The Wren, the Wren

by Anne Enright

We went home to Europe the slow way. We flew up to Cairns and did the reef, then went on to Denpasar for some hotel life on the way to Nusa Penida. I chose this island because of the jalak Bali, a white mynah with an easy-going, loose white crest, and vivid blue skin around the eye, very chatty and imitative, and so endangered there are only a hundred or so mating couples left. This bird we did not see, though we did have an encounter with the passing manta rays, a creature I also failed to spot until I stopped checking from side to side and looked straight down where I saw a spread black cloak flying along the sandy floor. We swam down to the seabed, flippers going like crazy, and turned to meet another ray coming straight at us, with its weirdly open box-mouth, curved around by scooping fins. This manta sheered up and passed over my right shoulder, its white belly like the meaty underside of a low-flying plane.