Bodhi had been avoiding his Fly Pad for reasons he didn't answer anyone. Many tried asking, from storks he barely knew to some of his closest friends like Ava, yet nothing could get him to touch his Fly Pad again.

Some made their guesses. Maybe he was avoiding his responsibilities on purpose, or maybe his Fly Pad was majorly defective.

Bodhi knew better. Though he did a good job of hiding it, not letting anyone truly know what had been on his mind for the past weeks.

"Seriously, please check your Fly Pad. You've been late for three deliveries in a row already. You might get demoted, and honestly I don't want to see that happen to you after you've come so far," Ava said one day, entering the Common Room. She sat down on the couch across him with a huff.

The room was just as calm as it had been the past months. The tension did thicken — from J.P. and Lucky to Bodhi's reluctance to touch his Fly Pad — but it was never broken. Not quite. At least not yet.

   Though with the golden rays of the sun streaming through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the room, it was very easy to ignore the tension. Couches were arranged haphazardly through the room. Perhaps that was what managed to distract them. Maybe it moved their focus from their swirling thoughts to material things.

   There were only two tables in the room. One in the middle for potential board games or card games they might be playing. Bodhi would fight anyone who said board/card games were boring. Y'know. If he actually had the guts to. The other table was tucked away in the corner, and it was much smaller. It was mainly for anyone who needed peace and quiet, and to work. However as time passed, J.P. unspokenly claimed the table for himself, and they all accepted that.

The walls were quite bare, with just a few small flags hanging around. Lucky eventually managed to spruce it up a bit. He taped a lot of drawings to the walls, and he was quite the decent artist. There was at least some form of semblance in his art, and the kid did know how to use colours. Absolutely nothing clashed.

"Bodhi, you're smiling. What are you thinking about? Is it finally a guy or gal or nonbinary pal?" Ava asked with an excited smile, though her exhausted eyes did frame a something completely different. Bodhi looked up, feeling something was off. He ignored the feeling. For the moment, at least.

"Why would you think that?" Bodhi asked. He stopped to look at the carpet he was crocheting. He wondered of crocheted carpets were even that great, but Lucky had wanted him to make one, so he did. It was blue so far, and he was working on its yellow part, planning to add pink a little later.

"Because I'm tired of J.P. moping around about his old one. I feel like I'm carrying T.O.T.S. right now... You and J.P. could be a power couple in giving me more resonsibilities," Ava said, with a distinct tone of exhaustion in her voice.

"Mmhmm..." Bodhi subconciously said in reply. He was still crocheting and only barely registered what she had said.

   "Jesus Faist you're not even listening—" Ava said, trying to keep a steady voice. There was a groan breaking through though.

   "You're all the same. You all think my problems don't count just because you think I don't have any mental illnesses or grief..." Ava said, staring outside the window.

"To be fair, you don't have one," Bodhi replied, looking up from his knitting. Ava rolled her eyes and the anxious stork felt his heart dropped a little bit. The thought of other animals pretending they have a mental illness when they actually don't have one scared him.

  "Christ you guys think you know everything. Well you don't..." Ava said, finding an urge to get out, but there wasn't anywhere else she could be going so she just sat there and tried to endure it.

   "And you think you know everything?" Bodhi asked, with less of Ava's defensive tone and instead a more anxious one. His eyes flickered over to the Fly Pad on the table, feeling his heart race. He didn't want anyone to know, and even if someone would know, Ava was not at the top of the list.

They were quite good friends, though he found her to be quite scary most of the time. That bold stork knew what she wanted and was unafraid to ask for it.

   Bodhi looked at his Fly Pad again. Even though he didn't ever check his Fly Pad ever again since that day, he still kept it everywhere with him. It was a nervous habit. Without his Fly Pad, he knew he'd be left with no way in contacting anyone in case anything went wrong.

"No. Which is why I ask questions. Though it seems you're not to keen on answering them," Ava replied in a bitter tone. Bodhi couldn't blame her too much. She scared him a little bit. He supposed he should be answering questions, but they didn't really have to know all that. Ava groaned, giving up. Bodhi sighed.

