CHALLENGE paltry + sock + alike + girl + stimulating + acidic + naive + temporary + red + transport
Kermit had just finished serving a girl who was grumbling about how she didn’t think it was fair that she’d been IDed. Rolling his eyes he headed back down the bar to where someone he actually recognized had taken a seat. Smirking he nodded towards the girl who’d gotten upset as he leaned forward and loudly whispered. “Don’t tell me you’re going to want to throw things at me if I ask to see your ID.” He laughed as he stood up straight.
“So, what’ll it be? The Raspberry Ginger Pale Ale? Or are you in the mood for something else?” He asked randomly throwing out one of the beers. Kermit was just about to list off another beer but glanced up to see a couple of people head out the door, he looked away before he saw a silver flamingo enter the brewery.
Em chuckled and shook her head. “I’d be flattered,” she answered, not afraid to admit that it would make her feel good to be mistaken as someone over a decade younger. She had to take wins where she could get them, honestly.
She’d come to the bar to meet a colleague - who, as it happened, was running late. Her mother often sighed about Em’s life in Breckentale, asking if it was truly stimulating enough, pointing out that college was only supposed to be a temporary stop on the way to bigger things. Em liked the charm of the small town, though.
But it’d been strange lately, so she jumped at the first offer of normalcy. “Actually, that raspberry ginger pale ale does sound good. I’ll take a pint.”
Smirking he nodded turning as he grabbed the right glass, sprayed water in it and filled the pint. He was just about to put it down in front of Em when he heard a strange sound by the door and looked up, he managed to spill a little of ale as his mouth fell open.
“What the fuck.” He breathed out. He almost felt like he must be going blind. He and his brothers had been talking about dreams of supernatural things but Silver Flamingos. He had to be seeing things right?
“I NEED A SOCK!” He yelled out to no one in particular.
The bartender’s fumble drew Em’s attention from the bartop towards the door, where he was looking. What the fuck was right, she thought as her eyes grew wide. She’d seen a lot of strange things in Breckentale lately, and it seemed like there was no end in sight. This was one more thing she couldn’t explain.
There was no time to think about the hows and whys, though. Years of working in medicine had made Em’s reflexes quick, so she pulled off a shoe without really thinking about it. “Here,” she told Kermit, holding out a red sock. She didn’t know a lot about flamingos, but she wasn’t naive. There was no way they would just wander around out of nowhere. Someone must have been looking for it. “You think you can catch it or what? Aren’t they supposed to be… pinker?”
Shit. Kermit thought as he tried to jump over the bar, he made it, it was just horribly awkward. Landing he started to bend down lower holding the sock tight between both of his hands as he tried to carefully walk towards the damn thing.
“I don’t know, I didn’t think they lived in the middle of the fucking mountain’s either!” He commented over his shoulder. The thing was trying to nip at a couple of tourists who were stuck between deciding to scream or take a picture. All tourists were alike apparently.
“Think I can get it’s uh, nose, thing,” the word beak was for some reason alluding him at the moment. “Got any ideas how to transport this thing?” He asked Em over the tourists.
“Shit,” she muttered, jumping up off her stool to join him in trying to corner the stray flamingo. How to transport it wasn’t the only problem they have. What to do with it afterwards was also on Em’s mind. The animal clinic? How much experience did any of them have with flamingos? But it was the best idea she had.
Em skirted around a table. “I mean,” she started, “we carry it? I can hold it if you make sure it won’t bite me. My husband’ll bring the car over? That’s the best I’ve got.”
Kermit looked up at Em and back to the bird. “I think it’s a two person carrying, one for the body, one hold the-” he paused trying to wrap the sock around the beak again as it reached out and bit him, hard. “FUCK!” He screamed shaking his arm that had been bit.
“Least it’s not acidic, wouldn’t want a burn too.” He grumbled looking down as a little blood started to trickle down a little bit.
Kermit was just about to start again when he tripped over a barstool but managed to catch himself.
Em winced. That was what she had been afraid of. She couldn’t see the wound well from where she was, but she could see the blood. She’d have to look at it once they got the flamingo taken care of.
“We couldn’t have had some damn paltry little bird instead, could we?” she commented. “Who knew flamingos were so damn mean?” She grabbed two nearby stools and used them to barricade the flamingo in. “Look, maybe we’d better call animal control. We’re so out of our depth here, and I don’t want you to get bit again. Yeah? Maybe we can just sort of… corral it in one area here.”
The word alone got his attention as a confused expression crossed his face. “ paltry?” He asked shaking his head letting his attention go back to the bird.
“Huh?” he had heard her say something but he wasn’t sure what she said. “Right, animal control,” he looked at a scared tourist. “You!” He pointed. “You call, now.” He insisted as he helped start to try and trap the bird with barstools.
Em huffed her displeasure at his confusion. “What?” she snapped, casting a glare in his direction. A girl couldn’t fumble over her words now and then, and say something awkward - though accurate? But it wasn’t worth it to get on him about her own issues, Em reminded herself. They were stressed enough as it was.
What she could get on him about was the way he ordered the tourist around. “C’mon, you don’t have to say it like that,” she pointed out, “I’m sure just asking is enough.”
“There is a fucking silver,” he waved at the thing. “Think they could get on the calling. Can’t have the whole place wrecked!” He snapped back.
As they managed to catch the bird between different bar stools it reached out biting him again. “Fucking bird.” He grumbled. “Hey, check if there are more out there.”
“You think you got it under control?” Em glanced towards the tourist that Kermit had been fussing at, and breathed a sigh of relief to see that they were on the phone. She didn’t really want to leave him on his own, but… after casting another glance around to see there were still enough people in the bar if he needed back-up, she nodded. “One sec.”
There weren’t any in the bar, so she poked her head outside. At the end of the block, she saw a few birds, but they were far enough away that she couldn’t tell what, exactly, they were.
“Nothing in the immediate vicinity,” she called out. “Has it calmed down yet?” She paused. “Do you have any fish?”
“Do I have any what?” He looked at her. “Yes, I stock fish in the brewery, right with the hops.” He answered sarcastically.
“No, there isn’t any fish,” he paused. “Wait, there are some goldfish behind the bar.” He pointed his attention turning back to the bird.
Em rolled her eyes - it was starting to become a habit with him, and it wasn’t normally how she’d handle a patient - and headed to the bar next instead of arguing about how her question wasn’t stupid. Maybe he was going to add fish and chips! Maybe fish tacos!
One of his bartenders had gotten a jump on her and began trying to catch the fish, and someone else held a first aid kit out. “Here, Dr O’Malley.” Em smiled faintly and then hustled back to Kermit. “Lemme see your hand. If you need stitches, I’ll take you myself, let you skip the wait.” It was the least she could do, for his trouble here. “We’ll have someone else feed the damn thing. I’m not getting near it again.”
Shrugging off the idea of stitches (because he didn’t like them) he grumbled under his breath about fucking weird things and damn birds.
“Think flamingos taste good?” He asked as he finally felt like maybe this situation was going to calm down shortly.
Unable to hold it back, Em laughed. “No clue, but,” she was still smiling when she reached out for his hand to look at it, “I’m going to recommend we don’t find out. Now, sit still. This might hurt a bit.”