The Bird Read online

  She parks the car in the driveway and hurries to get the groceries inside, staring anxiously at the birds, watching to see if they make a move. Finally, she’s done and walks inside the house, closes the door behind her, then locks it, just to be sure.

  10

  When it is afternoon, Sally drives to the school to pick up her daughter. When they return, the birds are still there, sitting on the wires like they are waiting for them. And now there are even more of them, maybe twenty or so.

  “Cool,” Winnie says when she gets out of the car and spots them. “Maybe they’re Zed’s family. They sure look like her, don’t you think, Mommy? Mommy? Are you okay, Mommy?”

  “Let’s go inside,” Sally says and pulls her daughter’s hand. She doesn’t like the way the birds are staring at them with their glowing green eyes. She can’t stop looking at their beaks that are twice or maybe three times the size of Zed’s.

  As soon as they enter the house, they are both overwhelmed by a loud excruciating noise.

  “What is that?” Winnie asked.

  Sally walks to the door of her daughter’s room, then listens. She looks at Winnie and swallows hard.

  “It’s coming from your room. It sounds like…the bird…it’s flapping around in there.”

  “Zed?” Winnie’s face lights up.

  “Oh, dear God. I can’t stand that sound.”

  “She’s better?” Winnie asks.

  “I guess you could say that,” Sally says. “Sure sounds like she is doing very well in there.”

  “Maybe she wants to go see her family? Maybe they have come to get her?” Winnie says, sounding very cheerful. “Do you think they can hear each other or even talk with one another?”

  Sally doesn’t quite share her enthusiasm. The sound of the bird flapping around frantically inside of the room terrifies her. Not to mention the thought of its twenty family members waiting outside, communicating or not.

  “Get that thing out of my house,” she says. “Get it OUT!”

  “But, Mo-o-om,” Winnie complains.

  Sally shakes her head. “No. No. No more. This bird is going. I want it out of here. NOW.”

  Winnie sighs, annoyed. “Okay.”

  She walks to the door and puts her hand on the handle. She turns and looks at her mother.

  “Are you sure I can’t keep her? Just for a little while longer? I could get a cage? That way she wouldn’t flap around at all.”

  Sally focuses hard on keeping her temper down. She closes her eyes for a few seconds, taking deep breaths, thinking of something nice, then opens them again. “I don’t want to say this again, Winnie. Get the bird out of the house before I explode in a fit of rage.”

  Winnie grumbles. “Okay. Okay.”

  She opens the door and walks inside. “Hi, Zed. Hi, baby.”

  The fluttering sounds stop as soon as she closes the door, and Sally calms down. She shakes her head and rolls her shoulders to relax them.

  “In a few minutes, it’ll all be over, Sally,” she mumbles to herself. “In a few minutes, it’s all over.”

  11

  It’s too quiet. Sally is standing outside the door. She is listening, but can’t hear a sound. What’s going on in there? Did Winnie get the bird out?

  Maybe she let it out the window.

  Sally’s heart is thumping in her throat as she waits. The silence scares her. The birds on the other side of the house are sitting eerily still on that wire. She watches them through the window, pulling the curtain aside. Not a movement. Not a sound. Nothing but staring green eyes.

  Will they disappear if we get rid of the little one? Are they waiting for her? What are they anyway? I have never seen birds quite like these before.

  Sally returns to her daughter’s door and puts her ear to it. Silence. Nothing but terrifying silence.

  “Winnie?” she asks and knocks lightly. “Is everything all right?”

  There is no answer. Sally feels like she can’t breathe. She knocks again, this time harder.

  “Winnie? Is everything all right?”

  Still, no answer. Not even a sound.

  “Winnie?”

  Sally breathes heavily as she puts her hand on the door handle. She finds it hard to catch her breath. The thought of facing that bird again makes her hyperventilate.

  Calm down, Sally. I am sure everything is all right. I am sure Winnie is just fine in there.

