Kookaburra

We would sing...all the time, when I was little. Pam taught me every song she knew. She especially liked "rounds", where one person starts singing and then the other joins in later. There was one that went like this...

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.
Merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be.

We would sing it over and over again, and I loved it...even though I had no idea what a kookaburra was. Then, many, many years later, we went to Discovery Cove in Sea World to swim with the dolphins...Nick, Pam, Stephanie and me. Part of our experience was drifting on a man-made river to an aviary, where we fed birds...sort of. Mostly Pam just squealed and jumped and made crazy faces as the birds tried to snag the food she was clutching with white knuckles. Oh, and there we met a kookaburra, live and laughing at us. It was one of those "Aha" moments for both of us and we probably scared the thing to death shouting, "Oh my GOD! That's a KOOKABURRA!" And I'm pretty sure that Pam sang to it.

On Thursday last week I took a trip to the local zoo to make sure that my Friday field trip was all set. I was just leaving the bird and reptile house when I spotted the kookaburra staring at me. Nobody was around, so I said, "Hi." He just tilted his head, so I started to walk away. Then he let out this laugh, like, ear an splitting and floor shaking laugh. I just turned and watched him...and when he was done I looked up at the ceiling, fully expecting to see heaven. In those moments, I feel her as though she is standing right next to me, smiling and laughing....of course.