Follow me!!
"How you doing today, Boss?" I asked the wounded sparrow in the cage. He was no bigger than the palm of my hand, yet he felt so much larger than me. He always stood with his head held high, which always made me think he was looking down on me. It was part of why I called him Boss.
Boss didn't respond, rather looked at me furtively, as if not quite putting a place on where I stood in his head. Perhaps he still thought of me as a stranger that kidnapped him when I pulled him off the sidewalk. I brought him his food delicately, placing it in the cage in front of him, but making sure not to get too close to him. I didn't want to spook him.
He chirped at me. I couldn't tell whether it was from gratitude or from some other communication. He hopped down nimbly, careful not to use his injured wing and ate heartily at his meal of seeds.
"I think you'll be good to go in the next few days, Boss," I said while I put his food away. Boss chirped again. It sounded like he was conversing with me this time. I responded jokingly,
"Yeah, it is pretty dark in here, let's get you some natural sunlight," I said to him. I walked over to the curtain and put my hand out to find I had already drawn them open earlier. Why was it still so dark? I had checked the weather this morning and it was supposed to be sunny all day today. I looked up at the sky and saw it was completely overcast. I frowned and checked my phone again. It still read as a sunny day.
"Hey, Boss, you ever heard of the weather being this far off..." I trailed when I heard the sound of the storm coming from outside. When the sound reached him, Boss went into a frenzy, attempting to fly around his cage and smacking every wall in the process. His injured wing did little for mobility and he was half flying and half hobbling around, but fully bashing into the cage.
"Hey, hey, it's okay Boss, it's just a little storm cloud. It'll pass, I've been through a million of these. In fact, you'll be sheltered from the rain in the house," I said, just speaking as much as I could to calm him down. Boss looked at me and gave me an expression I'd never seen on a bird before. He looked at me like I was stupid. Nothing more than a naive child. Then he chirped at me as loud as he could, smashing a foot on a wall of the cage he was in.
"You... you want out?" I asked, feeling stupid for talking to him more seriously now.
He chirped in the affirmative.
"You—" I stopped myself from asking more questions. There was a blazing seriousness in his eyes. As I was about to unlock the cage, something smashed into my window with a tweet! I whipped my neck around to see another sparrow with a scar across his eye, looking directly at Boss. It tweeted mockingly to Boss and raised a wing to a cloud behind him.
No... not a cloud. It was a mass of hundreds— thousands of birds flocking toward my house as one giant collective! Some began landing next to the scarred bird while most others watched while flying from a distance.
Boss chirped angrily at the scarred sparrow, raising his good wing for emphasis.
"Uhh... What are you...? What is this?" I asked neither of them and both of them at the same time.
The scarred bird tweeted in a strange tone... was he laughing? Then he chirped a command and flew back menacingly. Hawks and woodpeckers crowded my window and began pecking rapidly.
"Should... should we run?" I asked Boss.
He tweeted affirmatively.
I threw the latch off and grabbed Boss who didn't even flinch. He just watched the scarred bird with menacing eyes. I ran out of the living room and into my bathroom, locking the door behind us. As soon as the lock turned, I heard the window break in the living room, the roar of thousands of birds cawing, screeching and chirping filled my home.
"What now?" I yelled to Boss over the cacophony of birds outside my door.
He chirped a few times, giving orders to me.
"I don't... what?" I asked.
He chirped and pointed straight up to the skylight with his beak.
"You want us to climb out of there?"
He chirped a few more times and then flapped a wing to himself, shaking his head at me. I squinted my eyes, a little worried that I thought I understood what he meant by that.
"You want me to throw you up at the coun—"
Hundreds of birds were scraping against the door now, it rattled in anticipation of its being torn open, leaving us at the birds' mercy. A bird shoved its way under my bathroom door. It was the scarred one again. It chortled mockingly, taking short hops with each of its tweets. It tweeted slowly, turning its head with glee and flapping its wings. Then it looked at Boss dead on and chirped with death in its tweet.
"Is he monologuing!?" I asked with disbelief.
Boss chirped angrily, but affirmatively.
"So, then, he's the bad guy— er... Bird?"
Both birds tweeted, though their answers sounded different, and the scarred one sounded much more condescending.
"Then, why don't I..." I threw the bathroom's trash bin over the small bird. It bashed its head against it a few times, then started tweeting desperately. I sympathized. There was some nasty stuff in there. Boss tweeted loudly; louder than I'd ever heard him tweet before and the commotion outside came to a halt. The scarred bird tweeted a few more times and I heard the entirety of the army outside flying out of my apartment. I sat there in disbelief as I heard all the caws, screeches, and chirps take flight away as quickly as they entered.
After a few more moments, Boss pecked at my hand to be put down. He went to the bin to talk to the other bird while I opened the door. The entire apartment was absolutely covered in feathers and bird poop. I sighed and slunked out of the bathroom, unable to comprehend anything that just happened. I turned back to Boss.
"You're paying for this, right?" I asked.
He chirped affirmatively.
I walked around my apartment, surveying the damage. There were hardly two inches unscathed by the mounds of bird poop, feathers, or both. I ran my hand over the outside of the bathroom door, feeling the hundreds of dents and ridges caused by the birds that had just left. I sighed and grabbed a dustpan to get started on the cleanup.
Boss chirped loudly from the bathroom as I knelt down to begin cleaning. I immediately gagged and got back up. I'd need some sort of mask filled with pleasant scents to get that close to it. Boss tweeted again, a little louder.
"Are you calling for me?"
Boss tweeted a short affirmation.
"Coming," I said, watching my footing.
Boss had managed to hop on top of the trash bin and stood at the height of magnificence. He let out a little chirrup and pecked on top of the bin. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, good job Boss, you stopped Scar. I'm very proud of you," I said monotonously, turning around. He tweeted again, beating his beak against the bin again. Scar tweeted in agreement. I frowned.
"You want me to do something to Scar?" I asked hesitantly. Boss nodded in a quick jerk of his tiny head. He pecked the bin yet again. I swallowed.
"You want me to... kill him?" I whispered. Scar began tweeting in hysterics. He would rapidly shriek out a dozen tweets, then a moment later chirp a dozen more. Boss didn't look too happy about it. He tapped a chastising claw against the top and Scar stopped. Boss tweeted apologetically.
"Is he tweeting bad words?" I asked. Boss raised a wing and bobbed his head as if to indicate: More or less.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense since he has to die and all," I said, shrugging it off. Both Scar and Boss tweeted simultaneously in the negative. I frowned again. I kneeled down to Boss's height, not helping me feel less like he was looking down at me.
"What are we gonna do with him, then?" I asked conspiratorially. Scar tweeted condescendingly. He could still hear me. Boss chirped two quick twitters and pecked around the bin at even intervals. I stared, not putting it together. Scar chirped weakly, imploring me to understand. He sounded like he was dying... Like he was running out of—
"Air holes!?" I exclaimed, causing Boss to jump to the other end of the bin. He tweeted emphatically, urging me to do it as fast as possible. I ran to the kitchen and pulled my tool drawer open. I looked for a drill, but I didn't own any. Just a screwdriver, a hammer, a few nails, and a wrench. Boss tweeted more urgently. Scar also let out a cry for help; a small, frail whine that barely reached the kitchen. I grabbed all the tools at once and ran back.
"I uhh... I don't have a drill or anything. Should I just pick up the bin?" I showed him my hands with the supplies. Boss chirped a firm no and hopped onto my hand. He pecked a nail then hopped and tapped a hammer. He looked up quickly, seeing if I understood.
"I got it," I said, placing a nail on top of the bin. I raised the hammer and Boss hopped to my shoulder, calling order to Scar. Probably told him to duck down. Scar didn't respond. I smashed a hole, then a few more until there were enough that I felt confident that the little guy could breathe in there. Boss hopped down and chirped down a hole, waiting for a response. He chirped again, looking at me with... was that fear in his eyes?
Scar responded begrudgingly.
Boss warbled a bit at me, something that sounded like gratitude, but I wasn't sure. I just nodded my head, dumbly. Before I could ask Boss anything more, there was a ring at the doorbell. Boss stood at attention and I sat perfectly still. We had no trouble hearing them since the window next to them was broken in.
"Hey, Sean, this is Martha. I just wanted to check in. We got six noise complaints all within the span of the last fifteen minutes so I wanted to see if everything was okay. Some people reported animal noises? You know pets aren't allowed, right?"
My heart hopped down into my stomach. It was my landlord. Boss and I looked at each other. He nudged his head that I should get the door. I shook my head quickly. He urged further. Scar laughed from in his smelly cage.
"Shut up, you," I hissed.
"I'm letting myself in, okay?" she said, the sound of keys rang as clear as the eviction notice the mess my in place would elicit.
I gritted my teeth and jumped up. I looked to Boss who lifted a wing in a shrug. He had as many ideas as I did. I ran to the door as fast as I could.
"Martha! Wait, I'm--" I slipped and landed face-first on the slick mounds of bird poop. I gagged but shot back up to my feet. Luckily, the sound of my clumsiness had stopped Martha from opening the door.
"Sean?" She sounded worried this time.
"I'm coming, I'm right here!" I said, slamming myself against the door when I slipped on the pile in front of the door. I unlocked it and opened the door a crack, just enough to stick my head out.
"Hey, Martha, everything is—" I stopped when I saw the look on her face. Her eyes first went wide and her nose shriveled in disgust. She took a step back and knelt over, keeping herself from throwing up. She heaved a few times, but nothing came out. Then, with a deep concern in her eyes said,
"What is that smell? It's like..." rather than place an adjective, she heaved once again. Finally, she was able to compose herself to look up and stare at me. It only brought more confusion in her eyes.
"Sean, what..." I only realized what she was talking about when she peered closer at my face. It must have been covered in flecks of bird excrement. "What's on your face?" she asked, a mix of horror and shock in her voice.
I racked my brain for an answer. Nothing jumped out as a reliable excuse, and I already knew it must have been suspicious that I was only poking my head out of the door. My eyes flitted to the stairs behind her, to her shoes, to a pair of crows flying just beyond the building. I decided the truth was the best way to get out of this. I gave her a weak, apologetic smile and answered.
"I was just in the bathroom," I said meekly. Her eyes did the impossible and somehow grew wider.
"Sean, your face is covered with..." she let the silence complete the sentence.
"I'm going to go back inside and clean up," I said, sliding my head back through the door. She continued to watch, nonplussed. As soon as I closed the door, I listened through the door for what she would do next. It occurred to me that we never even discussed the noise complaint and that she would likely return. Instead, I heard her heave again and quickly run off. I sighed with relief, followed quickly by a frown. It would be hard to get rid of this reputation.
I made my way back to the bathroom. I began thoroughly soaking my face. Boss was chirping to Scar, who remained mostly silent except to agree with whatever Boss was saying in single, short tweets on occasion. Once cleaned and scrubbed to satisfaction, I went inside the bathtub and just sat down. It was the only clean place to sit. I leaned back, trying to relax, but unable to really grasp the events of today.
Boss was a sparrow. No longer than my fist. But it seemed that on his order, he was able to stop thousands of birds from coming to attack me. Or him. Or both of us. Scar was the leader of the other group of birds, which meant he controlled thousands. But now Boss was lecturing Scar. Was there some kind of relationship there?
Boss looked to me and nodded. He warbled a bit and hopped off the bin holding Scar. Evidently, he wanted to go deal with something alone since he left without indicating I should follow. I looked up at the ceiling.
"Some day, huh Scar?" I asked.
Scar tweeted something sarcastic.
Suddenly, there was a tap on my skylight. Perched on the window were two crows, both holding a trinket in their beaks. One a jewel of sorts while the other had a watch. I looked at them passively before I realized that they were probably here for me. Boss must have called them. He wasn't kidding about paying me back! I got up giddily and stood atop the toilet to unlatch the window, opening it wide for them. The crows twitched their talons hesitantly, wary of stepping forward and just turned their heads to one side.
"Come on in, I'm a friend," I offered.
They dropped their trinkets and flew at my face, claws first.
"Gah!" I screamed, grabbing the handle to close it before they got in. I was too slow to even shut the skylight halfway before they got in. The first crow scratched at my eye while the second dove past me. Scar tweeted loudly, cheering them on from his upturned prison. Shielding my eyes threw me off balance and I toppled to the floor hard, smashing my left arm on the edge of the tub and leaving my head swimming. The crow cawed a victory and flew into the other room. The first one was pulling at the bin, trying to tip it over again.
"Hey, don't do that, come on," I said slowly, my head taking its time gathering words to say in its pained state.
The crow succeeded in toppling the bin over and Scar shot up flying. He swooped a foot in front of me and tweeted arrogantly, pecking me in the forehead. I swatted at him with my hand too slowly and threw a shampoo bottle at the crow still in the bathroom with me. The three of us stopped and looked to the living room when we heard a scuffle coming from it.
