Strained Relationships

"C'mon Pearl, we won't go far, just enough to get a quick blip, then we'll come right back out again", said Clara as she passed between the bars on the gate and began the trek up the road.

Meanwhile, Pearl paced back and forth, wringing her wing feathers and shaking her tail, wondering (once again) why she always falls for this when she's with Pearl. Can't she see the sign? Can't she READ?!! One of these days she's going to go through the wrong gate and land on someone's dinner table, once and for all! Why couldn't Pearl have been a better judge of character when Clara suggested that they do something together this afternoon!? What would her mother have said if she could see her now! She could hear her clucking away, "I don't care if the other birds do it! If one jumped through a fence, would you jump too?!" Of course not, thought Pearl to herself...