The Blackbird (standard:mystery, 1253 words)
Author: hvysmker	Added: Jun 12 2004	Views/Reads: 3799/2325	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
An Unexpected Visiter

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kitchen and made a plate of some rice grains, a few three year old 
sunflower seeds, some raw hamburger, and a bottle cap full of water.  I 
had no idea what they ate.  I left the plate on a table in my living 
room.  If it were hungry, it would find it. 

Returning to my chair, I put my foot up and picked up the book again.  I
tried to read, but my eyes kept going back to the little intruder, who 
stared back at me, with a somber expression.  Finally, I gave up and we 
stared at each other, checking over each nuance of the other, in silent 
contemplation. 

On my part, I was trying to keep thoughts of Laurie from inserting
themselves into my thinking.  She had been occupying my mind all day.  
It was time I switched to the little somber creature in front of me.  
Both were products of God's munificence, and both equally unattainable. 


I sat in thought, contemplating many things, my mind drowning in the
deep violet eyes of the little fowl.  Did it have lost loves, loves 
that flew away when dictated by the vagrant winds of chance? 

Did the little alabaster flyer also curse fate for it's inextricable
convolutions, the contortions of logic that came from the unexpected 
culminations of expected pleasures?  Pleasures that flew away, along 
with errant dreams?  Were we kindred spirits in the games and 
intricacies of life? 

The blackbird opened it's beak, and I sat waiting.  Waiting for life to
be explained, for words of such wisdom that I could be insured entrance 
to the Pearly Gates.  Lamplight gleaming off it's cloak of deepest 
darkness, it finally croaked, 

“Nemoor” My head sank back to the chair cushion.  I hadn't realized how
tense I had become. 

A thought came to me.  Was this visitor sent by God, to give me surcease
from the anguish of losing my Laurie?  Was it an omen, an omen of 
relief, come to tell me to forget my Laurie, a sign from on high?  Or, 
maybe just a figment of my imagination.  Was I sleeping even now, in 
the deep cushions of my favorite chair?  Would I wake to see no 
blackbird, not even a stray feather? 

“Are you a Prophet, or a Devil.  A thing of Hope, or of inestimable
evil?  A temptress or an Angel?  Please tell me, I implore you?”  The 
bird said nothing, it's eyes drilling into my own. 

“Tell me, are you a sign of danger, a danger to me, or to Laurie, my
love?”  The bird told me only, 

“Nemoor” 

“Is that all you have to say, you bastard, get the hell out of my house.
 You hear me, I mean right now.”  I angrily opened the window wide, 
jerking the curtains off the wall, to fall in a heap. 

“Get the hell out of here I yelled,” running at the damn thing.  It just
sat looking at me, with unblinking eyes, and said calmly, 

“Nemoor” 

Somehow, I was afraid to get too close to it, as though it were really a
Demon, I was also aware of how stupid I was acting, and soon sat down, 
a breeze ruffling my hair, but not affecting the blackbird in the 
slightest.  It still sat calmly studying me, in silence. 

Now we still sit, hours later.  Him above and me below, staring into
each other's eyes, both deep in contemplation, as the sunlight streams 
through the open window, casting his shadow on the floor.  My soul lies 
in that shadow, to float in heaven, with my Laurie, Nevermore.


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