"Boss!" I cried, shielding my eyes and clambering up to go help him. My arm was on fire and I couldn't focus my sight, but Boss and the other crow were definitely fighting in the other room. Just as I got to the doorway, I heard the strangest screech my ears had ever come in contact with. It was like the cross of a rooster calling for the day to begin and a crow circling its prey. It was the sound of a crow who had been seriously wounded. I uncovered my eyes to see the second crow hopping on the floor weakly, still pining in pain. It looked up at me with one eye closed, which sported a fresh and serious cut over it. Scar landed on my head and chirped twice, flying up and out of the skylight. The two other crows followed, the injured one cawing about something that sounded like revenge. It stayed in the bathroom a moment longer to make sure its point was heard.
"Yeah, we got it, get out," I yelled, waving my arm at it. My wrist flared up in anguish. It was possible that it was sprained or broken from the fall. The crow angrily cawed but eventually left the bathroom. I hopped up on the toilet and slammed the window shut with my good hand before running into the living room.
"Boss!!" I screamed. "Boss are you alright? That crow must have been huge to you! Where are you?"
I scrambled around the kitchen before seeing him standing proudly in the living room, his head high. In his mouth was a small, black, orb-like trinket. He didn't look like he was injured or otherwise distressed.
"Everything okay, Boss?"
He spat out the trinket. It was an eye. He looked up proudly, much like a cat does when it brings home a dead rat.
"Boss is that the crow's—"
Boss chirped affirmatively, beaming with joy. He hopped toward me and chirped, gesturing to my arm.
"I'm fine. Just a sprain... I think. The crows caught me by surprise and now I'm having a little trouble using it."
Boss chirped sympathetically, then nibbled at his bad wing. I chuckled, considering how we both had bad arms now. Then, he snapped to attention and chirped an order to me.
"Look Boss, we gotta figure out like a system of communicating, I can only do so much with the tweets," I replied.
He began to tweet, then stopped himself. He thought for a few seconds. Then just tweeted again.
"You're right, that was a stupid request, what do you need?" I said, kneeling down.
Boss tweeted and hopped a few times, then pointed his head to the door, determination in his eyes.
We were going after Scar.
I looked around my ruined apartment, then felt my injured arm, glanced at the broken window, and finally landed on Boss.
"Do... Do I have to go with you, Boss?" I asked slowly. The pain in his eyes was immediate enough to make me look away. I grabbed at my bad arm nervously.
Boss tweeted questionably.
"It's just..." I weighed my words carefully, not wanting to address the issue. Even his little tweet did a blow to my composure. "Look, this isn't my place. This is a bird thing, right? I mean, I've just been getting in your way. Holding you back, even," I said pathetically.
He tweeted indignantly. Then he warbled loudly. He cried out and hopped around. It was only then that I could look at him again.
"I'm sorry, Boss. This is your fight, not mine. Plus, look at this place. It's an absolute mess. I wanted to take care of you, not become one of your soldiers in this weird thing between you and Scar," I mumbled.
Boss tweeted angrily.
"Yeah, 'weird thing' was a poor choice of words when he's trying to kill you. But the rest still stands." I said, sighing. I stood up from him, feeling strange. I sincerely didn't want to have to get in the middle of a bird battle. Or war. I had no idea who Boss was, but he was clearly a big deal in the bird world. I had to clean up the whole place and dodge Martha for like the next two weeks for making a fool of myself. And there was no way I was going outside so soon.
"I can help you heal. I will do whatever is in my power to keep you safe and secure here. But out there... Out there is not the best for me."
Boss puffed up into a small ball of feathers. He hopped around a few times, reevaluating his plans to go after Scar. He looked at me with a pain in his eyes I'd never seen in him. Even when I picked him up in his original injured state, he wasn't nearly to the level of pain he was in now. It wasn't physical pain. It was a hint of betrayal, but more-so disappointment. I sighed again. Then I startled, jumping back when I saw a figure at the edge of my vision.
A pigeon cooed from the broken window. Twisting its head curiously.
"How much of that did you hear?" I asked, embarrassed.
Boss chirped at it reluctantly. It cooed louder out the window and I heard dozens of flapping wings approach from outside again.
"Uhh.. should we run again Boss?" I asked, panicked. He wouldn't even look at me. I ran to grab him again, but he hopped away quickly. A legion of pigeons swarmed the window but gave the two of us a wide berth. I watched them quizzically. They carried small bags in their beaks and landed at different intervals of the room. They pulled out tiny shovels from their bags and started filling their bag with the feathers and waste strewn about the apartment. I saw dozens of others flying in with carpet and counter cleaners.
"Oh," I whispered, another sting of embarrassment washing over me. A raven followed in after them and dropped a watch at my feet, much like the earlier crows did. Only this bird went to go help the others instead of trying to remove my eyes. I knelt to pick up the watch and gasped.
It was a Rolex.
"Boss, do you know how—" I looked up to see Boss was no longer in front of me. He was standing in front of the table where his cage was, waiting for me to put him back inside. I slipped the watch in my pocket. I got up slowly, my face flush. I put my hand out and he jumped into it, still not looking at me. I raised him to his cage and he went inside. I locked the door and filled some of his food and water. The whole time he stood entirely still, staring at the floor of his cage.
"Need anything else?" I asked hoarsely. He raised his good wing, dismissing me.
"I'm—"
He raised the wing again.
I took a few steps of a walk of shame to my bed in the center of the room. The pigeons had already cleaned my bed and even replaced the comforter with a clean one. I sat down to try and assuage myself again. Boss was great, but he was part of something bigger. I was not fit for something bigger.
The truth was, the day I met Boss was the first time I'd left my apartment in months. I wasn't ready to leave again. I bit the inside of my lip. I looked up at Boss, who took a few steps to begin nibbling at his food. He was the first thing I'd be able to call a friend. Also, the first thing I'd call an ex-friend, I supposed. I laid back on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Something landed at the foot of my bed.
I looked up to see another raven flying away. At the foot of my bed, it left a greeting card. My eyebrows came together and I rolled over to open it. It was plain, with only two words printed on it:
I'm sorry.
My heart dropped heavily. Boss was apologizing to me? For what? Things outside of his control? I looked up to him again, watching him get the smallest drops of water dejectedly. It was the first time I'd ever been apologized to. The first time I could remember having someone else consider what I felt, rather than try to just pull me out of my apartment. I stared at the card until tears clouded my vision. I tucked it into my pocket.
"Boss," I swallowed hard, considering whether I really wanted to go through with it. "We're going after Scar."
He perked up at my announcement but wasn't convinced. He looked to me slowly, skepticism in his small, orbed eyes.
"I'm—" my voice cracked. "I'm serious. Let's do it. Let's take him down, or whatever else you have planned since you don't want to kill him. Let's finish this, I'm with you to the end," I said, confidence growing in my voice.
Boss tweeted, making sure I was sincere.
"I'm telling you right now, I'm terrified of the outside world, but I think I've been doing a lot better with the birds. I even told some of them to shut up!" I laughed.
Boss glowed with pride. He tweeted encouragingly and flapped both of his wings. Of course, he immediately regretted flapping both, when his injured wing stung him with pain, but I laughed at his effort. I went to pick him up and threw different types of bird food into my pockets. We went to the front door, Boss perched on my shoulder. I froze when my fingers touched the handle.
Boss nodded and I nodded back, biting the inside of my lip. I swung the door open.
My eyes looked out to the world only to be met with a shocked Martha, whose hand was up as she prepared to knock on the door.
Martha was frozen in place, her eyes darting around the scene before her. A few pigeons flew past her, carrying their bags of waste outside the apartment. Her jaw slowly unclenched as she tried to understand the sight she beheld. I looked back at my apartment sheepishly, hundreds of birds waddling around, cooing, and cleaning up detritus that their brethren had brought in. Boss turned away, as if not looking at Martha meant he was less of a problem.
"Sean..." she murmured, unable to begin speaking properly yet. Her hand was still stuck motionless in the air.
"Martha, I uhh..." The prospect of leaving my apartment had me tongue-tied as well. We stared at each other trying to say the words we thought were necessary for the situation. Boss tweeted uncomfortably. I shoved my hands into my pocket, only to be met with birdseed rather than comfort. Then my hand closed around something else.
"Sean, why are there bi—"
"Martha, I have the month's rent," I said, pulling out a handful of birdseed and presenting it to her. Her eyes narrowed and an uncomfortable smile broke across her face. She looked into my apartment again.
"Sean, why are there birds all over your apartmen—" she yelped and ducked to avoid one of the ravens leaving with what was undoubtedly the crow eye that Boss had pulled out earlier. I licked my lips and gestured to the pile of bird food in my hand again.
"It's a Rolex," I explained, wiggling my hand for effect. I'd yet to actually move enough seed out of the way for her to see any watch and her eyebrows began to twitch. I shifted uncomfortably, but it would have hurt my bad arm if I tried to move the seed out of the way with it. I licked my lips again.
"Sean, is this what you've been up to in this apartment for all the months you've been here?" She finally moved her hand and pointed at all the pigeons incredulously. I swallowed and shifted in place again. I wasn't good at confrontation. The more she regained her senses, the angrier she looked. I shrank back into the apartment.
"Look at this! Turn around! Don't you find this disgusting? You're living with birds! Eating with them, too?" she pointed at the seed in my hand. My eyes stayed firmly on the floor as she told me off. I waited for her to finish before trying to give her the Rolex again.
"Sean, I tried to tell your neighbors that they didn't understand you, but they're right... You're a loser. You need to clean up—"
Boss chirped fiercely, warning her.
"It's okay Boss, you don't have to—"
"You're talking with them too? Have you totally lost it? I thought you were just like a poor, misunderstood shut-in, but—"
Boss chirped again, this time in a commanding tone. She looked at him, about to redirect her fury when she looked up and saw an army of pigeons charging at her. She barely had time to scream before one collided with her face. It cooed agitatedly and moved away to make room for the next pigeon to crash into her.
"What is—"
Another pigeon flapped into her mouth before she could complete the sentence. They surrounded her now, placing her in a tornado of pigeons each taking a turn to smack her with their bodies and wings. Nothing that would damage her physically, but I could already feel the psychological toll it was taking.
She rushed away from my apartment, a cloud of birds following above her. A few lagged behind to continue the chores left to be done in my apartment while the rest chased her around the corner of the complex. I watched the last birds leave before I looked back to Boss on my shoulder. He stood tall, a fiery gleam in his eye.
"Thanks, Boss. You didn't have to do that," I said gratefully.
Boss tweeted and nudged me on the cheek. I smiled and looked back at the worker birds still cleaning up the place.
"You should probably call them off, I don't think I'll be living here much longer."
Boss tweeted reassuringly.
"No, even if I'm not evicted, I'm not coming back after what she said to me."
Boss nodded his head thoughtfully.
"And it's not like I'm getting the security deposit back either. Even without the bird stuff, I've never gotten one back," I droned.
Boss looked at me and tapped a foot on my shoulder.
"I know, you want to go. Sometimes I ramble when I don't want to do something," I said, looking back outside. Nothing was stopping me now. From downstairs, I could hear Martha fighting off the birds. The schadenfreude filled me with the energy needed to make the first step. I closed my eyes tightly.
I stepped out. Nothing changed. Boss tweeted happily for me. I grinned and then ran to the stairs before panic had the chance to catch up with me.
I ran down the first flight of stairs and was already winded. I couldn't remember the last time I ran this fast. The last time I ran at all, actually. It was as exhilarating as it was exhausting, like my limbs were both cheering me on and crying out for me to stop. I paused for a breather on the second floor. Boss waited patiently while I took deep breaths and looked over the side. I saw a few pigeons posted on a lamp post on the other side of the road, keeping an eye on us.
"They... on our side?" I said between breaths. Boss nodded.
"Hey, are you from upstairs?" I heard a voice. I went stiff. My neck twisted slowly to see who was talking to me.
It was my downstairs neighbor, Ray, wearing a sweater with the local community college emblem. He didn’t know it, but we attended the same school. I took all my classes online though. He was looking up to higher floors from above the railing, trying to get a good view of something.
"I heard a bunch of screams and called Martha to check it out. Then I heard more screams. Then a few more. All different screams. I got worried for Martha so, at this point, I called the cops," Ray stated, turning his attention over to me.
I swallowed.
"So, you see what happened up there? You look red like you just ran away from there," he joked. I wheezed, unable to fake a laugh. I wanted to be back in my apartment. He was asking me way too many questions and I felt like the world was closing in around me.
"You okay, man?" he asked genuinely.
"Birds," I said, pointing up. He hesitated, waiting for me to continue.
"What?" he asked when the moment went too long.
"Lotta birds," I insisted, pointing higher for effect.
"What does that mean?" he asked. He was half-smiling like I was pranking him.
I gulped and turned away from him, continuing down the stairs and mumbling,
"Lotta birds. Whole lot."
Boss tweeted, embarrassed.
"Yeah, I'm not great at talking with people."
He tweeted another question.
"I don't know, you not talking makes it way easier to talk to you. I can pretend that you say whatever I want you to say."
