Okay, so if any of you stepped foot outside of your lovely homes today (or even looked out the window), you know what the weather was like. I left my home for my 7:00 am class, backpack and breakfast green smoothie in hand like a good little college student, and the weather was lovely! It was a nice cool 80ish degrees with a few grey-ish clouds in the sky and a slight breeze...beautiful day, right? Well about two and a half hours later when our lab ended and class was dismissed I packed up my things, headed for the exit, opened the door and...
HOLY WIND TUNNEL!!!
It was like the heavens had turned on an industrial fan and aimed it right onto Chandler Arizona! So the whole day went on like this and did not subside... in fact it seemed to gain strength and speed as the day went on. It was so bad that by the time I reached my car to go pick up my little brother Travis from school I had to take a couple of puffs of my inhaler from all the dust in the air... and I never need to use my inhaler when it isn't exercise related!
Anyhow, I pick up Travis, he hops into the car, we drive home. I pull into the driveway and he's talking to me about his little crush and how mad he is that a jerk was giving her a hard time in their history class (my little brother is a gem ladies, seriously such a catch!). Suddenly I notice something blocking the path to the doorway... I couldn't quite tell if it was a piece of debris blown over by the wind of some kind of dead creature... I mean, it looked too mangled and nasty to be a creature, but I couldn't think of what kind of plant or garbage would take that shape and form either... either way I was too afraid to check. I stepped out of my car and opened up the door to the backseat to grab my backpack and while I was doing so I told Travis to go check and see whether the unidentified object was a creature or debris. He goes. He inspects. He reports. "It's a dead bird!" he shouts. Aw drat! I think, but before I can respond I hear a frantic, "Wait...! WAIT, it's NOT DEAD!"
"It's not...what?!?" I replied. There was no way it couldn't be dead, NO WAY! That poor little birdy body was way too mangled and contorted with its head bent backwards and its legs curled up in the air to not. be. dead. But sure enough, Travis is leaping over plants and running back to my car, and by this time I have shamelessly screamed and leaped into the backseat... Travis follows suit, and we both peek over the drivers' seat at the little dead "not dead" bird.
"Are you sure it's not dead? Just look at it!"
"Jadyn, I'm SURE! It was breathing! It's heart was beating!"
"*dialing our mother's cell phone number* I know, but it's really windy outside; maybe the wind just-OOOHMYGOSH!!!"
You know in those zombie movies when the zombie looks dead, and then at the last minute the zombie's hand lunges forward and tries to grab the hero? Well, Travis and I had called my mom up to ask her to open the garage door for us (so we wouldn't have to walk up to the front door and confront the birdy carnage... see our logic?). However, just about the time my mother answers the phone, this bird's little leg shoots up like a zombie's arm and starts grabbing at the air and my mother is greeted by Travis and I on the other line...
So my poor mother had to discern out of the screams our frantic message of, "FORTHELOVEOFALLTHATISGOODOPENTHEGARAGEDOOR!!!" And she did, and we scrambled inside like two pitiful fools and told her all about the terrible creature existing outside of the front door (because really, at this point who knows if it's dead of alive). She shudders and tells us that there is NO WAY that she is going out there to take care of it... she doesn't do dead things, our dad would have to take care of it when he got home. Travis and I pleaded with her to at least go look at it, but she refused.
Well, some time had passed, I'd folded some laundry, had a small lunch, and was ready to go pick up my twin brothers from school. As I pass the living room I see my mom peeking out of the front window at the birdy in the walkway. "Jadyn... this is the worst kind of dead bird!" she tells me. "Oh really?" I say grabbing my keys. There is no way that anything she said could make me have pity on that nasty little creature out there. As I'm slinging my purse over my shoulder she says, "Yes! It's a baby bird!"
I stop dead in my tracks, "...w-what did you say?" She nods matter of factly, "Yes ma'am, a little baby bird that was blown out of its nest by the wind." I couldn't help it... the lower lip began to quiver. "Oh no!" cried my mom, "Come look, it's trying to save itself!" I ran over to the window to look at the little bird. Sure enough, the little guy had begun flapping its wings and kicking its legs in a last furious attempt to live. It was too young to even lift its head up (either that, or its neck had been broken in the fall), and all it was accomplishing was scooting in little circles around out walkway. In a sudden turn of events the demon zombie bird had turned into helpless broken baby bird...
"Mom" I say melodramatically, "I can't go out there! I can't face the baby bird!"
"You have to!" she cries, "what about MY baby birds? You have to pick them up from Junior High!!!"
I agree that Junior High is much scarier than any old driveway, and that there is nothing to be done... I must brave the bird. Like any brave hero I puff out my chest, stick out my chin, open up the garage door, and march out into the windy mess. I was going to brave my fears. I was going to walk past the broken bird with a heart of stone, and I was going to pick up my little brothers and save the day! What I didn't count on was seeing mommy bird swoop down to help her little baby. As soon as I left the confines of my garage I couldn't help myself but to look over and, sure enough, there is mama bird chirping to her little one (who has worn himself out in his feeble attempts to fly) and hopping around him trying to figure out what she can do for him. All at once my tough-guy persona crumbled into a bag of feels.
I tried to keep it cool, I really did. I listened to Trey tell stories about his substitute teacher being a black rights activist who knew Martin Luther King Jr. and had dealt with members of the Klu Klux Klan. I listened to Grant tell his stories too and I was engaged with them in their conversations... but after about ten minutes I couldn't bear it any longer, I HAD to warn them about what we would find when we pulled into the driveway at home. I told them all about how scared Travis and I initially were, but that the bird turned out only to be a baby, and how its mom had flown down to help it, and how sad it was, and when I had finished the story all I was met with were crickets and the most unimpressed faces I had ever beheld. "You mean to tell us..." they said, "that you've been screaming and crying and wouldn't even use the front door... because of a baby bird?!?" They just didn't understand! I tried to explain to them, but when we pulled into the driveway and I showed them the bird myself I realized that it has passed on while I was picking them up. I had a tiny moment of silence for the sad little creature but my brothers were just like, "Really Jadyn?"
All I could do was look at them and..
And THAT my dear readers is the story of how a little baby bird became my undoing.
Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to re-write my honors speaker analysis.
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