Thoughts on Early Spring

After doing parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this, I got to working on the next chapters of my big Pony novel and forgot to post my response to last Thursday's prompt from Poetigress. The word she supplied was "experiment."

     A scuffling in the bushes outside the living room window 

caught my ear after I turned the TV off, and a chirpy 

little voice I didn't recognize: "So, now, wait.  You want 

us to...what?"

     El Brujo's voice answered, "It's very simple," and I felt 

both relief and wariness.  She'd gone out earlier in the 

morning and then hadn't shown up when I'd rolled out to 

watch the new My Little Pony episode even though 

making snoring noises and snarky comments during my shows 

has always been one of her favorite pastimes.  That she'd 

missed a session had worried me, but discovering that she 

was lurking in the bushes outside, I found, worried me even 

more.  I worked my way a little closer to the partially-

opened window, the getting-on-toward-becoming warm March 

breeze ruffling the curtains, and listened.

     "You build your nest here," El Brujo was saying, "and I'll 

keep it safe from all the other predators."

     "Wow!" a different chirpy voice said.  "That's a great 

idea, honey!  Someone to watch over the--"

     "Uh-huh," came the first chirpy voice.  "And when you say 

'the other predators,' you mean other than yourself, 

is that it?"

     A little silence, then a loud cracking and rustling.  I 

pulled the curtains back in time to see two sparrows 

winging off over Mrs. Hartson's house, El Brujo sitting 

partially sunk in the top of the hedge, her eyes also on 

the fleeing birds.

     I cleared my throat.  "No one buying what you're selling 

today?"

     She leaned forward and dropped gracefully from the bush to 

the dirt of Mrs. Hartson's garden, still bare this early in 

the spring.  "Just a failed experiment, August."  She 

looked up at me, her tail flicking slightly.  "One never 

knows, after all, unless one tries."

It then continues with 6.