He chirped in protest.
"...I don't know what that one meant," I admitted.
I stumbled down the last two flights and halted once I reached the sidewalk. Sirens blared in the distance. I suddenly became aware of how much I was sweating.
"Where are we going?" I asked Boss.
He blinked a few times, unsure. He looked both ways and then back up to me. He chirped and nodded at me.
"Are you telling me to choose?"
He chirped encouragingly.
"So we have no idea where Scar went? He could be plotting right now to come back with another army and we're just wandering aimlessly?"
He weighed the idea in his head, bobbing from side to side and then nodding in agreement.
"I don't even know where sparrows go! Much less scarred ones that plan revenge on other sparrows that have some long standing history..." I looked down both sides of the street. Neither of them looked like they had trees or anything that sparrows would really enjoy. What did sparrows even like?
"I know! What do you—"
The sound of the sirens came up the street at this point. It was two police cars. A small part of my rational mind knew that if I didn't make a move they probably wouldn't look twice at me. If I just casually chose a street and walked away from them, I'd be gone by the time Martha had time to speak about me. But that was the small part of my mind. The one that told me that being a shut-in was a bad idea.
The rest of my senses screamed at me to run. So, of course, I did. I ran as fast as I could, which was a pathetic pace, away from the police cars. I heard a car door open and a man scream,
"Hey, you! Stop!" Footsteps hit the sidewalk hard. He was sprinting after me. And by the sound of it, he’d catch me in no time.
Boss tweeted at me urgently, flapping his good wing and staring at our pursuer from my shoulder.
"I'm going... as fast..." I was too out of breath to continue. The stomping feet were upon us now. I thought to distract him and grabbed for the Rolex to throw in his direction. Maybe it would distract him just enough for us to get away. Instead, my fingers missed and I only grabbed a handful of birdseed and some dried fruit. I flung it over my shoulder without looking.
"Pah!!" He spat out the seed and began coughing. He sounded way closer than I thought he was. He was probably in arms reach. He continued to spew and cough, grunting in effort. I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw him completely engulfed in birds of all sorts fighting for the bird food. It was like all the birds in the vicinity had joined together to get a bite to eat.
"Get off me you— Spah!" He spat more when a crow went for the bits of food in his mustache. I slowed to a brisk walk since my body could no longer accommodate running. I made a ninety-degree turn to get out of the street as fast as I could. I took a good look at him before I had successfully turned the corner. He was at least a head taller than me, wearing a police uniform and dark sunglasses. Other than his now-pecked-at mustache, he had no other facial hair. Worse than all the other features that already intimidated me was the frown glued on his face with grit teeth. He covered his mouth and shouted,
"Daniels! The kids with the bird on his shoulder! Suspect!" More birds were going for his face now that the food on the floor was running out. Another officer got out of the driver side door of the second police car. She stood next to the driver side door surveying the scene. She first looked at her partner, then to me. We locked eyes. I continued walking without changing my pace. I couldn't run if I wanted to and this was the fastest I could go. She scrutinized me for a second and looked back at her partner. I was almost into the closest alleyway.
"Which kid? I don't see anyone with a bird on their shoulder!" She called back, moving toward him to help with the birds.
Boss was perched on my left shoulder, opposite of what she could see of me. I continued to both stare and walk until we were out of view and in the alley. I kept going, weaving between streets and buildings until I was at least a few blocks from the apartment complex. It put me at ease not to see any more flashing lights.
I fell on my butt, leaning against a wall in an otherwise empty alleyway, gasping for air. I was exhausted. Boss tweeted sympathetically.
"Nice going with... the birds... saving us..." I breathed. Boss tilted his head to the side, confused.
"That... wasn't you?" I asked. He shook his head. I thought about it for a minute while catching my breath.
"They were just hungry?"
He nodded. I nodded back, understanding. Then another thought occurred to me.
"Does that mean they weren't your allies? Everyone other than the pigeons?" I asked, concerned.
Boss considered the question and then tweeted in agreement. That didn't sit well with me. I flexed my bad arm and stretched out my aching legs. Boss didn't seem too worried, he just waited for me patiently, vigilantly watching the street that I wasn't looking at.
"You don't think we were being watched by Scar's peopl— err… Scar’s birds as well as yours, do you?" I asked, squinting my eyes to make sure the guy coming out of the donut place across the street wasn't wearing any blue. Boss didn't answer.
"Do you?" I repeated, looking over to him. Boss was looking straight upward, his eyes like daggers. I followed his gaze to see the entire rooftop of the building in front of us populated with a number of crows watching us. From what I could see, I estimated a dozen pairs of eyes investigating us in eerie silence.
"Any chance they're on our side?" I whispered to Boss. He continued to stare. It seemed he was focused on one in particular. A few of them parted to make way for a crow with a small eyepatch, roughly thrown over its face. My tattered body ached, reminding me of the state I was in. The injured crow shattered the silence with a challenging caw to the skies, its eye on Boss.
Boss chirped back at the crow mockingly. Then to all of them, he issued a challenging warble.
They went into pandemonium and the one-eyed crow flew down at us followed by the rest of the murder.
The group of them swooped down on us in slow motion as my thoughts were falling into place. I was outside of my apartment. These crows were going to attack us with beak and claws where we had no protection. Boss was as big as my hand and I was both exhausted and had little use of my left arm. I was outside of my apartment. The bird with the eyepatch was either the same crow that had its eye removed, returning for its revenge or another bird that Boss may have pulled out an eye from. Judging by the ratio of Boss's enemies with injured eyes, either scenario was likely. And I was outside of my apartment.
Boss made a swift move to peck the inside of my ear so hard that I immediately went to go cover it despite the waves of pain it sent through my arm. In the same moment, my arm was in motion, Boss shrieked at the oncoming assailants. Not a chirp or tweet, but a shriek that defied the size of Boss and sent an almost tangible blast of sound out. I felt liquid drip out of my uncovered ear.
The crows all collided with one another in a daze, each of them crashing down to the pavement in front of me. One fell right next to me and I screamed and reflexively kicked it against the wall in front of me where it crumpled to the floor motionless. The others pelted the ground around us but a few were quickly regaining their footing. Boss deftly jumped off of my shoulder and hopped furiously at the closest one. My hand patted around me to look for a weapon before I resorted to using my shoe to swing at them.
Boss nimbly hopped around the first crow, still tottering upwards. It bashed its beak down at Boss who swerved to one side and pecked at its leg three times. It cried out in pain and fell sideways, unable to hold up its weight. Without missing a beat, Boss pulled out one of its tail feathers and moved on. I watched in fascination as Boss hopped in a blur to the next crow.
The next crow opened its wings wide and crowed a battle cry. This time, Boss spun around and launched the feather in his mouth into the open maw of the crow. It sailed in smoothly and the bird immediately began gagging on the projectile. Boss pecked its foot three times for good measure and the bird collapsed while gagging. A beak from another bird smashed down next to Boss, who turned around in one motion and pecked at the bird's face. It yelped and ran off with one eye closed.
My grip on my shoe loosened a little bit at watching the scene.
Two birds came at him next, using both air from their wings to throw him off balance as well as their beaks. Boss was showing signs of fatigue and was losing his footing, unable to close the gap to their feet. One dove in and was able to clip Boss's bad wing. A gash appeared across his wing.
"Hey!" I screamed, trying to get up and subsequently collapsing. I threw my shoe at the two of them. I missed by about a foot, but in the commotion, Boss closed the distance between them and pecked one's foot so fast, I might have thought he was a woodpecker. The injured bird yelped and hobbled away. The remaining bird tried to finish Boss off with a fly-in, its talons out and arching toward him. Boss waited until the last moment and jumped up, latching onto the bird with his beak. The crow cawed in shock and flew right at me. Flailing my other shoe in a reflexive panic, I knocked the combatant away. Boss landed in front of me, nodding appreciatively and breathing heavily.
"Boss, I think we should run," I said. I didn't actually plan to run, as I was still way too tired, and Boss looked like he was ready to collapse. Boss didn't need to respond since the other crows began flying away in fear. I was about to smile until I saw the bird with an eyepatch, tottering over to us, still in a daze from the screech Boss gave.
It cawed a challenging caw, then continued to caw in succession. Boss looked to me, then back at the one-eyed crow. It continued cawing, savoring the few steps it had before it was in striking distance of Boss. Boss looked at me again, expectantly.
"Oh, monologuing?" I asked. Boss nodded quickly. I threw my other shoe at the one-eyed bird and knocked it out in one hit. The other crows watched me from the rooftop as I stood over their fallen comrade.
"What do we do with it?" I asked. Boss opened his mouth and closed it. I shook my head for him to repeat. He opened and closed his mouth again. He'd lost his voice from the scream!
"Oh, fantastic, we already had such a great time communicating," I said in a huff, taking off my belt and tying up the one-eyed crow. Boss hopped around the belt to make sure it was secure and nodded at me when he was satisfied. I laid back down against the wall, exhaustion taking over me. I placed Boss back on my shoulder whole nuzzled against my cheek then watched the rooftop crows vigilantly while I kept an eye on our captive.
Both of us were breathing hard. Before I knew it, my eyes were getting heavy…
I woke with a start in an unfamiliar place. It didn't look anything like my bedroom. There was no blanket or pillow! I blinked as reality hit me once more.
I was still sitting, aching in the alleyway. My arm was throbbing with every heartbeat, my legs burning with weariness, and my ear was bleeding. Boss hadn't moved an inch, though his breathing was much more controlled now. I looked up to see the row of crows watching us from the rooftop. They looked sad for some reason, watching us intently. Then I looked at the sun. It seemed like I hadn't dozed off for more than a few minutes. I felt just as fatigued as before, if not more.
Our captive crowed angrily, like a growl.
"That's right, we still have this guy. Is that why they're still here? Waiting to see what we do with him?" I asked Boss. He shook his head slightly.
"Then what is it?"
He finally tore his focus away from the crows above and looked at me, disappointed. He waited for me to understand. He opened and closed his mouth silently, still unable to speak. I shook my head, confused. He pointed to the side of me with his beak. I turned around.
On the ground laid a dead crow, the one I had kicked against the wall, its face frozen in shock.
"They want that one? But he's dead," I reasoned.
Boss's expression didn't change. I felt like I did when talking with humans. Small and ashamed.
"What's the big deal, didn't you fight the birds too?"
A look of compassion came over his face. The look you'd give to someone who clearly doesn't understand what he was doing. And it dawned on me.
I killed a bird.
I was the first to do that. They'd fought plenty, but even when given the opportunity, Boss didn't kill any birds. I did. And seemingly without regret. Without even a shred of empathy for the birds watching. I looked up at them again. They were in mourning, waiting to see if the murderer would leave the dead in peace. I looked at Boss.
"Should we move on?" I asked.
He nodded solemnly. I tried to stand but fell back. Everything hurt too much. It had been so long since I physically exerted myself to this level. I crawled around the alley to grab my shoes. I didn't think I had the dexterity in my current state to move around enough to put them both on, so I tied them together and put them around my neck. I crawled over to the tied up crow.
He eyed my shoe necklace worriedly. I reached down to pick him up and he twisted his neck to peck at me. Then I had another thought. I pulled the eyepatch off of him and got a look at his other eye as he cawed in protest. Or what would have been an eye if there was anything there other than a fresh wound. This was definitely the same bird as this morning. I placed the eyepatch back on and picked him up with my good hand.
After three failed attempts, I was finally able to stand up, my legs crying in pain. One hand was holding up my pants now that the belt was occupied and the other was holding the crow. Boss remained watching the crows on the roof as we left the alleyway. He opened and closed his beak. It seemed like he wanted to console them. I looked up before rounding the corner.
"Sorry," I said. They jumped off the roof and went to the deceased crow on the ground. Some part of my mind remembered that crows held funerals, but the other remembered that we still had no idea where we were going. And I was almost at my limit.
"Boss," I said weakly. "We need someplace to—" I stopped when I saw that Boss still had an open wound on his bad wing from the recent brawl. I shook my head at my absentmindedness and asked, "Do you need that looked at? I can wrap it up in something."
Boss looked over to the injury as if it was the first time he noticed it. He shrugged it off and hopped down my arm to the injured crow. Boss stood on his restraints and pointed out to the city. The crow spat and cawed defiantly. Boss pecked its face.
"Boss!" I protested, looking at him angrily as the crow cried out in pain. Boss pointed out to the city again. The crow cawed something begrudgingly.
"What are you—"
Boss looked to me excitedly and pointed with his beak down a road. At least we had a direction. I walked forward, barely holding myself up. When we rounded the corner, we came face to face with a girl.
She looked me up and down and dread crawled over her face. She pulled out her phone quickly and began dialing as she walked inside. I ignored her and continued the way Boss was pointing. A few agonizing steps later, I heard sirens at a distance. I went from a walk to a hobble as a police car came around the corner, coming right at us.
I continued limping down the sidewalk, ignoring the car as much as I could bring myself to do. My neck kept twisting to glance over my shoulder and see if the car would stop.