  She lets go of the handle and looks at her hand, realizing she can’t do it. She can’t go in there. She’s too scared of a darn little bird.

  And that is when she hears it. The piercing screams of her daughter’s cry for help, followed by:

  “MOOOOOOM!”

  “Winnie!”

  Sally pulls the handle, opens the door, and slams it up against the wall behind it. Inside, she spots her daughter, sitting in the corner, both of her hands covering her face. The bird is above her, hovering above her, pecking at her face, getting in between her arms to find the bare skin, then pecking, ripping it to blood, using its claws too.

  “MOOOOM. Mommy. Mommy!”

  Sally stares at the bird, then at her daughter. She looks around for something to use. She grabs the lightsaber Winnie got for her birthday from her cousin, thinking Winnie had to be just as fond of the Star Wars movies as he is. The bird is in the air, now diving down towards Winnie, claws first. Sally swings the plastic sword through the air and hits the bird just as it is about to attack her daughter once again.

  The bird squeaks, then flies through the air, hitting the window with a thud. The bird lands on the carpet. Completely out of it, Sally rushes to it and sees that it is still moving. She lifts the sword once again and slams it down on the bird, and then again and again, till blood comes out of it and it lies completely still.

  “Mommy?”

  Sally turns to face her daughter, removing hair from her face. Winnie looks at her, her face ripped and bleeding.

  “Mommy? Is it gone now?”

  “Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.”

  12

  James is in a meeting when he receives the call. His secretary peeks inside the meeting room and tells him it is urgent. Soon after, he is rushing through town to get to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando, where Winnie has been transferred.

  He finds Sally sitting by Winnie’s bedside in her room. Winnie smiles when she sees her father.

  “Daddy!”

  “Winnie, baby,” he exclaims and rushes to her bed. He looks at her face, then feels a huge lump in his stomach. “Are you all right?” He looks at Sally. “Is she all right? What do the doctors say?”

  Sally nods. “She’ll be okay. Wounds are pretty deep, though. They’ll leave scars.”

  James clasps his mouth while tears well into his eyes, as he looks at her face and arms. “And that bird did this to you? That sweet little birdie? Oh, dear God, you poor, poor thing.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a little late for all that now,” Sally says.

  James looks at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Sally shakes her head and looks away. “Nothing.”

  “What? You’re blaming me?”

  “Well…” Sally gives him a look.

  “Because I let her keep the bird. How was I supposed to know it would do…this?” he asks.

  Sally sighs, then corrects Winnie’s pillow behind her head. “Mo-om,” her daughter complains.

  “It’s not like I didn’t tell you,” Sally says and points at her own face.

  James blushes. He feels terrible, even worse than when he just came in the room. She’s right, isn’t she? He did know. He saw her face, yet he still allowed the bird back into the house. What kind of husband is he? What kind of father?

  “I…I am…I feel terrible,” he says.

  “It’s okay, Daddy,” Winnie says. “It’s not your fault. It was that stupid birdie’s fault.”

  Sally smiles, then puts a hand on his shoulder. “There really isn’t much we can do about i
t now, is there?”

  He looks into her eyes. Her eyes are filled with love for him and forgiveness, but he can’t forgive himself, not after what has happened, after what he did to her, to his beloved daughter. Anger wells up inside of him.

  “I am gonna kill that bird…”

  “Mom already did,” Winnie says.

  “What?”

  “Mommy killed the birdie,” Winnie repeats. “Smashed it against the window using my lightsaber. You should have seen it, Daddy, it was awesome. Left a huge stain of blood on the window and everything. Then, when it fell to the floor, she hit it again and again till it was completely dead. It was awesome, Daddy. Mom saved me. Like a Jedi.”

  James sighs and puts an arm around his wife’s shoulder. He looks into her eyes with a gentle exhale. “I guess she is our little hero, then. And I guess it is all over? No more birds in the house?”

  Sally nods confidently. “The bird won’t bother us ever again, that’s for sure. It’s over.”