+*+

   The Fly Pad was something he kept at a distance for the next few weeks, not quite tending to it but still keeping it at bay. A few more questions were tossed at him, but he turned it all down and managed to escape it. He wanted to keep safe from the Fly Pad.

   Though a major thing in his Fly Pad was that email he had received. No one else knew about it. Well, except J.P., and that stork had questionned him weekly if it was about the email. As always, Bodhi turned it down, and J.P. respected him for that, though he still hadn't completely stopped asking him.

At least J.P. didn't know anything more than it was an email. At least he didn't know that it was an email from his mother. At least he didn't know what it would mean. At least he didn't know the contents of it, and Bodhi was planning to keep everyone safe from it.

Though it seemed like it was going to be a particularly stressful day. J.P. had met him in the hallway.

   "Hey, Bodhi. I know you're not checking your emails anymore. May I know why?" J.P. asked, his French accent oddly adding a tone of respect to him.

"不要..." Bodhi said in his usual shaky tone whenever someone would ask him. Questions like these were quite frequent, but that didn't make him any less anxious.

   "That's fair, I suppose. Pero I have to tell you that Captain Beakman and I checked the information of everyone today and you've been getting a lot of late deliveries..." J.P. said, bringing out his Fly Pad and started tapping on the glass. All Bodhi could guess was that Captain Beakman's right-wing stork was checking the data on the fliers again. As usual.

   "I..." Bodhi wanted to say something. An excuse, a reason, anything, but words failed him in that moment, as they always did. He just shook his head and remained silent. He felt guilt starting to rack at him again, and he just let it. It wasn't like there was anything else he could do.

"I know it's probably because of your anxiety or that email or something, pero that doesn't excuse it. You're about to slip down the ranks and you might get demoted..." J.P. said as he continued tapping at his Fly Pad. It seemed like he would never stop doing it.

"I know..." Bodhi said with a sigh. Ava pestered that about him nearly everyday and it was getting quite annoying. If anything, it was doing the opposite of motivating him. Thought it wasn't like anyone could even help with the problem he's worrying about anyway.

   "I'm going to need you to be working harder. Pwede ba 'yan? And there are going to be more deliveries next month, so that would mean more chances, diba?" J.P. said, raising his eyebrows. Exhaustion was evident in his eyes. It was evident in everyone's eyes.

   "好。我要儘可能..." Bodhi said, finding that Chinese words weren't quite failing him. Whether because it was a language he was more comfortable or he knew no one would be able to fully understand him, he didn't know. J.P. sighed with relief and started walking away.

So it went that way for a week or so. Bodhi was trying a little harder, but he found that he was already pushing himself. It was incredible how much change one email could cause. He didn't have to be plagued by the thought of the email back then, whenever he flew.

Being a Super Flier and Super Duper Flier would certainly be easier without additional stress, that was what both Bodhi and Ava agreed with. They were both feeling pushed too much, in ways.

Bodhi managed to be good enough to healthily stay as Super Flier, but at the expense of utter exhaustion. It was already plenty hard to breathe, with his binder and the high altitude. He also felt mentally tired way more often now, collapsing into his bed after each delivery, nearly forgetting to remove his binder everyday. He didn't even have enough energy to crochet, disappointing Lucky.

One day as he entered the Common Room he found the pup curled up, looking as bored as ever. Bodhi frowned sympathetically as he went to sit at his usual fuzzy couch where he could pick at the individual threads of the fabric whenever he was nervous. What the pup said had surprised him.

"Are you okay?" Lucky asked, standing up and sitting beside the stork on the couch. He swung his legs as he talked. "Jean Pierre said that you've been getting worse with your deliveries"

The young pup using his father's full first name when referring to him didn't quite sit right with Bodhi, but he decided to ignore it for now. At least. Bodhi sighed, wondering if he reveal everything to the pup. Lucky, after all, was young. Though he did blab. Bodhi took that into consideration.

"How are you and your Papa, huh, Poulaine?" Bodhi asked, switching the topic. Lucky didn't seem to bother him too much about it. Something he had in common with his father.