It did.
That didn't mean that someone would come out.
They did.
That didn't mean that they were here for me.
The officer began walking briskly toward me. Even at her casual speed, she may as well have been sprinting compared to how slow I was going. It was the same female cop from earlier, this time without her partner. She stopped a few paces from me.
"Sir?" she asked. I stopped and shuddered. It may have been the first time someone called me 'sir.' I twisted my body around, my feet protesting with every step. Looking at her, I saw her nametag said "Daniels." I tried to smile but just ended up showing my teeth in a grimace.
Officer Daniels looked over me with a worried glance. The shoes around my neck, my disheveled hair, the birdseed around my pockets, and blood drying on my ear. Then stopped at the crow with an eyepatch in my hand. It cawed at her weakly. Boss nudged me, encouraging me to speak.
"Yeah?" I said hoarsely.
"We uhh..." she was gathering her thoughts while understanding the scene before her, "we got a call about a vagrant in front of Miss Leary's shop. Someone bothering her. Would you know anything about that?" she asked.
I looked over to the corner I had walked over from. The girl who pulled out her phone was peeking at me through the curtains of her store, sneering. I was shocked. She called the cops on me for standing in front of her building. Not even standing, I walked past it immediately! Boss nudged me again.
"No," I said, not looking at the officer in her eyes. The crow cawed again. My face became hot.
"You wanna tell me what's going on with that?" she nodded at my hand.
"I needed to use my belt to tie it up," I explained meekly.
"I meant, why did you tie up a crow in the first place?" she asked. The crow cawed in agreement. I didn't look at either of them and hoped she would just go away.
"Sir?" she asked. Boss nudged me again, opening and closing his beak encouragingly.
"It was fighting... with the bird on my shoulder," I said. Boss stood proudly.
"Okay… And rather than shoo the bird away, you tied it up and carried it with you. What purpose does that serve?" she continued.
"Umm... Officer Daniels, I'd really rather not talk about it. I don't think you'll believe me," I answered, looking straight at the floor.
She shook her head and looked over her shoulder to the shop. Miss Leary had pulled her head out of the window for the time being.
"Look, I can let you go on your way, just try not to come in front of Miss Leary's street. She calls us every time there's a homeless person, and we have to answer since we've experienced some aggressive ones here in the past. Is that alright with you?"
The idea was just dawning on me that when she called me a vagrant earlier, she meant I was homeless. I had an apartment. Did I still have that apartment? I hadn't tried going back. Was I really homeless? Panic started setting in. What if Martha already evicted me and I wasn't able to go back? I didn't even take the keys with me. What if she locked me out? I would have nowhere safe to return to.
"Sir?" Officer Daniels asked, worried.
I could not return to my apartment.
"Are you listening to— Are you alright? You look awful!" she exclaimed.
I was homeless.
"Sir! Sir, look at me!"
The outside world was becoming tighter, enclosing itself on me. Boss nudged me, but I didn't react. My vision was darkening around me and my heart was a thundering roar in my chest.
I blacked out.
I groaned and felt like my head was solid rock. I sighed deeply, wondering why my bed was so uncomfortable. And why was I jiggling around so much? My eyes shot open and I saw a sparrow looking down at me with concern. As the fog of grogginess passed, I recognized Boss. And then recognized that I was laying in the backseat of a car.
Boss tweeted softly like he lost his voice and it was just returning. It was barely loud enough to make a sound. He looked excited to see me awake. The driver turned around at the sound of me readjusting in my seat.
"Oh good, you're awake," she said.
"Whuh?" I said, unable to think of an actual question to ask. There was a small fence separating me and the driver. I was in the back of a police vehicle. A wave of panic tried to take hold, but I ignored it before it had a chance.
"Am I under arrest?" I asked Boss. Boss looked confused. He didn't know what that meant.
"No, I didn't arrest you," the driver said. I now recognized that it was Officer Daniels. I sat up and Boss hopped onto my lap protectively. He chirped at me quietly, but I still wasn't satisfied.
"Then why am I—where are you taking me?" I asked Daniels. I didn't recognize anything outside the car. I shook anxiously.
"You passed out on the street, so I thought I'd take you to the shelter on Refin Avenue," she answered.
"We're across town!?" I yelled, startling her and Boss. Boss tweeted again, jumping on my hand and flapping a wing.
"Yeah, I thought it was the best place to take you, considering you—"
"I'm not homel—" I stopped when I realized I wasn't sure if that was true. Boss tweeted his quiet tweet and pecked at my hip. I looked down at him and he pointed outside. I shook my head, not understanding. He pecked my hip again, tugging at a belt loop. I nodded quickly to him.
"Where's my belt—what happened to the crow I had?" I asked quickly.
"Oh, I let him go," Daniels answers, making a left turn.
"You what!?"
Boss tweeted again, pointing outside.
"I'm going to need you to stop yelling at me, I can hear you fine," Daniels said curtly.
"Sorry, it's just—you let him go? Why?" I asked.
"I thought..." her voice faltered. "I thought you were planning on eating it."
Both Boss and I looked at her in shock. I opened my mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say. She thought I would eat a bird? I guess it made sense when I had it tied up and looked worse for wear. But even then, that was a weird assumption. Boss tweeted again, pecking at my hand.
"Where did he go?" I asked her while looking at Boss. He pointed outside again, urging me to turn around in my seat.
"I don't know, it just flew off toward some alleyway. It crowed a lot before it flew off though. Your little sparrow jumped at it and it flew away, still crowing at us."
Sounded like he was vowing revenge again.
"Okay, but did you see specifically where..." my thought disappeared when I finally saw what Boss was pointing to. It was a cloud. A cloud of birds as big as the first one that came into my apartment, and they were coming for the police car. Thousands of birds in a giant frenzy, gaining on us. I went for the door handles but there were none in the back of the car. I was stuck. Sweat sprouted on my hands.
"Daniels, stop the car, we need to get out now," I said urgently.
"What?"
"I said stop the car—" I swallowed. I wasn't good at giving orders to people. "Please, we need to get out of here. Me especially."
"Why? What's going on? We aren't in any bad territories I know of," she said, glancing out the window. She had to have seen the mass of birds and ignored it, thinking it was a cloud. The street began to darken as the light was snuffed out of the sky by their presence.
"Daniels," I looked her straight in the eye through her rearview. I was shaking uncontrollably. "P-Please, the car isn't safe. I don't have time to explain, but if you want you can just drop me off and l-let me out. But you should come too. I think you're in danger."
"We're just a few blocks away from—"
"No! Now!" I yelled, staring at the mass growing multiple times in size as it got closer to us. I bit the inside of my cheek, waiting for her to respond. I turned to look at her and saw her watching the cloud in shock as it enveloped us.
A bird landed on the hood of the car. A stork. Followed by an owl. Then a crow. A woodpecker, a seagull. They watched me intently. Boss was just out of sight, blocked by the seats in front of me. He looked to me for guidance on the next move.
"Daniels. Y-You have to hit the gas," I whispered, moving my lips as little as possible.
"What's going on?" she asked, whispering as well.
"They are not friendly—" The stork pecked on the glass. I winced. More birds were landing on the car. The rain of bird droppings had already begun. Another peck came from the top of the car. That one made a dent.
"Daniels," I warned.
She was still looking around the car, taking in the scene in fear and fascination. Another round of pecks hit the car. Then, my heart dropped into my stomach as the owl made way for a small bird from behind it. Scar. He took one look at me and nodded.
He tweeted an order, and the birds screeched in unison.
They all began pecking at once.
Like a hailstorm, the shower of beaks assailed the outside of the car, each hit bringing another small zit on the roof of the car. The rear window began to crack. Scar pranced about the hood of the car excitedly. The interior of the car felt like it was closing in on me. Mostly because it was.
Boss had hopped up to my shoulder to try and speak to Scar, but his voice was still far too weak to be heard. He settled for just glaring at him.
"Uhhh," Officer Daniels said loudly, looking all over the car as the damage became worse. The back window began caving in and the passenger window had a crack starting to propagate across it.
"Hit the gas!" I screamed. "Are windows on cop cars bulletproof?" I followed up, watching the crack on the rear window closely.
"No, that's just a myth, why would you ask—"
Something finally clicked in her head when a beak poked its way through the top of the car and she smashed her hand down on the car horn. The birds were startled by the blare for a moment and a few jumped away.
"What was that for, just drive!" I screamed as the birds resumed their assault.
"I wanted to make sure no pedestrians were in the way!" she screamed back. The back window broke open and a crow stuck its head in, cawing crazily.
The tires screeched and the car sped forward with a sudden lurch, leaving behind the hundreds of birds. The crow with its head in the window screamed at us, trying to force the rest of its body in the small space of the hole in the window. The windows were mostly obscured by excrement, and the windshield wipers did little to help. Daniels drove slower than I would have thought. She turned on the sirens.
"Why aren't we going faster?" I yelled, Boss chirping hoarsely in agreement. I closed my eyes and slapped down on the crow, sending it flying out the back. I didn't look to see whether I'd killed that one as well.
"I can barely see out the window and I don't want to hit—"
The birds caught up and were pecking and scratching whatever they could of the car in pursuit of us. A few were able to make significant contact with the vehicle, but most could hardly keep up.
Boss tweeted and raised his wing, indicating to the street ahead.
"Make a right!" I screamed. She obliged without a moment's hesitation, skidding along the road.
Before we could get on a straight path again, a small explosion threw us to one side, smacking me, Daniels, and Boss against the windows closest to us. I felt more blood flow down my forehead, complementing the blood drying on my ear from earlier. The car lurched forward again, speeding up much faster than earlier. The whole car felt like it slanted to one side. Boss looked around in a daze.
"What was that?" I asked her, looking at the remaining birds following us. We were finally creating space between us now that we were moving faster.
"I don't believe— They popped a tire!" she yelled back, looking at one of the side-view mirrors.
"Bird beaks aren't strong enough to pop tires, though! R-right?" I said.
"I didn't say what they popped it with, I just said it popped!" she said loudly in response.
"Well then what did they use?" I asked, feeling relief start to make its way in as we got further from our pursuers.
"I don't know!" she yelled.
I dropped it and let her concentrate on driving. The sirens allowed us to make good time bypassing a few traffic lights and stop signs. My eyes were glued to the mass of birds behind us. The cloud waned the further we went, but it didn't let up.
"You want to tell me what's going on?" Daniels asked, the frustration from earlier still coating her voice.
I thought about how best to explain it, but so much had happened in such a short period of time. Boss tweeted and raised his wing again.
"Turn left up ahead," I said.
"What? We want to be driving away from the things, not sideways!"
Boss insisted.
"Please?" I asked. She grunted and begrudgingly made the left turn.
"Tell me what's happening!" she said more forcefully. "I want to call back up but I'd rather have something plausible to work with before I tell them about an army of evil—Before I have to say anything stupid."
"Okay, okay," I swallowed hard. "Umm, this morning— well I guess it started like three days ago when I first got Boss. I found him—"
"Oh my God!!" Daniels screamed as a truck tried to race across the intersection perpendicular to the police car. Daniels pulled the wheel to one side and I felt the whole vehicle tilt.
The car careened to one side. I grabbed Boss protectively, unsure what was going to happen until we smashed into something on the opposite side of where we sat. The car had come to a complete stop. We crashed into a traffic light. I looked back out over my shoulder and saw the flock gradually making its way toward us. We had minutes.
"We have to go, get us out!" I yelled. I didn't want to look away from the mass but didn't hear anything from Daniels.
"Daniels?"
I turned around and saw her slumped over and passed out leaning on the steering wheel. We were locked inside.
"Daniels!?" I screamed louder, shaking the gate separating us. "Daniels, come on, we have to go!!" I tried reaching my hand through a hole to shake her, but it was just too small for my hand.
She didn't move, save for the faint movement of her breathing. It was almost comforting to know she was alive, but looking over my shoulder made the comfort vanish.
"Come on!" I screamed, thinking fast. Boss looked around as well, contemplating a mode of escape. I looked at the broken window behind us and punched it. My knuckles popped, but there was no response from the window. I punched again, a few more times to try and make a hole wide enough for Boss and me to crawl through and get out of the car before the birds returned. My stomach dropped as the last thought crossed my mind. I couldn't get out, but the hole left by the crow was enough for Boss.
"Here," I said, putting my hand out, palm open. He hopped in dutifully and I raised him to the hole in the rear mirror of the car.
"Go, go, hurry," I said quickly. Boss looked at the army chasing us down in the distance and then back to me. He chirped weakly.
"Don't worry about me, you have to go, you're like the leader or something, right?"
Boss shifted his gaze suddenly at that, I couldn't read what that response meant. Then he tweeted defiantly.
"Hurry, you have to go!" I said more urgently.
He chirped again, in the negative. He refused to leave.
“Boss, I…” again, Boss put me at a loss for words. Not out of discomfort, but at how well he treated me.
“You have to go, don't worry about me, I'll figure something out,” I lied.
