Edgar the Eaglet

Edgar the eaglet loved the centre of the nest. In fact, there was no other place where he would rather have been. You see, his egg was laid in the centre and he hatched in the centre. The centre was the warmest place, nestled between his sisters with his mother or father covering him. And sometimes he believed that because he was in the centre, he received more food. His parents sometimes lost track of who had been fed, and so they had a pattern that always began with him.

Edgar didn’t want anything to do with the edge of the nest. Edgar’s sisters loved the edge of the nest; all they talked about was what they could see outside the nest. Once they told him that a twig fell off the edge and they watched it disappear as it fell to the earth below. That made Edgar shiver, things shouldn’t just disappear. Edgar had no use for the edge of the nest, he had all he wanted right there in the centre. If growing up meant going over the edge and maybe disappearing, perhaps growing up wasn’t all that important.