Fiction Friday - A Tokay's Tale

Teale looked behind her in surprise. How could this have happened? They'd been so careful! What was Ricky going to say? 

Not that it mattered much. This was her home. She curled her copper-flecked tail loosely around the two white ovoids and caressed them with the pale blue tail-tip. Her house. Her eggs. Her responsibility.

She called out a song in her vibrant voice, not sure if her singing was coming from joy, fear, or pure instinct. She always sang at night.

Of all the tokay geckos in the area, Teale had a distinctive voice and the acoustics of the concrete and tile room she'd made her home ensured she could be heard far and wide.

Her song over, she thought about Ricky. Naturally she hadn't seen him in days. She could wait and see if he came by or she could seek him out to tell him. If it mattered. Did it matter? Maybe not.

A week later, she ran into him while hunting, and he almost bit her tail off in the frenzy for a particularly feisty cockroach. He followed her home, saw the eggs, and started a fight because she'd kept it secret, finally forcing her out in a fit of temper. She kept an eye on him, though. He stayed, getting acquainted with the eggs in her cozy den behind the big white tank in the giants' water room.

After three days of quiet, she went back. By then, they were both calmer. He wanted to be involved, he said. He would help her, he said.

And he did!

Now she had time to go out hunting on her own or to visit her favorite haunts. They took it in turns to look after the eggs. Sometimes they both stayed together. That's when it started.

His singing.

Teale had a beautiful, clear voice. Ricky wanted to join in. When he started singing in a voice like a child who was coughing while shouting across a playground, she gave up. 

"Don't you want to sing for the eggs?"

"No, that's okay, you carry on."

He seemed to take her encouragement as a declaration of enjoyment and would belt it out louder and longer. 

If he asked her to sing first, she agreed, but then he'd break in above her, drowning out her tones. So she'd stop. It always took a while for him to notice. Because he couldn't hear while he was belting out his call at the top of his lungs.

She appreciated his help and his presence. She did. As much as she had told herself it was her responsibility, there was something calming about having an extra four legs doing the work. Besides, he wouldn't be in her space forever. The eggs should hatch in about two more months. She could make it.

Two short months until the hatching.

Two long months of listening to Ricky's tone-deaf song.

This story was inspired by the drama actually happening in our back bathroom! Although I haven't watched the tokays fight or chase each other, I know A) There was one lovely pale blue, copper flecked tokay gecko behind the toilet tank, then B) A clutch of eggs, then C) Suddenly a dark brown one with a shorter tail was watching the eggs, and now D) usually both geckos are there. Art imitates nature!