  13

  Winnie is discharged from the hospital late in the afternoon. Sally and James are told to keep the wounds very clean and to not let Winnie go in the pool for a few weeks. She is given a bag of painkillers along with a bottle of liquid morphine in case it gets really bad, and asked to go see her own physician in two days to check on the wounds and make sure they’re not infected and that they’re healing properly. Sally is also handed a pamphlet for a plastic surgeon who can repair the scars when Winnie grows older.

  James sighs happily in the car on the way home.

  “What?” Sally asks.

  “I’m just…so grateful. It could have been so much worse.” He looks at Winnie in the rearview mirror and smiles as their eyes meet.

  “You don’t think it was bad enough?” Sally asks.

  “Of course I do. It was terrible, but think of how much worse it could have been. What if it had pecked her in the…in the…” he leans over and whispers the last part, “eyes?”

  Sally nods. He has a point. The bird could easily have blinded her in at least one of her eyes. The thought is terrifying and Sally doesn’t want to think it to the end. It’s bad enough that her daughter will grow up with scars on her face because no one would listen to her when she told them that bird was dangerous. Even though the evidence was pretty clear when looking at what it did to her. Very clear, indeed.

  Don’t start again, Sally. You promised yourself to forgive him, remember? You promised. It’s the only way to move on after this. Don’t get all agitated again. He made a mistake. Forgive him.

  But it is easier said than done. Sally can’t escape the thought that if only they had listened, if only she had been more determined, if only she had stood her ground and not given in, this would never have happened. But, oh, no, the bird was harmless. It was just her.

  Yeah, right!

  Sally blows raspberries in the car without noticing it. She looks embarrassed at James when he gives her a stare.

  “What’s that, dear?”

  She shakes her head. “Nothing. I was just lost in my thoughts.”

  He looks at her like he doesn’t really believe her. She shrugs with an awkward smile. “Can’t wait to get home.”

  “Me either,” he says. He looks in the mirror at Winnie in the back. “How are we doing back there?”

  “I’m tired, Daddy,” Winnie says.

  Sally turns and looks at her. She looks horrible. Forty-eight stitches in total, the doctor told them. Sally feels her own face and is grateful that at least the bird didn’t dig as deep into her skin as it did to her daughter, even though she would trade places with her any day, if only she could. The doctor had been joking with her, asking her if she liked pirates because she was going to look just like a real pirate after this. With all those scars. Sally wasn’t so sure pirates had that many scars. Winnie had thought it was cool, luckily, but she probably wasn’t going to once she got a little older. If only the other kids wouldn’t pick on her. That is one of Sally’s great concerns. Not only is Winnie quite overweight, at least she used to have a pretty face. Now that is gone.

  James drives up to the gate and the guard greets him, then opens the gate. They drive onto the island, turn right onto their street, then drive into the driveway. It is dark when they get out of the car and start to walk up to the house.

  James puts the key in the keyhole when a sound suddenly makes them all turn around.

  14

  Hundreds of birds are staring back at them. White ravens with green eyes, sitting on the wires, on the rooftops, in the bushes. One lets out a loud cawing sound and they all respond in unison.

  “KR-AAA, KR-AAA, KR-A-A-A. KR-AAA, KR-AAA, KR-A-A-A. KR-AAA, KR-AAA, KR-A-A-A.”

  Sally grabs Winnie and pulls her close. “W-w-what is this? What’s going on here, James?”

  James shakes his head. “I-I-I don’t know.”

  Winnie lets out a loud whimper. The birds look a lot like Zed, but they’re bigger, a lot bigger. One rises above them into the air and shows a wingspan of about eight feet. It is hovering above them, making loud noises, like it is commanding its soldiers, telling them what to do.

  “I…think we better get inside,” James says and returns to the keys that are still stuck in the door.

  “Hurry, hurry,” Sally says, listening to the keys jangle as James frantically tries to unlock the door.

