Theresa's Drone

The Bells of St. Anthony's Ep. 20

Theresa’s Drone

As told by Theresa herself

By the night of the Homecoming dance, the ring of chrysanthemums had been hanging on Our Lady’s Tree for three days. In fact, I'd kind of forgotten about it. We've just been so busy in the maker club, putting the finishing touches on our robot Dolly, that we couldn't really focus on anything else.

It was Augusta Sears, the lady herself, the one who'd come up with the stunt in the first place, who reminded me. She climbed up the bleachers in her black-and-white gown toward me. "Theresa, how busy are you?"

I looked up from where I was lying down. "Not terribly, I guess." My dancing robot was a hit, so I'd been taking a well-deserved rest. "What's up?"

"The maker club has a drone, right?"

"It's in the club room. Why, do you need it?"

"I need to get those chrysanthemums down from the Tree. I think the school's just gonna let them wither off, but I feel bad just leaving them."

I lifted myself to my feet and stretched. "I've got the room key. Come on." On the way down, I waved to Swift, who was still dancing with Landon, and seemed to be having a great time, finally. I also passed by Bonnie, who asked where we were going.

When I told her, she said, "Can I come with? Zeke and Lucius are hanging out with the other guys right now anyway."

Augusta didn't mind, so we brought her along.

"I'm really jealous," Bonnie said.

"Of me?" Augusta said. "You already have a boyfriend."

"It's not like Zeke would ever do the stuff Rustin did," I pointed out.

"I mean, I like that he's so laid-back," Bonnie said, "but it's still such a romantic gesture."

"Everybody keeps saying that," Augusta said. "Honestly, Rustin's just stubborn. He doesn't really have enough going for him. At least for me."

"Fair enough. Still."

I opened the door, and the drone was right there on the table.

"I was hoping it had arms," Augusta said.

"The only arms we have are on Dolly," I said. "Still, we don't want the propellers to shred the flowers. We have a hook. Bonnie, I think it's on that shelf next to you."

The hook was a simple gripper claw I could operate from my phone. We took it out to the back of the school, over to Our Lady’s Tree, and attached the hook. The chrysanthemums dangled from the top branch, with only a hint of their original violet color peeking through the shadow in the dusk. It wasn't quite nighttime, but I would have liked more visibility.

I started up the drone, and it made that sweet honeybee buzz as it lifted up. The hook hung from it on a steel cable.

The bangs fell away from Augusta's eyes, which were transfixed on the drone.

"So cool," she said, in a voice that suggested this was what she wanted as much as the chrysanthemums.

"You like drones?" I said.

"I like flight," Augusta said. "Drones, airplanes, choppers, rockets, you name it. A testament to human ingenuity."

"I know how you feel," Bonnie said. "One thing I love about science fiction is all the interesting ideas for aircraft and spacecraft they come up with. Just endless possibilities."

I offered Augusta the controller. "Here."

"R-really?"

"This way I have a hand free so I can control the hook."

She took it with all the care and reverence of Father Michael lifting the Eucharist. I walked her a little through the controls, and let her go so I could get to the right app.

I opened up the claw. "All right, now descend just a little... There, stop." I closed the claw, and on the first try, it closed within the ring of chrysanthemums. "Great. Now all that's left is to bring it down."

Augusta was handling it like a pro, hovering it over a clear spot on the lawn, where it wouldn't risk bumping into the tree or the shrine to the Blessed Virgin at the bottom. She began to lower it down.

Then with a shriek like scraping metal, a large bird burst out and attacked the drone. In the silhouette, all I could see were the thrashing wings and kicking talons and the furious beak. The thing was huge, like a true dinosaur!

It knocked the drone right out of the air, flipping and spinning and tumbling to the ground with a heartrending crunch. The culprit flapped to the tree, onto a branch close to the shrine. Now there was enough light from the school door and the shrine to reveal the distinct white hood of a bald eagle.

"I didn't even know we had those around here!" Bonnie said.

The eagle briefly stared at us with a sort of regal disdain, as if we had somehow dishonored his skies by introducing such a machine into them. Or maybe it was just as surprised at what it had done as we were.

Augusta gave it a salute.

My poor, sweet drone lay in a wreck in front of me.

However the eagle felt, it soon flew away into the oncoming night.

Augusta handed back my controller. One of the propellers was still running, so I switched it off remotely. How was I supposed to explain this to the other members of the maker club?

We paced over to the crash site, where Augusta stooped down and picked up a ring of chrysanthemums.

"Well," she said, placing it on top of her head, "we got it down."