He tweeted, angling his head to gesture behind me.
"Right, umm, we'll both be fine," I said looking to Officer Daniels again. She still hadn't moved.
He turned his head, stretching his neck out further. I looked between him and Daniels a few times. I shook my head and stared at the console of the car. Then the gate, the seat she was on, the radio. He tweeted again, and the plan entered my mind.
"You can fit through the gate?" I said surprised I hadn't thought of it earlier. He nodded quickly and I put him up to the fence. He squeezed through nimbly then looked at me from the other side, awaiting orders.
"Oh, umm, wake up Daniels?" I said, more of a question than a command. He hopped onto her head and stamped on it lightly. Then a bit harder. Then he gave her a good peck. She didn't react at all. He shook his head.
"Ok then… umm…" my heart raced as the sound of the birds came through to the inside of the car. They were getting a lot closer. I put my face up to the gate and darted my eyes around.
"Oh! Put down the back window for me so I can open the door!" I said. He nodded his head and continued to stare at me.
"Like now?" I said, panicking. He tweeted softly. He didn't know how.
"The button! The button there! Jump on the one on the left. One back! I pointed as far as I could, straining my eyes and finger to get it as accurate as possible. He jumped to the buttons and pushed down on one of them, unlocking the already unlocked car.
"The other one! Other one!" I screamed with more urgency. He stomped down on it and the window next to me cracked down about an inch. "Yeah! Hold it down!"
The window took its time coming down, inviting the sounds of the attackers into the car. I glanced at them again. There were too many of them to be moving very quickly, but we had no more than a couple minutes before they were on top of us. I reached my arm over the window and opened the door from the outside. I stumbled out and opened the door and grabbed Boss. He and I looked at each other, then to Daniels.
“Somebody help!” I screamed to the street behind me. It was empty. Whether it was just my luck that no one was around or they fled at the sight of the mass of birds, I couldn’t tell.
I groaned and pulled off her seatbelt and then dragged her out of the car. There was no way I could lift her, even if it wasn't for the exhausted state I was in, and it was all I could do to keep her head from hitting the floor. I kicked the doors closed behind us. I pulled her as far as the sidewalk, then looked around for a next move. The sky began to darken as the cloud of birds neared, their screeches saturating the sky. Boss tweeted urgently and pointed with his beak to a dumpster in the alleyway next to us.
"I-I can't lift her!" I yelled.
He ducked his head.
"Oh, I get it," I said, dragging her to it. I set her head to the ground softly and rolled her under, doing a poor job of ignoring the rancid smell. I crawled in after, peeking my head out.
"Do you think they saw us come under here?" I asked, worried. Boss didn't answer. He must not have been sure. I held my breath as the noise crescendoed to its peak when they reached us, swarming the entire block in their fury.
I tucked my head back beneath the dumpster and listened to the maelstrom of screeches spin around beyond our shelter. Boss stood defiantly, at the edge of the dumpster, looking for a specific bird. Presumably, Scar, as I hadn't seen him yet. The majority of them went to the street to investigate further on that side. It seemed they hadn't seen us escape the car.
We heard it being torn apart, metal being ripped to shreds and the popping of three other tires. I heard glass shatter on all sides and the frustration of birds unable to find their targets. The noise traveled upward from there, probably so they could scan for us from the sky. A few birds stuck around the street level and flew across our dumpster a few times. Boss twitched his head every time but didn't make himself known.
After about ten minutes of tensing and untensing to the sound of wings flapping by, we were finally comforted by silence taking over. Boss took a few hops out and looked around, ensuring that we were alone. He turned around and nodded at me. I heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Daniels. She didn't look any more awake. I shivered, thinking about what state she could be in to be out of consciousness this long.
I crawled out from under the dumpster and pulled Daniels out with me. I tried pulling her over my shoulders but failed to lift her any more than a foot off the ground due to my bad arm. I probably couldn't have done better even at my strongest, but I liked to believe that I could. I'd have to continue dragging her around. But she didn't look like she was in a state where she could be pulled around without some long term damage coming to her. I looked around. The street we were on was empty, save for the hundreds of white droppings splattered at random intervals. No stores and no people. Plenty of birds at a distance, though. None close enough to see us if they weren't looking.
I looked back at the traffic light. The car looked like it had been shot with a machine gun with dozens of magazines worth of bullets. It was bad enough that if it wasn't for the small flickering red light on top of it, I might have thought it was no longer the same car. There was also a spot of red inside, likely my blood from when we crashed, though I couldn't be sure from this distance. The windows were gone and the tires looked like they had exploded by the size of the holes in them. I wondered what kind of bird could do that much damage.
Boss had scanned the area enough and climbed up Daniels to reach up to my arm. I began pulling her to the car to place her somewhere soft to lay down while I figured out what to do with her. My neck whipped from side to side weary of the ever-present threat of birds. They were all over the sky, but none took notice of us. Nevertheless, just seeing them made me pick up my pace. I opened the front door and pushed and pulled until I got Daniels into the front seat again. I breathed hard, exhausted, and looked at the console and got an idea. I grabbed the radio.
"Hey, umm..." I swallowed, unable to think of what to say.
"Daniels?" a voice exploded from the other side. "Where are you? What happened with Leary? Are you on your way back? Apparently this kid is a piece of work." It was the first officer who chased after me, Daniels' partner. He sounded as agitated as he was before, if not more.
"No, but Officer Daniels is hurt. She's at..." I looked up at the street light, "the corner of Refin and Harlington."
"Who is this?" the voice interrogated. There was a pause while I thought of how to answer. "You stay right there, I'm coming to get her and you better be ready to tell me what happened."
As I tried to think of a way to protest, something red caught the corner of my eye. It was a rooster, looking at me intently. It had been sitting in the back seat of the cruiser, its red head what I had seen earlier. I set the radio down as slowly as I could and raised my hands up placatingly.
"G-G-Good roos—"
It crowed a battle cry and jumped around in a frenzy. I cringed and Boss jumped to the cage to challenge it. I looked around and saw at least a hundred birds barrelling down toward us. Boss squeezed himself through the fence as the rooster crowed again, bouncing from side to side, preparing for a fight.
"Boss no!" I said, smashing my hand against the cage too late to grab him. He turned to me and twisted his head to one side.
"We have to go, they're here! They're right on top of us!" I yelled. Boss understood immediately and jumped back through the fence and onto my shoulder. I spun around only to be met with hundreds of eyes staring us down. They all waited about ten feet away from us, watching for our next move as we did theirs.
"Think you can do that big chirp again, Boss? We could make it through them," I whispered as quietly as I could. He nodded ever so slightly.
I slammed my hands over my ears, causing all the birds to rise and come at us while Boss opened his mouth to screech.
Even with my hands over my ears, the ear-splitting sound emanating from Boss seemed to go straight for my brain, shaking it vigorously. That was, that is, until it cut off abruptly mid screech. A few birds in the front of the charging attackers staggered in flight but were otherwise undeterred in barreling at us.
"B-Boss!?" I screamed, worried.
He opened and closed his beak to me, and shook his head. His voice still hadn't healed and he was unable to do it again so soon.
Time slowed as I grabbed my shoulder to grasp Boss. I was likely going to die right here, pecked to death by a variety of birds in a frenzy. But Boss wouldn't have to die with me.
"GO! FLY!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, turning and throwing Boss as hard as I could away from the birds. Opening my palm, I saw Boss's wide eyes, shocked at my decision as he was flung away from me. Even using my good arm, I couldn't get him past the width of the car. Boss opened his wings and immediately recoiled in pain, jerking to one side as he half-glided, half-fell down. His wing wasn't nearly as healed as it needed to be.
The birds were on top of me, flapping in circles around me and cackling at my pitiful attempt at a throw. I shielded myself, shutting my eyes and cringing into a ball until I realized that they weren't pecking me. In fact, they weren't even touching me. I opened my eyes with some hesitation as a net fell over me, pinning me to the ground. Dozens of birds grabbed the ends of the net, capturing me in a neat ball. I looked around hesitantly.
"Uhh..." was all I could manage as my eyes took in the scene. There were sirens in the distance.
Using their claws alone, about a hundred birds of all sorts were dragging me across the floor in a makeshift net that they had somehow made out of various pieces of rope. Some birds were adorned with fabrics on them. I saw one crow carrying me had a bandage around its leg. A hawk had some gauze over its wing. I turned my head to look back at Boss.
First, I caught sight of the rooster from the back seat of the car leisurely hopping out of the cruiser. Then I saw Boss, who somehow looked stoic even when captured. He'd similarly been tied up with rope and was being carried by the largest congregation of hummingbirds I'd ever seen.
"Boss!" I called to get him to look at me. I wanted to see if he was hurt. He looked down at me and shook his head, ever so slightly. He was silencing me. I struggled weakly against the bonds to try and get a better look at him to understand, but I could barely twist my neck, the way they'd bound me.
The sirens were getting louder and I realized it must have been Daniel's partner making his way here.
"HELP!" I screamed to the skies. "HEL—" My weight was abruptly shifted when a goose stopped carrying me and landed on the net, staring at me with challenging eyes. I looked at it with fear, then with defiance.
"HEEEL—"
It honked at me, startling me. That one honk was enough for me to know not to challenge it a second time. It had teeth. At least, it looked like it had teeth. It continued to stare at me until I broke eye contact with it. It honked to itself, satisfied, then made itself comfortable by sitting on my constrained joints.
We were dragged down the street, blocks away from the police car and Daniels. As we shifted paths and began moving down an alleyway, I saw police cars and an ambulance arrive at the traffic light. I was happy to see the ambulance. I may have been within a distance close enough for them to hear me if I called them once more, but by the time I mustered the courage, we were out of sight.
As we were carried toward an unmarked building with bird droppings all over it, I looked back to Boss to see if his expression had changed. If anything, it had become more hardened. The doors creaked open ominously, beckoning to us with its dark maw.
"What is—"
The goose honked again, quieting me as we were pulled into the unknown.
We were completely shrouded in darkness, only the flaps of wings accompanying us now. We seemed to be turning in a few directions down a hall, but I had no idea how they could tell where they were going. The building was long abandoned, judging by the grime, dust, and waste I was being dragged through. I listened intently to hear if I could make out any noise from Boss on the way in. I knew he was probably rendered mute again after the last attempted screech, but I couldn't help but hope.
At the end of the next hallway, I saw a light illuminating the corner. There was a shadow there. A massive, round figure was waiting for us. After the events of today, I expected it to be Scar standing in front of a light bulb to make himself seem bigger by a trick of the light. But considering the rest of the day, it could really have been any bird standing there. Maybe an ostrich or even a penguin.
As we made our way there, I looked back, now that there was a hint of light, to try to see Boss constrained with the hummingbirds. Except he wasn't there. I was being dragged on my own, separated from him in the earlier halls.
I was alone.
"Boss!" I called, more frightened by the prospect of facing these things alone than the goose. The goose raised its head but didn't honk this time. It seemed more amused by the fact I had the courage to call out again after two threats. It stood up and hopped off of me.
"Boss?" I called again behind me, my voice smaller. Still no answer. I couldn't hear anything other than wings flapping and my body being dragged across the ground. I began struggling against the net and breathing more rapidly. I stared as hard as I could into the darkness that I just emerged from. I couldn't make out any sign of him.
"Boss are you still okay?" I screamed. I was dropped by all the birds at once and I plopped to the floor.
"Save your breath," a voice said, bored.
My heart dropped into my stomach. My eyes were frozen, looking away from the source. The shadowy figure I'd seen was a man, not a bird. I tried to calm myself, but I couldn't even bring myself to look at him. Being without Boss reminded me of how far I was from my apartment. From my previous apartment. I was homeless.
I was alone.
"What's your name?" the voice asked. He breathed loudly, but steadily behind me. It sounded like he was tinkering with something. There was definitely the sound of birds mingling around him. I mechanically began turning my head around to get a good look at him.
"Come on, your name?" he repeated. I cringed, stopping my motion and gritting my teeth. I didn't want to talk to him. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to be back at my apartment. Not here. Not in the middle of some bird building with some weird guy. At the very least, I wanted to know if Boss was okay. My only friend.
He breathed impatiently, and I heard him shift in a seat. I cringed harder, afraid he was going to get up to hurt me.
"S-Sean! It's Sean!" I stammered loudly.
His seat adjusted again as he breathed in acknowledgment. I waited for another question, but he just went back to breathing loudly. I continued the rotation of my neck until I could get a good look at him.
He was huge. And extremely round. The office chair he sat in looked strained under his weight. On his shoulders were perched about a dozen birds, with dozens more hanging out around the table that was placed in front of him. In his greasy fingers, he held a roll of gauze which he was measuring freely with one eye closed. He bit into it and tore off a piece and looked up to a goldcrest, which hopped forward with one leg. The other foot looked a bit bloodied. The man leaned in, and for a moment I thought he would swallow it whole, but instead, he nimbly wrapped the gauze around the leg and pat the bird gingerly on the head with a finger.
