It wasn't till the horsefly swerved from the kitchenette window and
came buzzing back that Mel guessed her purpose.
There was a sharper, fiercer drone like a hornet's song as she darted
sideways into the insect's path. Mel didn't see her catch it. Its
buzzing simply stopped, and then she was dropping gently back to the
towel, with the ugly black thing between her hands. It looked nearly as
big as her head.
There was an exchange of cheerful piping cries between the two. Miss
Green laughed up at Mel's stupefied face, lifted the motionless fly to
her mouth and neatly bit off its head.
Mel turned hurriedly and went into the living room. It wasn't, he told
himself, really so _very_ different from human beings eating a chicken.
But he didn't feel up to watching what he knew was going to be a
dismemberment and a feast.
At any rate, the horsefly had settled the feeding problem. His guests
could take care of themselves.
* * * * *
That night, Miss Green hunted down a few moths. Mel woke up twice with
the sudden sharp drone in his ears that told him she had just made her
catch. Both times, it was a surge of unthinking physical fright that
actually roused him. Awake, and remembering the disproportion in size
between himself and the huntress, his reaction seemed ridiculous; but
the second time he found he was reluctant to go back to sleep until it
would appear that Miss Green was done with her foraging.
So he lay awake, listening to the occasional faint indications of her
continuing activity within his apartment, and to more familiar sounds
without. A train rattled over a crossing; a police siren gave a sudden
view halloo and faded into silence again. For a long time, there was
only the whispering passage of distant cars over wet pavements, and the
slow roll and thump of the surf. A haze of fog beyond the window turned
the apartment into a shut-off little world of its own.
Miss Green moved about with no more than a whisper of air and the muted
pipe of voices from the top of the kitchenette cupboard to show where
she was. Mel had put a small carton up there, upholstered with the
towel and handkerchiefs and roofed over with his best woolen sweater,
to make a temporary home for his guests. The princess hadn't stirred
from it since, but Miss Green remained busy.
He started suddenly to find her hovering directly over his bed,
vaguely silhouetted against the pale blur of the window. As he stared,
she settled down and came to rest on the blanket over his chest,
effortlessly as a spider gliding down along its thread. Her wings
closed with a faint snap.
Mel raised his head carefully to squint down along the blanket at her.
It was the first time either of them had made anything resembling
a friendly advance in his direction; he didn't want to commit any
blunders.
"Hello," he said quietly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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