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The little creature that emerged was clearly not my son. His bright orange feathers were nothing like mine. My wife and I both stared at it awkwardly for several moments before my gaze turned to her. She was avoiding my eyes and was fidgety.

“Penguina?” I asked. “What is going on here?”

“Pen, I can explain,” she said as her voice cracked, tears forming in her eyes.

“Is this what you've been doing while I was out hunting for fish, risking killer whale attacks to keep food on our table?!” I said, fury rising in my beak.

“Damnit, Pen!” she protested, tears rolling down her cheeks like pearls, “I wish it hadn't come to this, really I do! But you were never here! And you promised! You promised –”

Her voice was drowned in a spring of tears and I starred, helpless to regain the bird I had somehow let slip away. My thoughts briefly returned to our younger years of mutual preening and flirtatious behavior. How could I blame it on her? She was right. I hadn't been there. I hadn't been there.

I turned away from her and left the nest, feeling like something had died inside of me. I went to the bar and took a stool near the diving pool. I saw a lot of penguins come and go. They were all familiar, but they were all strangers that night.

“Bring me a drink bartender, and make it something hard. I've got forgetting to do.”

The bartender slipped me something from under the counter. I'd never seen it before, but I could tell it was something potent. How many pathetic stories had that bartender's sad eyes seen? Probably enough to make any grown penguin break down and cry. It was if his eyes had said, “I know your story without you even having to say a word. This here will make you feel better. This here will make you feel better right away.”

I tried not to think about it, about anything. I let the liquor slide down my beak, burning its way to my stomach. I asked for another, and another, and another. How many drinks had I had? It didn't matter. I saw Penguina's beautiful face swim before my eyes like a haze. I tried to reach out for her, but all I caught was air.

The bell on the door suddenly rang and someone entered – someone I'd never seen before. He didn't have a black coat like your average penguin. Not this guy. I might have been drunk, but I saw him clear as day through the mist that clouded everything else. His coat was smoother than satin, and bright orange. He walked with an arrogance in his step, and he had a beak like none I had ever seen.

Christ. This was the guy that had stolen my Penguina.

I stood up and though I might start a fight, but halfway there something inside of me broke. What good was a fight going to do me now? I stumbled past the bird that had taken away all I had ever had and left the bar, the bell ringing as I made my escape. It was dark out now. In my drunken confusion I wandered off to the edge of the ice near the ocean. A full moon was out and the ocean was glistening sea green under the starlight. It was the most beautiful sky I had ever seen. I could feel hot tears well up in my eyes as I fell to the ice, by feet dangling into the ocean water before me. Then, just as I hit rock bottom, I saw it. A dark form in the sea green. Moving slowly and ominously, like a wraith in the shadows. I knew what it was, but this time I didn't run, this time I didn't try to swim away. I just held myself frozen there, ready to stare it in the eye. It broke the surface of the water, its jaws opened wide to consume my body, my soul. I had never seen anything so beautiful.

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