"All better," he said as it stepped out of the way and flew off. It came back moments later and placed a crumb in front of him.
"Much obliged," he said, licking the crumb up.
I watched with a mix of fascination, disgust and horror. Another bird stood before him with its left eye closed. He nodded, acknowledging the wound and rolled away from the table to a toolbox where he pulled out a different kind of bandage. He breathed loudly and rolled back to it, lightly adding it to its head and making an eyepatch for it.
He was the one who had been healing the birds. I opened my mouth.
"You're—Umm... you're—" I couldn't find the right word for a guy who had taken birds in to heal.
I stopped trying when he looked at me, waiting for me to finish. He looked down at himself and chuckled.
"I'm four hundred pounds? Is that what you mean to say, Sean?" he asked, a mix of offense and humor in his voice. I couldn't tell which one.
"No, ummm..." I said, trying to take back something I didn't say.
"It's all right. Usually, the first piece of my personality that people pick up on. I'm Danuel," he said, picking up the birdseed placed in front of him and popping it into his mouth.
I blinked a few times, really taking in the scene. It was hard to process that there was this kind of person living among the birds and healing them too. I swallowed and tried again to ask the question.
"You're the—the bird healer, Daniel?"
"Danuel," he corrected. Then heaved a breath in thought. A few of the birds on his shoulders adjusted their position as his shoulders slid up and down. "I suppose you could call me the healer. It's not how I would classify myself among them, though."
"How would you... classify yourself then?" I asked slowly.
"I'm the interrogator," he said, bobbing his frame as an introduction.
My heart turned from fast to ultra-fast as it began jackhammering in my chest; roaring in my ears. I swallowed hard and looked between his face and the birds around him in his makeshift workshop. They were at such an angle where if I made any sudden moves, I'd be surrounded in no time. This was my interrogation room. I tried to swallow again, but my mouth had run dry.
"In... Interro...?" I asked, my voice dry and airy.
"Oh yes," he bobbed again, nodding. "The birds have commanded me to interrogate on their behalf and in return, they feed me quite well." He patted his stomach, heartily.
My eyebrow ascended slightly. The mention of being fed 'well' was an interesting claim. I supposed that was a subjective way to put it, but there was no way that bird seed could be that good. Especially when it's brought a crumb at a time. But I was much more interested in the other thing mentioned.
"The birds... The birds 'commanded' you?" I asked.
"Yes, they were quite nice about it. Though it did cause a bit of a controversy to bring in an outsider to their affairs. Birds are supposed to be autonomous, you see. Me intervening, even in the slightest way, was seen as a detriment to the autonomy of the avians. But they've taken quite a liking to me," he said, raising a hand to pat on of the ones perched on his shoulder with a finger. It closed its eyes, enjoying the contact. Another bird tweeted at Danuel chidingly.
"Right, sorry," he said, putting on a serious face. He looked at me for only a second before I couldn't continue to look at him. He was deliberating on how to torture me for this interrogation, I was sure.
"So," he said, his seat groaning as he straightened his form in it, "how long have you known about Avian Society?"
I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. He just asked a question. I was still laying on the floor in a sort of fetal position on my hands and knees and he just went right ahead. I looked up to him. From the neck up, he looked stiff and inquisitive, but below that were birds and comically large parts of his body hanging off the chair. I had a hard time understanding how serious this was.
"Umm... Avian Society?" I asked.
"Right!" he said, thinking on how to define it, "Bird Society? The fact Birds have all of this going on around them?" he said, waving a hand in a circle next to his head.
"Since this morning I guess," I said, rolling my body over to sit more casually on the ground.
"You mean it's only been hours?" he asked, surprised.
"I mean..." I didn't like having to talk this much. I shrugged again.
"And you've already made a name for yourself in that same society. I'm surprised. Not impressed, no. Just surprised."
"I'm... I made a name for myself?" I asked.
"Every bird I know has been talking about you," he said gravely.
"Oh."
"And have you expressed violent tendencies before?" he asked.
My head shot up to look at him with confusion. Violent tendencies? That was a strange question.
"N... No. I never hurt anyone," I said.
The birds began chirping furiously in objection. Some dove down at me, but others convinced them to veer away before any made contact. I watched wide-eyed as the entire room seemed to dance to a raging song with everything in sight either shaking wings or flying past the one light in the room. The storm passed quickly when Danuel raised his hand patiently. The birds landed back where they had been at the beginning of the investigation. I swallowed and looked to my shoulder for Boss's reassurance. But he wasn't there.
I was alone.
"Hurt anyone is one thing Sean, but what about anything? Have you killed birds before like you did today?" His voice was deadpan.
My eyes widened in horror. The crow. The one from the alley when we were attacked by the crow with an eyepatch. They knew about it. They were asking about it.
"N... No," I stammered, "I didn't do much of anything before today," I admitted.
"So, the first chance that you got to do something, a bird dies?" he asked. My face flushed red with shame. I slumped my head so I wouldn't have to look at him. I hated having to talk to him.
"Why are all these questions even for?" I asked.
"Just want to be thorough. We're preparing for the trial," Danuel said.
"Trial!?" I asked loudly, my shock making way for a colder horror in my blood. I looked between the birds on Danuel's massive shoulders, their angry disappointed faces hardly subtle.
"Yes, the trial. How else did you expect this to be dealt with?" Danuel responded.
"I… I don't know! I didn't!" I admitted hastily. The birds flew into another rage of squeaking, flapping wings, and crying out at me. I shielded my face, even though none flew at me this time. I was trying to hide from their judgment. I remained in my tense state until the room died down once more. Even then, I waited until Danuel spoke.
"It's part of their law that if you kill one of their own, you must be put on trial to answer for the crime," he explained.
"That—" my head craned up over my arms as my thoughts came in order, "that can't be right. There's-there's so many birds killed all the time and I've never heard of someone seeing birds do things out of the ordinary before today!" I defended.
"It was a recent law under new leadership. Something to protect them from those that were flippant toward birds' lives," he said. I bit the inside of my cheek.
“Wh—what's gonna happen to me?" I asked. “Are they gonna kill me? Do birds do capital punishment?”
The birds stared at me silently while Danuel thought of his reply. Their eyes bore straight through my chest. My arms shivered over my body protectively. I didn't like them watching me. I didn't want to talk to Danuel. I wanted to be with Boss. I wanted to go home.
"I don't know, Sean," Danuel said finally. "This will actually be the first trial I'm a witness to with human defendants. All the others were exclusive to their inner workings."
A heron made an impatient noise from the back of the workshop.
"Right, right, I forgot," Danuel said, waving a hand apologetically behind him. He looked at me seriously. "How long have you known Kwakaru?"
I stared at him dumbly, waiting for him to continue.
"Did you not hear the question?" he asked.
"What?"
"Kwakaru? When did you meet him? Make his acquaintance? Become informed of his existence? How is this a difficult question?" he asked.
"I-I don't understand," I said, looking around at the piercing eyes nervously.
"I have no idea how to make it clearer," Danuel said sincerely.
"I don't know what Kwakaru is," I answered.
"You never learned his name? The sparrow you've been going around attacking others with?"
"Y-you mean Boss?" I asked.
The birds recoiled at that name with disgust. They didn't like hearing his name for some reason.
"Ah, you named him yourself," Danuel nodded, "an unfortunate name, too. I suppose you wouldn't know he had a name given at birth. Kwakaru."
I blinked a couple of times, letting my mind register this new fact. My eyes continued to blink in a mix of confusion and wonder as this new information fit itself into my head. He had a name. And he responded to the one I gave to him without hesitation. Another evidence of how good he was to me. Then a question came to mind.
"All these birds have names?" I asked.
Danuel sighed when the heron made another noise.
"Answer my question and I'll answer yours," he said with patience. I nodded quickly.
"Ummm… I met him like four days ago. It was the first time that I had left my apartment in..." I tried to think of the time before that, but it was too far gone now, "a long time. He was laying on the floor of the sidewalk outside of a pizza place I was going to since you can self-order. He looked like he was in a lot of pain and chirped out at me like... like he was calling for help. So I helped him," I shrugged. The birds again reacted negatively, but Danuel nodded amiably and opened a large hand, allowing me to ask my question.
In the course of my answer, the birds had gotten more agitated with my response. They didn't like the matter I had discussed, and by watching them fidget and fly from spot to spot to warble to one another in secret, a more pressing question came to mind.
"Why do they seem to hate all of my answers regarding Boss?" I asked. Again, they recoiled at the name.
"That may have to do with you denying them his execution," Danuel said simply.
A wave of nausea crashed its way through me; my heart went into a full-blown sprint as my body tightened in response to what Danuel had said.
Execution
My breathing became harder and my eyes cold and collected. It was everything I could to keep my emotion in check. One that overwhelmed me as nothing has ever done before. It was a feeling I hadn't had the luxury of experiencing in a long time.
Rage.
My body twisted internally, relishing the newfound energy and directed anger. I looked between each of the birds, some of whom shifted uncomfortably under my gaze.
"You want to kill my best friend?" I asked all of them, challenging them for an answer. A few chirped in detest at the term 'best friend,' while most stood in silence, watching this new version of me.
"No, Sean, it seems you've conflated me with them, I—"
"Shut up Danuel," I said cooly. Danuel balked, as did the birds on his shoulders. A few on the outsides of the room inched toward him defensively. They didn't know what I was capable of. Neither did I.
"You sit here criticizing me and lecturing me on some ethics of killing a bird when you've been trying to do the same yourself?" I asked them collectively. "Someone who is going to be murdered in cold blood kills in self-defense, yet the murderer is treated as a martyr?" I demanded.
"Sean, you misunderstand—"
"Shut. Up. Danuel." I commanded, staring daggers into him. He collected himself into his fat skin, squirming away from me.
"Of all the people I've ever met," I began. "Of all the creatures I've ever met, Boss is the only one that has treated me with dignity. He's encouraged me to try new things. He trusted in me when I was a literal shut-in in my apartment, enough so to chase away my landlord! All I did was take him in!" I screamed. My vision was clouded. I felt tears roll off my chin.
"He never told me to kill any birds! He never even told me to hurt any. He just wanted to see Scar! To… To talk to him or something!" Somewhere during the speech, my voice went from assertive to pleading. "He's a good bird! Please! He's a good bird! He doesn't deserve to die! He's—He's my only friend and…"
Like a train, all of the birds' staring hit me at the same time and I looked to the floor to avoid their gaze. I resented being the center of attention. I was sobbing. Danuel's chair creaked as he sat up a little straighter and asked slowly,
"Who is Scar?"
"The—The bu—The bird. The other sparrow with a scar on its eye," I said, sniffling.
The other birds looked around at each other with interest. I had finally said something that didn't seem to outright disgust him.
"What did Kwakaru tell you about that sparrow?" Danuel asked with urgency. I sniffled a few more times and opened my mouth.
I was cut off by a screech from down the hall behind me. I jumped and all of the lights in the hall turned on in succession, leading to a room I hadn't seen when being dragged in. The birds began to fly away from my interrogation room and into that one, only a few staying behind to watch me.
"Wha—what's happening?" I stammered to Danuel.
"The trial is beginning. Quickly, we have to go," he said, rolling his chair in earnest and taking me by the arm.
I stumbled along, wiping tears from my eyes before we made it down the expanse of the hall. Danuel wasn't moving very quickly, his stubby legs unable to carry his massive body at any pace faster than a walk when rolling his chair. I followed numbly, still reeling from everything I'd been told so far. My trial. Boss's execution. And the worst part was that I had no idea where he was being held. He could already be dead. The thought made me have to fight back more tears.
As we turned the corner in the hall, I was blasted by the bright white lights of the room. After my eyes adjusted, I realized that we were in a mini courtroom. There were rows of perches for the birds all along the walls, going up as far as right below the ceiling. In the front was a much larger perch, like the branch of a tree, hanging empty while birds flew in every direction around it to find a good seat. At the top of the room, in front of a stained-glass window was a red seat, much like a throne for a mouse. Or a bird, I suppose. In front of the large perch were two tables, one with a small plastic footstool and a perch behind it, the other empty save for more perches. Danuel dragged me forward and directed me to sit in the footstool. I didn't even question him, and plopped myself down in it, not caring about anything that was happening around me.
I sat in a wad of bird poop. It would have been hard to miss considering the whole room was covered in it and feathers. I looked over my shoulder to see that Danuel had rolled his way back up to a spectator level, birds flocking to him to use as a good viewpoint of the room. He gave me a respectful nod and I turned back around, embarrassed. The room began settling down and the quieter it became, the more disquieted I felt. Where I felt indifferent to it all a moment ago, shame began to wash over me. As they stopped chirping at one another, the birds' attention turned to me. The flaps lessened and their tweets subsided until the only thing I could hear was the clanging of my heart inside me. The heart of someone who killed a bird.
Suddenly, a larger bird made its way to the front of the room and landed on the branch at the front. The judge. It was a parrot. It looked around the room, its eyes dilating wildly. It twitched a dozen different directions before it felt the need to begin speaking.