   "Jean Pierre still sucks and is way too caught up with his work and Juane. The only reason why I ever even know what's happening around here is that he talks aloud about work a lot," Lucky said. The pup seemed eager to rant negatively about his father. It was quite concerning.

   "He thinks I'm stupid. I'm not stupid! Or maybe he just doesn't know exactly how smart I am. I wouldn't be surprised. It's not like he paid attention to anything else about me," Lucky said, glaring at a drawing he taped onto the wall of the Common Room. The drawing seemed to be something he made four years ago. A drawing of his father.

"I'm sure your Papa cares about you, one way or another..." Bodhi said to the pup. He didn't know how true that was. Ava also complained one too many times that all J.P. could think about was work and his old lover. The top stork at T.O.T.S. certainly seemed to be having issues at the moment.

"Well why did you stop making beanies?" Lucky said in a sharp accusatory tone, though Bodhi could swear he heard a hint of sadness in it.

   "對不起. It's just that... It's been busy. I don't really have too much time to go crocheting anymore..." Bodhi said with a sigh, looking at his wings. There would usually be a crocheting needle in one wing, and a forming beanie in the other wing, but now they're empty and tired.

   "I'll ask Jean Pierre to give you less deliveries..." Lucky said in the tone of a promise. Bodhi smiled bittersweetly, knowing that it was definitely not possible, but he was happy for the concern.

+*+

As Bodhi had predicted, the deliveries did not get fewer. In fact, there seemed to be a few more each day. Normally, as a Super Flier, he would be getting two deliveries per day. However now that, as J.P. had said, there were more deliveries, he now received four deliveries average in a day.

On a relatively peaceful day with two deliveries per day, Bodhi sighed as he finally managed to get a full hour's rest at his room just staring at the ceiling. The ceiling was safe at least. If he ignored the fact that it could potentially collapse on him, and he was doing quite a good job of ignoring it. He was feeling a little proud of himself. Just then, the speakers sounded again.

  "Bodhi, please head to Captain Beakman's office," Paulie said through the speakers, adding his signature parrot squawk at the end.

   Bodhi sighed, frowning. He had been doing much better this week. Why did Captain Beakman want him right now? He wanted to be able to finally rest and not be worried about that stupid email or getting demoted or the world ending, but now he had to go ahead and deal with this.

  He sighed as he stood up, entering the blue hallway outside and walked towards the elevator. He stepped onto the yellow platform and it rose up until Captain Beakman's office slowly appeared, with the said pelican sitting at her desk. She seemed to be checking something on her Fly Pad.

   Bodhi felt awkward just standing in the elevator — and wondering if he could potentially be sent down again — so he stepped of the elevator. It was still awkward, standing in the middle of his boss' office not knowing why he was even called there. He cleared his throat, getting the attention of the distracted pelican.

   "Oh, hello there Bodhi," Captain Beakman said in a motherly tone. It would usually be enough to calm anyone, but something felt different about today.

   "So I already sent J.P. many times to tell you about your progress, and you have been doing better this week. I'm proud of you," Captain Beakman said with a smile, and Bodhi felt himself relax a little bit. His mind was racing though. Maybe the pelican wanted to put the good news to the side quickly.

   "But. You seemed to be mixing up your deliveries sometimes, and you know how we already send the schedules to each Fly Pad," the pelican continued. Bodhi sighed as he thought of the Fly Pad which he left back in his room. Maybe he should have brought it with him this time as well...

   "I'm not going to ask you again why you're not touching it, seeing as I've sent different storks and you didn't answer them, but I will ask you to please try and checking it, alright? Check the schedule, please," Captain Beakman said. She seemed to be smiling, but it was clear they were all exhausted.

  "I can't..." Bodhi said. If he checked even a little thing on his Fly Pad, he might ended up checking everything else so there would be nothing else other storks could bother him about. If he ended up checking everything else, then he would have to deal with the email his mother sent him. He was more than willing to not deal with it.

