The Vyvern Among Us

Part 1

It was a sunny day of spring in St Sofia. The city with its concrete blocks and streets of asphalt buzzed with life. All around you could hear the pedestrian voices, the bells of the electric trams and car horns come together like a regular heartbeat of the city itself.

A young couple was walking next to each other pushing a stroller in which a baby was sucking on his pacifier.

- "Do you think we should pull down the sun cover? Isn't it too hot?" asked the man.

His wife looked at the baby and touched his forehead. It was quite cool. Besides, he seemed more interested in the intricate mechanism of his five-point safety harness (his father insisted on it) than in the temperature outside. She replied:

- "I think he's fine."

- "Are you sure?" asked the worried father. "You heard the story of how you boil a frog alive..."

- "Stop worrying," the mother smiled. "I doubt the sun will boil him. Besides, we've been out for less than five minutes."

- "Okay..." relented the young father but he didn't seem too convinced. "But you know, this breeze can give you the impression that it's cool outside and the sun can still burn you."

The woman smiled:

- "My mother, aunts, neighbors, even some of my former classmates who have kids, all told me that fathers become more disinterested after a while, more... laisser-faire, as far as the child is concerned. I always thought they were trying to warn me, but now I'm starting to think they actually wanted to put me at ease. Relax, it's spring and it's a beautiful day. If we feel the sun becomes too hot, then we'll pull the cover. Okay?"

The young father smiled and said nothing.

- "Hey," his wife pointed to a store nearby, "let's go in".

- "Can you go ahead?" He jerked his head in the direction of a vending machine. "I want to get a bottle of water first."

- "Sure", she said, handing him the stroll.

- "No," he said, "Take the stroll with you, so you can use its basket as a bag for anything that you buy."

- "Okay", she said.

She considered whether or not to tell him that she realized he actually wanted to take the baby out of the sun. She chose to smile to herself instead.

The father took out his wallet and inserted the bills one by one in the vending machine. He glanced at a water bottle and then at a soda bottle. He knew he drank too much soda... Still he took out another bill to cover the difference but it was too crumpled and the machine kept pushing it back. Sighing he tried to smooth it out with his hand. It seemed as though the universe was conspiring for him to make the healthy choice.

- "We need to get a car", he heard a woman's voice behind him.

- "I don't know," said the young man next to her carrying several bags. "I don't see the need."

- "You don't see the need, she said in a way that clearly emphasized <you>. "I, on the other hand, want to be able to move easier."

- "But think about the environment," he said.

- "You're only saying that because you're afraid of the driver's test. If you really cared about the environment, you'd pay more attention to your recycling."

The man wanted to reply but had no comebacks. The father smiled. They were probably in their 20s, so about 10 years younger than him and his wife.

It was a beautiful day of spring. Some of the trees planted next to the sidewalks already bloomed. It was such a beautiful day in fact that he decided that a soda wouldn't add much to his good spirits so he chose to go with the water. His wife came out of the store pushing the stroller with their baby. He realized that until he had a baby he had never been bothered by the fact that there weren't enough trees in the city to provide adequate shade from the sun during hot days.