Philately - The Fiction Connection
The Mystery Box book is the proud winner of a Silver Medal awarded by the Chicago Philatelic Society CHICAGOPEX Literature Exhibit
Read the Book Review by Barbara Kinne of the APS American Philatelist
The Bird:
Fischhadler
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Tuesday morning, I was flying around looking for some nest to knock off when I saw them on the road to Hawker's Creek, that kiwi couple I mean. Now when it comes to women I can take 'em or leave 'em, and I wouldn't have given that kiwi dame a second glance, except that the wind blew up this blue veil she was wearing while I was flying over. I got one look at her and I said to myself, 'Whoa, whoa, here comes a heart stealer!' I mean this gal was a knock-out. And then I said to myself, 'Fishy, old boy, you gotta have her.'
So I swooped down a little ahead of them so when they came around the bend I was ready. I could tell that hubby belonged to one of the kiwi warrior clans, by the beret he was wearing. Now I've always wanted to cut one of those fellows down to size. I told them I had discovered this treasure along the bank of the creek and that it was worth a fortune, a gold-hilted sword and coins. Well, his greed got the best of him, so I led them deep into the reeds and when we got to this little clearing along the creek bank I turned on him and said 'Your money and your wife.'
He took it personally, so we began struggling and I can tell you this was a battle royal! I've never before gone that many rounds with anybody before. We must have clashed beaks two dozen times before I finally wounded him so badly he gave up the fight. Now the strange thing is when I looked back, I could see something in his wife's eyes. She wanted me to finish him off! 'Kill him and I'm yours,' that's what her eyes were telling me. Glad to oblige!
I turned back to the wounded hubby. He was looking up at me like he was going to burst into tears. He turned out to be a chump after all. So I sank my talons into his chest and heaved him into the creek. The stream carried him a little ways before he went under. Now here's the clincher. When I turned around to claim my prize, the dame was gone. Vanished into the reeds. So I gathered up the hubby's watch, which he had dropped during the fight, and I found the wife's blue veil. I tied it around my neck, bought a bottle of hooch and got swacked. Here I was celebrating and singing the blues at the same time. Got the guy but lost the girl. That's when the two coppers nabbed me. Never would have gotten me if I'd been sober.
You coppers can do your worst-- You're all a bunch of bozos in my book. String me up, go ahead. Do you think I care?
The Bird: New Zealand Kiwi
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It only happened partly like he said. True, he gave us this song and dance about the treasure near Hawker's Creek. My husband and I followed him into the reeds until we reached the clearing. Then the two of them began to fight. When at last my husband was defeated and lay bleeding in the mud, the victor turned his attentions to me.
He was really rather sweet. He said he was crazy about me, that he wanted to take me way with him, that my hubby was really a feather weight! He had a point. My so-called warrior husband looked so pathetic lying there in mud! So I accepted the robber's proposal. But just let me take care of things from here, I told him. So I arranged to meet him later and gave him my husband's watch and my veil as proof of my affection.
When I was alone with my husband, I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him he was a pathetic little sissy. Nothing but a big cry baby! It was all show, I told him-- him parading around like he was a General Major when he didn't have a pair of claws to defeat a small time hoodlum. I was sick of his phoniness and told him that he had been nothing but trouble for my mother and me, that I counted the day a disaster when I first set eyes on him, and that if anybody deserved to be sniffling in the mud it was him!
That's when he started in about my mother-- again! He called her the most vile, awful things. I won't repeat them before the court, your honor. I can only tell you that I saw red! There was this knife in my hand and I stabbed him. The next thing I knew I rolled him into the fast-flowing creek. In a moment he had disappeared beneath the water. And good riddance!
After I killed him I set out to find my robber. That's when I learned that he had been caught by the police. So I came as fast as I could to admit my guilt and clear up this mess.
The Bird: Abyssinian Ground Hornbill
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Let me start off by saying that my daughter is not my own flesh and blood, but adopted. You see I could never have children of my own. Perhaps I lavished too much affection and she ended up, I'm sorry to say, vain and spoiled.
Anyway, I had hoped that she would make a good match at least, but in that I was disappointed too. I knew that marriage to the soldier wouldn't last long-- it was all tail feathers deep, if you know what I mean. On top of that he took a positive dislike to me, especially after I moved in with them and I can't figure out why. I mean, I'm really a very mild-mannered person and I certainly never wished the fellow any ill will.
But I knew there was going to be trouble sooner or later, especially when soldier boy forbid my girl to work at The Feathers. That's the hangout of her old boyfriend, the Fish Hawk over there. She never got over him; I guess she found the outlaw life thrilling or something. There were lots of fights about that. My son-in-law was insanely jealous, your honor. But what a hypocrite! He had another kiwi on the side. I found this out the day the murder was alleged to take place.
That morning I woke up late and found that both my daughter and my son-in-law had left the house. My sixth sense said there would be trouble, so I set off after them down Hawker's Creek road. I knew a short cut and before long I caught sight of my son-in-law. He was alone. As for my daughter, she was nowhere in sight and I haven't set eyes on my daughter until just now when she spoke to you, your honor.
Like I say, my son-in-law was alone on the road, but not for long. At the next bend this female, a kiwi wearing a lavender veil, stepped out of the bushes and joined him. And weren't they sweet with each other, billing and cooing right there on a public road!
They hadn't gone far before that robber over there stepped out of the reeds and accosted them. He was pointing into the thicket and my son-in-law and his Jezebird followed him quite willingly. I decided to keep on top of things, so I entered the glade and stole up to the clearing where they had all stopped.
My son-in-law was bending over to look at something in the ground when the Fish Hawk fell on him from behind. He stabbed him in the back, but my son-in-law has, after all, professional training. He turned on the scoundrel and drove him back and back. The robber finally got scared and ran off, the little coward!
That's when my son-in-law collapsed on the creek bank. Now all during the fight, the girl with the veil had been standing in the clearing frozen with terror. When the Fish Hawk ran off, she went up to my son-in-law. I could hear them exchange a few words, none too pleasant, and then she pulled off his wristwatch. He rolled backward into the stream, weak from the loss of blood, I guess. She watched him sink into the water and then she vanished into the reeds.
My daughter is innocent of any crime, outside of bad judgment that is. She couldn't have been the girl in the clearing. You see, your honor, my daughter doesn't own a veil, lavender or any other color. And she certainly never gave her husband a watch.
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