"Scraw I, Judge Polly, call this court into session scraw!" its voice boomed, clean and articulate. It occurred to me that Danuel had probably been talking to birds that could talk back to him in order to understand as much as he did about their society. I was with Boss for multiple days and felt like I knew less about him the longer I remained with him.
"Scraw, as we are in the presence of a human defendant, I shall be conducting this court in his spoken tongue. Scraw! Should we receive any witness testimony in our language, we will translate it for our defendant," Judge Polly began nibbling under his wing. A bird spooked me as it landed on the empty perch next to me. It was a parakeet. I stared at it quizzically.
"I am Neelu, your court-appointed translator. I am under obligation to inform you that I will not give you any legal advice nor aide in your defense. I am only here to translate anything you may not understand," it said robotically. It was a light blue bird, beautiful enough to photograph and austere enough for me to have my jaw drop when it spoke as eloquently as it looked.
"I… I thought parakeets couldn't learn to talk English that well?" I asked, more to myself than the bird. It tweeted a laugh.
"It's 'learn to speak English that well.' What you said was grammatically incorrect," he corrected. My face flushed red.
"Scraw. As this case is one of a single man against all birds, the prosecutors will be any bird that comes to speak at the perch," Judge Polly explained. I blinked a few times in confusion.
"I don't—I don't understand—I... Does that mean anyone can prosecute me?" I asked.
"It means every bird who is not myself or Neelu is your prosecutor unless you have one set as your lawyer, scraw," Polly responded. I looked around the room, only to freeze and turn back to Judge Polly. Every bird has a fiery gaze on me. I missed Boss.
"That sounds nothing like a court," I whined quietly.
"This is nothing like your courts," Neelu agreed.
"We call upon our leader to observe what transpired today, scraw" Judge Polly continued, "so that we may confirm that it adheres to the new laws he's recently placed. Please cease any flapping of wings or chirping until our leader enters."
My heart leapt. Something clicked in my head all at once. After all of this time, I think I understood what was going on. Boss was the leader. That's why they wanted to get him, they wanted to bring him back to the headquarters. That's why they hated me, it's because they thought I was keeping him prisoner. And that's why he wasn't here now, he was awaiting his entrance.
Faster than I could follow, a sparrow flew above us and landed on the throne in front of the window. It had to be Boss! I was so glad to see him I almost began to cry. Then, when I squinted a bit further, I saw that he was unhappy to see me. And upon further examination, I saw that he was not Boss.
The leader in the throne, Scar, tweeted gravely and started the session of the court.
I stared up at Scar as he looked out to the audience of birds before him. A frown grew across my face as Judge Polly pecked a sound block, his beak acting as a gavel.
"Scraw. This court is now in session—"
"Where is Boss?" I asked defiantly. "I don't want to answer any questions until you tell me where he is. Kwakaru, where is he?"
Birds on the sidelines shifted uncomfortably at my speaking while Judge Polly's eye's constricted so far that I could see nothing but the whites of his eyes. I squirmed in my seat.
"How dare you try to take control of my courtroom. Another outburst like that and I will charge you in contempt of court scraw. We are here for your crimes and nothing else! Do you understand me, human?" Judge Polly exploded. I stared at him stunned. It was one thing to see a parrot speak in complete sentences, but another thing entirely to see it seething with anger.
"Do you understand?" he demanded.
"Y— yes. Sorry, Judge Polly," I said, each word out of my mouth quieter than the last.
"Opening statements, scraw!" Judge Polly called. I shivered nervously, trying to think of what to say when an eagle landed on the table across the room from where I sat. It cried out once magnificently and opened its massive wings. Then, it turned toward me glaring and flew away. The entire room exploded in cheers and jubilation at this opening statement. Judge Polly knocked his beak against the sound block again.
"What did he say?" I whispered to Neelu.
"That you're guilty."
"Well—Yeah—I meant what exactly did he say to convince the room of that?" I asked.
"He said 'the human is guilty.'"
"How—"
"Scraw! Opening statements from the defendant?" Judge Polly asked. The room quieted down to listen. I panicked and turned to Danuel who raised his head ever so slightly, encouraging me to speak. I clasped my hands together.
"I—I'm—The human is not guilty?" I said weak enough that I didn't even believe it.
The room jeered at me, screeching their disdain at my words.
"They say you're a fraud and a liar," Neelu relayed.
"Y— yeah, I got that, thanks."
"They also say you're guilty," Neelu added.
"Yeah, of—Thank you Neelu, I got it," I said through gritted teeth and closed eyes.
"Scraw, is there anything else you'd like to—" Judge Polly looked up alertly along with Scar who heard a series of squawks from right outside the room. The noise died down quickly and we waited in a heavy silence for an explanation. When none came, Judge Polly continued.
"Is there anything else you'd like to say scraw?" he asked.
"I—" I caught my own voice before I completed the thought. I had nothing more to say regarding the case, but I did have something to say to all the birds in the room. "Only that I want to see Boss. He—He is my only friend and I want to understand what's happening with him. I th-think both of us are misunderstood in this room," I said sadly. To my surprise, none of the birds protested my words this time.
"Very well, scraw. Any witnesses the prosecution would like to call?" Judge Polly asked the room. A blue jay chirped a sharp screech, and a few other birds chirped in agreement.
"They're calling our leader to the stand," Neelu translated.
Scar nodded and flew down to a perch right below Judge Polly's, standing proud. From his confidence, he reminded me of Boss. The thought stung me.
Some birds began chirping rapidly and were, in turn, responded to by Scar equally fast.
"Were you captured by the human?" Neelu was translating as soon as the words were spoken, even shifting pitches of voice for each different bird. "Yes, I was. Did he keep you in sanitary conditions? No, he left me in a trash can. Were you freed by the kindness in this human's heart? No, my vanguard had to fight for my freedom, one of whom lost an eye during that bout."
A few birds gasped. I was surprised by how articulate they all were. Bird society was far more sophisticated than I was.
"No further questions," Neelu said, translating the last bird.
"Cross-examination scraw?" Judge Polly asked me.
"Yeah, I—umm... Judge Polly, can I ask you a question?" I asked quickly. At this point, I was shivering under all the constant attention I'd been receiving. It was hard to tell whether I hated this more than talking with people.
"Scraw. Do you not know how to cross-examine a witness?" the Judge asked.
"Not exactly, I-I just want to know what the trial is for. I think—I already admitted to Danuel that I killed that crow?" I said as a question. I turned to Danuel for a sign, but he shook his head gravely.
“We are determining the severity of your punishment, whether you should be executed or not, scraw. Now continue with the cross-examination.”
My stomach went tight, but I didn't show it on my face. This was about as much as I’d expected. I was just hoping he would answer differently. I breathed in deeply and looked to Scar who watched me intently, thinking of a question as fast as I could.
“Umm... were... um... Did you get hurt when in custody at my old apartment?" I asked Scar. He looked annoyed at the question and chirped.
“No I was not,” Neelu relayed.
“Did—Do you think you were placed in the trash can unfairly?” I asked.
There was a bustling of birds behind me chirping in protest.
“They are voicing objections for irrelevant questions,” Neelu said.
“Scraw overruled. We are birds of law and we will hear our leader's answer so as to understand the situation the human was in. A good bird would speak the truth, even if it was against himself,” Judge Polly said, looking expectantly at his leader. I was pleasantly surprised to see Polly seemingly taking my side on this. Perhaps they were a reasonable society. Scar put his head down in thought, then nibbled under his chest before answering.
“No, I do not feel I was placed there in fair circumstances,” Neelu translated. I looked to Neelu in surprise, then to Scar.
“You don’t—”
There was another maelstrom of noises from outside the door, this time louder than the previous occurrence. We turned to the door expectantly. The noise subsided again and we waited. For a full minute, we waited for a sign, explanation or any indication for the commotion outside. A chicken broke the silence to cluck impatiently. In this time, I looked to Danuel to see if he could signal me with some advice. He only nodded at me, encouraging me to continue this line of questioning.
“Bailiff,” Judge Polly called to a closed door behind him. The door flew open and I yelped as an ostrich came out, wearing a shiny bowtie on his neck. It screeched a response.
“Please control whatever is happening outside this courtroom. I'll have no more interruptions, scraw," Judge Polly said, pointing with a talon to the court's door. The ostrich made its way to the door with ponderous steps as I watched with my mouth agape. I made eye contact with Danuel again who shook a fat arm at me refocusing my attention to the stand.
“Yes... Ummmm...” I said, trying to remember my train of thought. “You didn't think that you were in the wrong for breaking into my home, shattering my window, and—and—causing a public disturbance to the humans? I was kicked out of my apartment because of you!” I said, my arguments fueling me with energy.
Scar frowned at me, more annoyed than before. The ostrich opened the door to the courtroom and exited, screeching as the doors closed behind him. The room turned from the door to their leader, waiting anxiously for his response. He opened his beak to respond, then went deeper into thought.
I thought back to what started this all. I had done nothing but take Boss into my home to take care of him. To have a companion in my lonely home. They brought me into their world when they attacked me for what would be considered a good act in my own society.
“This case is not about your interactions with me, but rather your killing of an innocent bird,” Neelu said as Scar responded.
“That-that doesn't answer my question!” I stammered loudly. A timberdoodle marched its way to the front of the room, its head bobbing to an unknown rhythm.
“Objection Judge Polly, he did not ask the witness a question!” Neelu said as it spoke.
“Scraw sustained,” the judge said. I screwed my eyes shut and tried to figure out what to say. I didn't know how to build a case. I didn't know how to defend myself when I was prosecuted by everyone in the room. I began sweating and shaking angrily.
“You—I—I don't know!” I exclaimed the same time as the door to the courtroom burst open. I opened my eyes to a dozen pigeons making their way into the room, the ostrich trying fruitlessly to hold them back.
Tears came to my eyes as I saw a small figure in the center of the small army of pigeons.
Boss.
Boss spun a loop in the air and I stood up in anticipation to run from the room with him. He landed on my shoulder proudly, and only then had I realized that he was able to fly again! His wing was healed. The pigeons were holding back a mass of agitated birds who tried to get at me and Boss while I looked at him for the next move. Boss gestured for me to sit down. I looked at him in confusion and gestured at the open door, making sure he didn’t mistake the next step to this plan. Boss shook his head and pointed downward again. I took a hesitant seat.
Judge Polly let out a cry and hit the sound block with his beak but was drowned out by the growing pandemonium of the room. I looked at Scar who was watching us closely, but not with the hatred I assumed he would have. More like curiosity. When the sound of the birds behind me seemed like they were going to overwhelm our defending pigeons, Boss tapped me lightly on the ear. I nodded to him and used my fingers as best I could to block out what I knew was coming.
Boss let out a screech as he did in the alley when we were attacked by crows. All the birds in the room either calmed down or fell to the floor, disoriented. Judge Polly was the first to rise, watching Boss with a sharp eye and then looking down at Scar. Scar gestured forward with his head that we should proceed. As birds climbed back to their perches in anger and frustration, I turned around to look at Danuel who had blood running down both of his ears. I winced, remembering the pain of Boss's screech. Then I recalled that Boss’ first demonstration of his power is what gave me the opportunity to kill the crow and went sick to my stomach.
“Scraw!” Judge Polly called, pecking his sound block. The ostrich was walking back in, returning to the door behind Judge Polly and settling in. “What is the meaning of the interruption Kwakaru?”
Boss tried to respond, but only a whisper came out, barely quiet enough for me to just make it out. Neelu looked upset when he turned up to the judge.
“He says that he is here to defend Sean,” Neelu said.
“Scraw?” Judge Polly called in surprise. He looked down in thought for a few moments while Scar watched us smugly. “I'll allow it.”
Scar's head shot up and chirped in protest.
“Scraw, we have no rule dictating that prisoners cannot defend someone in our court,” Judge Polly answered him.
Scar chirped again insistently.
“I will not change any laws on the spot, even for you. You know the proper channels, go through them, scraw!” Judge Polly said, annoyed. He looked back up to me expectantly. I stared back nervously.
“Proceed,” the judge offered said patiently. I swallowed hard, looking at Boss. Boss nodded encouragingly.
“Ummm... what…” I couldn't remember the line of questions I had been asking and bit my lip. After breathing rapidly for a few seconds, I went with the first thing to come to mind, “Did you try to kill us?”
Scar looked appalled.
“I never attempted to kill anyone, unlike the one questioning me,” Neelu translated his response. I frowned, confused.
“What… when we were in the alley… umm… why did crows attack us?” I asked.
“To capture a fugitive and his voluntary accomplice,” Scar said through Neelu. Boss nudged me. He flicked his head and tweeted.
“He says you should tell the Judge you have no further questions,” Neelu relayed, Boss nodding. I looked at him confused and nodded.
“No further questions, Judge Polly,” I said, Scar flying back up to his throne. Boss looked at him with distaste then tweeted in a whisper.
