles on television before because they nearly became extinct.
My parents hung a hummingbird feeder on the edge of the back porch. Hummingbirds were another bird that was endangered. They would beat their wings so fast, it would take a special camera just to see the black, transparent wings. Thus the name hummingbird, their wings beat so fast they would sound like a hum. The feeder was full of red liquid, which the hummingbirds loved. Wasps gathered around it too. I shewed the wasps away, careful not to get stung.
Then I saw a beautiful hummingbird approach the feeder that day. (I later found out he was a male). He was so special with his black head and long, black beak. His green body, white breast, captivated me immediately. I heard his wings flutter like a muted helicopter as he flew up to the feeder and drank the red, sugar water.
I saluted him, with my coffee cup, raised it up to the magnificent bird, who fluttered in and out of the feeder. No other hummingbirds were around.
He saw me and flew down toward me. Again, I saluted him with my coffee cup as he hovered at the end of my chair. His wings beating so fast I couldn't see them, I only felt a slight breeze. He came up to my face and I swear he had a twinkle in his eye, then he moved to the back of my chair.