Notebook 7 The curve of time

Chapter 14

Curves

For Selma, the chance meeting with Frank or Frankie on that inauspicious day of cloud and threatened rain was special. She did not have the word to pin it down. Portentous maybe. It was the feeling of the universe nudging her. She had been about to leave, he had mistakenly thought he had missed an assignation, but a stale cupcake had made a connection between them.

Then there had been the library, the noticeboard, the bird charm on the bracelet. Perhaps it was no surprise, then, that the name Ben Falcon came to mind. Was it Falcon? Had she imagined Falcon on that little piece of card which he had left on her desk, dampened by the blush of petals and crushed in her pocket beneath the flowers, attached like a little tag, a memento, a reminder? Somehow these improbable connections had contrived to form a chain: peregrine falcon, Falcon. She was curious. 

      She found the tag and send an email to the address on the card. Her message was brief and casual, the subject In search of peregrines. The message: Making connections with birds, mainly of the peregrine falcon kind, and thought of you. Using my camera loads. Hope you are well and doing fine at the office. Selma

Ben, that is the Ben of ben@falcon.com, had found the message from Selma in his Junk Mail some few days later. The subject had struck him as odd, in search of peregrines.  He would not have found it but for the fact that he had mislaid an email from a friend some weeks back, Mike, asking him to meet up. So he was searching in Junk Mail. It was another of Mike’s hare-brained plans, typical of him, always one to disappear over the horizon in search of unicorns. This time it was something about sticking a pin in a map to find a place from which to explore the proverbial end of the rainbow. Mike was always travelling somewhere. However, while still employed, Ben had dismissed the proposal. Then later, since he had resigned, he found himself at a loose end – maybe Mike’s email had some worth to it. And there it was, with Selma’s email right below it. 

The juxtaposition had seemed serendipitous. It was one of those non-coincidental occurrences that are known to some, in particular to Ben, as synchronicity. Ben was always looking for messages delivered in mysterious ways. He was surprised. Selma had shown no inclination to respond to his approach when she had left the firm. Faint-hearted and all that, he had failed to ask for hers in return. Now he had every reason to follow through. 

He would take his time. He would do it tomorrow, or the day after, not to look too eager. But then he noticed the email was dated two weeks previous.

Amazing to hear from you. Glad to see you are using your camera. Of course I see how you made the connection Peregrine – Falcon. It’s a medieval nickname for a pilgrim. You can call me ‘Pilgrim’ if you like.

So then he suggested coming North to see her, since he was unemployed and at a loose end. He would do some research on peregrine falcons himself in the meantime.

Various sources gave Ben different interpretations of the name Falcon. He knew about them, of course he did, always researching the derivations of things. The falcon was a spirit animal, its meaning at essence . … signifying wisdom, vision, and protection. He liked the idea of a beautiful creature being powerful and protective. It seemed to invite him to seize something visionary. It seemed to show the way. Who had named him Falcon, he wondered, because he had been fostered many times. He had lost count of how many.

Ben found solace in searching for the details others missed. He seemed to live in a world of his own. He discovered the word ‘falcon’ was derived from 13th-century faucon, itself derived from Old French of the same spelling. It could even be that this in turn was derived from the Late Latin falconem, which drew its root from falx,  meaning curved blade, as of a weapon. He loved the way the meanings unfolded, tracing a path through time., like a fractal. He was sure curved blade referred to the sweep of its swings, but the peregrine falcon also had sharp curved talons and a curved beak. Everything about the peregrine falcon is curves. It even hunts in a curve. When it stoops from a height to hunt its prey, it turns its head for speed avoiding the drag of a direct approach.