  “Damn lock,” he grumbles.

  “Hurry, Jim. It’s getting closer. And it’s getting the others to follow it, now hurry, will you, Jim, please?”

  “I’m doing the best I can. The door won’t unlock.”

  “James, please. Hurry.”

  Just as he hears the sweet song of the lock being opened, one bird dives towards them, grabs Sally’s hair with its claws, and pulls forcefully, pulling out a huge lock of hair.

  Sally is screaming as more birds dive towards them, surrounding them, flapping their wings, getting tangled in their hair, pecking at their scalps and faces. They’re all screaming, trying to fight the birds off. Sally manages to get two away from her face, then grabs Winnie and pulls her towards the door. A bird is tangled in her hair and can’t get loose. The girl is screaming, panicking.

  “Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY!”

  Sally grabs the bird’s wing and pulls. “Mommy, you’re hurting me, you’re hurting me!”

  The bird is screaming at her, at least that’s what it sounds like, pecking at her fingers while she is pulling its wing. It is flapping crazily when she pulls forcefully again and manages to get it out of her daughter’s hair.

  “My eye! My eye!” James’s screams are piercing through Sally’s bones. “It pecked me in the eye.”

  Sally looks at him and sees blood running from his eye, then screams. “James. Get inside!!”

  The bird keeps pecking at his face, but he manages to slap it off, then stumbles backward into the hallway. Sally grabs Winnie by the arm as more birds surround them, making it impossible to see or move. Sally yells at them, trying to scare them away while holding her daughter in her arms and dragging her towards the door. She is screaming and yelling at the birds, slapping them as they come at her. But she can hardly move. Too many birds, beaks, and fluttering wings make it hard for her to get to the door, and soon she curls herself around her girl to protect her from the attacks. That’s when James comes out of the house, still bleeding from his eye, holding an umbrella between his hands and starts to knock the birds off her. He then grabs both her and Winnie and pulls them inside, then kicks the door to slam it shut. The sound of birds hitting against the door is deafening.

  15

  “James! Your eye!”

  Sally stares at James while the birds keep flying against the door and windows. A rain of birds is slamming against the house, every thud and bump causing Sally to jump in fear.

  “I think…I think…” James says.

  “The blood,” Sally says. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

  She grabs her cellphone and dials 911.
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br />   “Yes, hello? I need an ambulance, fast. My husband is hurt. We’re on Lansing Island. Birds…birds pecked him in the eye. I fear he might lose the eye, please come fast, please!”

  “Ma’am, I need you to calm down a little bit. We are currently trying to get to the island since we are receiving a massive amount of calls from citizens who have been attacked and hurt by birds and birds slamming against their houses. We will try and get to you as soon as possible. Now, what number are you in?”

  “433.”

  “Okay, ma’am. Now, I need you to stay calm. As I said, we’re trying to get out there, but right now we can’t even enter the island. We will get to your husband as soon as we can.”

  “You can’t get here? But…but…he’s gonna lose his eye!”

  “I am sorry, ma’am. We’re trying as hard as we can. I need you to stay calm.”

  Sally hangs up, grabs her purse, and hands James Winnie’s morphine. He drinks from the bottle, gulping it down greedily, while Sally finds the remote and turns the TV on. Shots of her beloved island taken from a helicopter greet her like a slap in the face.

  “That’s our island!” Winnie exclaims. “Mommy? What’s happening to our island? Why is our island on TV?”

  “Sh. I need to hear this,” Sally says, her heart in her throat. “They say no one can get to the island. The birds are attacking people and the ambulances all over the place, crashing the windows, flocking around the cars as they try to drive through. They’re gonna try to helicopter the paramedics in. Look.”

  James comes up behind her and they watch together. James lights a cigarette. Sally gives him a look. He gives her one back, stating Really? You wanna focus on that now?

  The news helicopter stays up high as the paramedics are trying to be lowered in by the chopper trying to land on the island.