   "Please try, at least? I can't have you delivering Pip and Freddy's baby again. They were happy to get less things to do, but J.P. and I arranged through the deliveries for a reason," Captain Beakman said with a sigh. Her voice was calm when addressing this to him, but Bodhi couldn't help feel like it was an attack at him.

"Alright..." Bodhi finally said, and he felt guilty knowing that he probably wouldn't do it. Try, at least, he told himself. He took a deep breath. Yeah. He was going to try at least. It wasn't going to be entirely his fault if he wasn't able to do it. Definitely not.

"Thank you, Bodhi. But if you still can't, just... please try not mixing up your deliveries. Even if it would be in an old-fashioned way, like a planner or something," Captain Beakman said with a tight smile, then gestured towards the elevator. He could leave now. He sighed as he turned around. He stepped onto the elevator platform once again and it lowered him onto the hallway that seemed to be connected everywhere.

   There was the whir of the loading machines to his left. It seemed so busy already. To be fair, the loading machines did overheat more than once, though Mr. Woodbird was able to fix it. The engineer also added a whole new cooling system to the machines. No one knew how long it would survive, but Bodhi hoped it would. The dozen times of overheating had caused a huge setback to all the deliveries. Probably why there were more deliveries now compared to before.

   Then there was the nursery where there seemed to be twice as much babies as before. K.C. seemed to be quite busy, but she was still keeping up well. She didn't have any time to spare to hang out with them anymore though. Maybe when this whole thing finally blows over.

   Bodhi turned towards the hallway that lead to the rooms and started walking. He arrived at his door and entered his room, looking at the Fly Pad and feeling his body tense up. It was as if the Fly Pad was radioactive, and he might die if he came any nearer to it.

Even though he hadn't looked at the email in a month or so, he still remembered what was in it. Or at least the gist of it. It was hard memorising a lot of Chinese words. The email told him to come back. To come back home to the Mile-High Mountain Ranges. He wasn't going to do that. He wasn't going to go back home, if he could even call that place home.

   He was scared of that place. He was scared of his mother. He didn't know why she even wanted him to come back. She said she would promise some medical insurance if he came back. He didn't know why, but he did have guesses. It would probably go into making him thinner.

    He didn't like where things were going. No one knew what the worst could happen, but Bodhi could already see the best-case scenario if he came back. For a best-case scenerio, it was looking quite bleak. There was probably no way he was going to open his Fly Pad and subject himself to reminders that the email still existed.

Bodhi sighed. It was probably frustrating to everyone at this point, that he couldn't even muster up a sense of calm to finally pick his Fly Pad up. At least Captain Beakman managed to offer up an alternative. He was grateful for that. Now if only life could offer him an alternative to going back home.

He walked over to his shelf and grabbed a planner that his father had bought him for some birthday or Theravada. Bodhi had left it on the shelf back home with the plastic and tag still on, but when he finally made it to T.O.T.S., he decided to also bring it with him.

   He never used it, at least not until today, and he regretted it. He probably used it too late. Bodhi gulped. Every time he looked at the planner, it sent cold tingles dancing across his skin, unlike the nervousness his Fly Pad brought him. He took a deep breath and grabbed the yellow planner.

It felt easier to hold the planner, but it also felt more ominous. Instead of warning him about the potential future like the Fly Pad, the planner had the past between its pages.

   Bodhi quickly ripped open the planner and grabbed a pen. It felt like he was partaking in the ghost of something.

  And so he had begun using the planner for the next few weeks, quite successfully. Bodhi never mixed up a delivery ever again, and he was slowly getting faster. He barely had any late deliveries anymore. He seemed to be doing as well as he was doing. He seemed to be as good as when he was newly a Super Flier.

Things seemed to be going as well as it could be going. There were still a lot of deliveries and it still gave them all some stress, but it wasn't as bad as it had been the last week. Bodhi wasn't performing at his top performance, but Captain Beakman thought it was enough. They were all tired anyway.

There was a big delivery this week, though Bodhi wasn't as afraid as he had originally been. Things were going so welll already. Nothing could happen. It seemed like the Fly Pad could never bother him ever again.