Here is what we have written so far (with minimal edits):
Morning seen through the gaps in the curtains. Bittersweet light. Wendell looked out his window, watching sparrows. Particle counters at several nuclear plants on the sunward side of the planet began to trace a slow climb. Meanwhile, Wendell was trying to find a pair of socks that matched. The sparrows were agitated, and he needed to fill the bird feeder. Like many others that day, he was preoccupied with his morning routine. The bird-forms are nearly always the first to respond, anyway. It was too soon for humans to notice. Wendell settled on one navy sock and one black sock. He pulled on his sneakers, grabbed the birdseed and headed outside. Wendell emptied several scoops of seed into the feeder, then stepped back and smiled as he heard chickadees twitter excitedly in nearby trees.
Across the Atlantic, it was 2PM at the Large Hadron Collider when Dr. Maria Answara returned from lunch. She stretched. She yawned. She looked at her feet. The air was clear and the temperature was warming to a comfortable 17 degrees Celsius. There were tulips in a vase on her desk. Maria walked over to her window to look outside. She had so many things to do today but couldn't help but want to go for a walk and enjoy this beautiful day. The report to the commission was still a work in progress. Why did this have to be so scattered. Wendell's absence was affecting her more than she cared to admit. Why had he left so suddenly? And to take a nothing job as shift supervisor at the Palo Verde nuclear power station, of all things! Maybe it had been a mistake to become involved with Wendell. But, really, wasn't two years long enough to grieve for a dead wife? Maria turned away from the window and looked at the piles of papers on her desk.
Wendell clicked over to "Good Morning America" as he was eating his daily instant oatmeal chased with a Red Bull. The anchor was in the middle of a report about birds behaving in odd ways. Wendell glanced out the kitchen window at the bird feeder and was shocked to see several turkey buzzards standing near it. "Buzzards in my yard?" he thought "I've never even seen them it town before."
As he got up to look more closely, his cell phone buzzed on the counter. Wendell sighed as he read the number on the display. For a brief moment he felt a twinge of rebellion and considered not answering. Then he rolled the kinks out of his shoulders and straightened, Hoping the Red Bull was hard at work in his system, preparing him for the day. He pressed the answer button.
It was the plant calling, of course. He had been hoping (and not hoping, maybe) for a call from Maria, so he could try to explain. But of course she would be tied up now in her research. He had read they were getting ready to start a new series of runs. He answered, rather than letting the call go to his voicemail, although he briefly considered ignoring it. It was Carl, the plant foreman.
"What do you know about birds?!" was the first thing out of his mouth. As he looked out the window again, he noticed the buzzards were gone. He curiously scratched his head wondering if he imagined them. "Uh, never mind. what's up?"
Pretty good for one day, yes?
Not too shabby! This could actually turn out to be pretty interesting.
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