“He calls the human Sean up to the stand,” Neelu said for everyone to hear. I looked at Boss, shaking my head slightly. The only thing I could think of that would be worse than being the center of attention behind this makeshift desk would be to be the center of attention being drilled with questions. Judge Polly bobbed his feathered head.
“Scraw. Unorthodox for the defense to call a witness so soon, but we've never had someone being represented in the defense. I'll allow it, on the condition the prosecution both accepts the witness and asks the questions first” he said. The room brought up no protest. The judge raised a wing for me to take the small stand beside him.
I waddled over, shaking with adrenaline and squatted behind their stand awkwardly. The crow with one eye cawed with murderous intent.
“Did you kill a crow?” Neelu translated.
“I—yes,” I nodded, ashamed. The room was silent. The crow cawed again.
“No further questions,” Neelu relayed. I was grateful for how succinct they were but was equally uneasy. I had no way of knowing how this would end. And I really didn't want to die.
“You may cross-examine the witness, scraw,” Judge Polly flapped his wings. Boss chirped once, quickly, his question full of confidence.
“Have you told the court that you are my hired mercenary?” Neelu said, surprise in his voice at hearing what he was saying.
The room was fluttering with curiosity. I had the feeling I didn’t understand the question, but I attempted to answer it anyway.
“M—Mercenary? No, I haven’t said anything about that,” I answered.
Boss nodded and winked at me. It was a bit unsettling to watch a bird wink, but I understood him nonetheless. He had a plan. He began chirping to Neelu a long and intricate statement, complete with wing gesticulations.
“Sean is a hired bird killer. Kwakaru bought his allegiance to try and further enact his revenge on bird-kind for ousting him from his position of power. He says Sean had no idea of bird society prior to meeting him and that he should be let go on the grounds that Kwakaru will accept the punishment for both crimes,” Neelu said professionally, the shock in his face growing wider with each word.
“What!” I exclaimed. “There was no agreement between us to enact revenge! I was never bought!”
Boss scoffed and pointed to my pants, tweeting.
“He asks that you empty your pockets,” Neelu relayed.
I frowned and put my hands in my pocket feeling the mound of birdseed and—and a Rolex. I pulled it out to the astonished gasps of the audience. They didn’t seem to have believed that I’d have anything in my pocket, to begin with.
“Scraw Danuel! How much would this trinket be worth?” Judge Polly asked across the room. Danuel was as shocked as the rest of the audience on the sight of the watch and took a moment to scrunch his face in thought. He nodded to himself then answered.
“I’ve seen them go anywhere from ten thousand to fifty thousand dollars!”
“In terms the courtroom room would understand, scraw,” Judge Polly clarified.
“Right, right, one moment to run conversions,” he said, scrunching his chubby face again to process. I was getting a better understanding of how Danuel worked in their society. A bridge of sorts. And he must have been fed heartily for his services, judging by his lifestyle. “It would be between thirteen thousand and sixty-five thousand pounds of bird feed,” he answered.
The birds crowed and chirped what I believed would be equivalent to giving “oohs” and “aahs”. Some whistled high while others eyed the watch with a sort of hunger.
“Kwakaru says Sean was paid to keep quiet about the money, and that he is an honorable man for how well he treated birds of Kwakaru’s faction. He’s also calling him off the stand, considering his testimony can no longer be trusted by contract,” Neelu said.
Boss looked at me with concerned eyes, nodding at me reassuringly. This was his plan. Save me and take the blame for himself.
“Scraw, I see no reason to continue this trial. I move to begin Kwakaru’s trial immediately. Please leave the stand, Sean,” Judge Polly said, a degree of respect having been included in his voice.
I shot up quickly and made my way over to Danuel, eager to leave the spotlight as fast as possible. Once I made it to him, I leaned in to talk to him while they set up for the new session.
“I don’t understand, Kwa—Boss used to be the leader?” I asked.
“That’s right,” Danuel nodded. “He was voted out about a week ago and didn’t take it well. He created his own faction to try and usurp the new leader,” he said, gesturing to Scar on the throne above.
“And that—that’s why he was sentenced to death?” I asked, my voice speeding up. I had come to the realization that it was likely that Boss would be set to be executed very soon.
“Exactly. He narrowly avoided death and made his way to a very capable caretaker, it seems,” Danuel said.
“Who?” I asked.
“You, Sean. You saved his life multiple times over, and he’s repaying the favor. He has taken your place on the stand and left you with a small sum of money after his death,” Danuel answered.
“Repaying…” I looked up to Boss in a new light. He was looking out for me. He’d clearly had a chance to escape and leave this place when the pigeons broke him out of containment, but he came back for me. To die for me.
“... and how does the defendant plead scraw?” Judge Polly asked, shaking me from my thoughts. It seems they were already underway.
“Kwakaru says he’s guilty of all charges,” Neelu relayed.
“Scraw,” Judge Polly said in a somber tone. “Then he shall be executed immediately. No second chances this time. Bring out the mechanism.”
My heart hammered madly in my chest, and I squeezed Danuel's shoulder tightly.
“He's—they're bringing out something to kill Boss?” I asked.
“Yes,” he nodded with sympathy.
“And—and I can't—” I gasped, willing my panic attack down, “What can— can be done?” I asked.
“Well, nothing short of taking his place yourself, I'm afraid. There's nothing we can do,” he shrugged his massive shoulders.
“And the—the mechanism they're talking about?” I asked.
“Some new thing. The last device they used was an airsoft gun, but it misfired and Kwakaru was able to flee in the commotion.”
It hit me then that I could very well take Boss's place and live. They were using devices meant to kill small birds. I could withstand whatever punishment they doled out, and then we might be able to leave with our lives intact and a bruise on my face or something. My teeth began to chatter as I thought through whether it was a worthwhile decision. The birds in the room had begun to chant rhythmically in their tweets, exciting the birds that had left the room to grab the execution device.
“And how would I take his place?” I asked, looking past Danuel now.
“How would you... you can't be serious,” Danuel said, flabbergasted.
I breathed in deep. My heart came to a slowdown. The shaking in my body was under my control. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt what I wanted to do. This bird had taken me out of my isolation and given me something wholly new. Friendship. And something to work toward. I had never been as determined in my life as I had since I met Boss. Whether it was healing his wing or testifying in court for him, he brought my life a new standard. Anxious as I might be, I had a new bar for my limits. And it was miles higher than it was before.
“I want to take his place!!” I screamed, making my way forward. Most birds paid me no mind, but Judge Polly and Scar heard me. Scar's beak dropped open.
“Scraw, say again?” Judge Polly said, amusement in his eyes.
“I want to take the place of Boss for the execution. Let him go and give me the punishment for his crimes,” I insisted.
Boss turned around in shock and tried to scream in protest, but his voice was still at a faint whisper.
“He says it's out of the question,” Neelu said, also surprised by my outburst.
“I'm not leaving,” I declared, stepping between Neelu and Judge Polly so Boss couldn't speak on equal grounds as me. He flew up to my shoulder. The chanting in the room was quieting down. A group of crows was rolling out a veiled item. The execution weapon, I was sure.
“Scraw, this is an unprecedented proposition. While we’ve replaced executions on rare occasions before it was usually an elderly bird taking the place of his child. Not a human for a bird. I will defer to our leader on this matter,” Judge Polly said. Boss looked up to Scar with malice.
“Think about it Scar,” I said with a cool voice, “you could either kill him or leave him to live with the death of a human. Something he'd be marked with for the rest of his life!”
Scar perked up at the proposition and Boss pecked me hard on the cheek. He flapped his wings in angry protest, clearly wanting me to stop talking.
“Scraw, did you call our leader Scar? His name is—”
“I'm only curious to hear the answer,” I said. My stomach flared, uncertain what to do with my anxiety now that I had a newfound confidence. I wasn't sure how long I would last like this.
“Scraw how dare you speak to me in—”
Scar tweeted a command, then a few more chirps. A group of crows flew off the stand and tackled Boss off my shoulder to sit on the sidelines. He tried to protest, but even the faction of pigeons on his side held him back. The execution was determined for me.
“This is your last chance to turn back,” Neelu said, gesturing to the veiled weapon. I looked at it and relished at the fact that I hadn’t stuttered the whole of the time I stood at the center of attention this time. It made me more certain that it was the right thing.
“I'm not turning away,” I said confidently. Neelu nodded and flew off into the crowd, leaving me along in front of the mysterious weapon. I caught Danuel's eye. While there was a hint of respect, he looked like he was watching a man who'd lost his sanity. Maybe he was. The crows standing atop it took a cue from the one-eyed crow and pulled off the veil from the execution weapon.
A hunting rifle.
My plan had hinged solely on the fact that the punishment was intended for a sparrow. I hadn't considered that I would actually be in the face of mortal danger. Yet somehow, I was still fine where I sat. I felt no difference in emotion, nor did my heart even so much as skip a beat. I simply breathed out slowly as the chanting came to a halt and the one-eyed crow snuck its head under the trigger.
I was going to die.
It crowed, signaling that it was going to fire. I breathed in. I turned to Boss, who was still struggling behind an entourage of birds holding him back to do nothing but watch. I smiled at him.
I was ready to die for my only friend.
The crow cawed and fired the gun.
It was the strangest sensation, that of accepting the means of death that had entered my chest. I was blown back and landed supine, coughing up a small wad of blood. The birds screamed and crowed racing around the room cheering and jeering at me. To add insult to injury, I felt feathers and bird droppings land on my dying body. I groaned in agony, my bravado blown out by the gunshot wound. A small bird landed on my chest.
“Boss?” I asked, my vision blurry. It tapped a talon gently on me, comforting me. It was him. I smiled. He hopped back and forth, waving his wings at incoming birds. He was protecting me from any others landing on or taunting me.
“Sorry I took your place, but I’m glad it was me and not you,” I said. He softly tweeted a response, coming closer to my face and placing a wing on my cheek. His head remained looking upwards at incoming birds. At least I thought that's where it was pointed. My vision began to cloud further. A black void circling in from the outside.
“Thank you,” I said to him, the only thing I could think to utter in my last moments. He tweeted back as he began to stroke my cheek with his wing. The same wing I'd healed. The one that had brought us together was between us when we departed. I let out a final breath.
“Scraw, Danuel please dispose of the body.”
* * *
I awoke in a bed in a white room, my head and chest throbbing madly. I heard a beeping in the corner next to me. My neck shot up to see I was in a hospital gown. The beeping began increasing in speed.
“You’re awake!” Danuel's voice came from next to me, pleasantly surprised.
“I’m alive!” I said, more surprised than he was. There was a tapping at the window outside. "What happened?" I asked, turning. Outside the window was Boss, pecking at the glass. I tried to wave, then winced.
“The birds assumed you were dead when you passed out from shock. Instead of disposing of the body like I was asked, I brought you to a hospital. They saved your life. You’ve been here for days,” he said.
“You... thank you, Danuel. I don't know how to repay you. Oh, wait,” I said, then felt around my gown to find the Rolex.
“Your watch is still in your pocket where you left it,” he said, raising a massive hand to point to the small table next to my bed. “And I won't take it as payment. All I ask is that you don't get mad at me when you hear that I very recently told the hospital that you are a homeless person.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Oookay,” a nurse said, walking in and looking nervously between Danuel and myself. “Good to see you’re awake, but since you lack insurance, I’ve been asked to escort you off the premises.”
I blinked at her, then looked to Danuel who shrugged.
When we made it outside, Boss landed on my shoulder and began tweeting up a storm berating me. I placed a finger on his head and pet him. My apparel was still covered in bird excrement, feathers, and dirt. I had the Rolex on my wrist, the only thing of value I still owned.
“Good to see you too, Boss,” I said. Danuel looked at us with curiosity.
“What will you do now, Sean? You have complete freedom now.”
“I think I'm gonna go to the park and feed the pigeons,” I said, looking at Boss. He nodded with approval, then began nibbling under his wing.
“Okay, that sounds like a nice morning. I meant after that. How do you intend to restart your life?” Danuel asked.
“There is no ‘after that.’ I’m gonna go to the park and feed birds. At least until I run out of the food in my pocket,” I shrugged.
“You can't be—Sean, that’s not a plan, that’s an afternoon activity. You need a plan. It’ll only be a matter of time before other birds find you and sound the alarm that you're still alive. What will you do to prevent that?” he asked.
It was a good question, one that would have filled me with heavy anxiety less than a week ago, but now I felt like I was in complete control of my life. Other than my aching chest, I felt that I was in my prime. I didn’t need a plan. I didn’t need a shelter. I looked out to the world ahead of me.
“I’ve dealt with them before, what's another run-in with the birds?” I asked, walking toward the park. Danuel tried to protest, but he was too slow to keep up with my excited gait. Boss tweeted a farewell behind him. I marched towards my future as a homeless man with a Rolex who feeds birds.
I felt a new enthusiasm for the unknown that came with it because I finally had a quality I'd searched for my entire life thanks to the wonderful bird perched on my shoulder.
I was confident.
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