by P. S. Wright
A Rain of Birds
A Short Story (by Granny Which Witch and plagiarized shamelessly)
by PS Wright
Copyright 2012 PS Wright
A Rain of Birds
Augustus Deforest liked to walk alone down by the creek. He should never have ought to do that. But Augustus was a strange boy who had strange ways. Sometimes the other kids in town made fun of Augustus. Sometimes the others kids made him so angry, he did other things he ought not. So Augustus Deforest walked alone.
May Beeline liked to wander along the country lanes by herself too. May had been warned that little girls wandering alone tended to get into troubles like being eaten by wolves and poisoned by witches. But May Beeline did not worry her little head about such concerns. She wandered along picking flowers and talking to herself as if she was the only one in the world.
Augustus had noticed May before. Mostly he ignored her and she paid him no more mind than she did any other. But today, Augustus Deforest noticed something more. Today May Beeline was walking right toward him. He had come all around the slippery rocks and right up to the mossy oak where the best cat fishing was to be had. He liked to lay on his belly and dangle a line in the creek and was just as happy when he did not get a bite as when he did. But cat fishing was best done alone on the banks with just the crickets and frogs for company. May Beeline's meanderings had led her right to the path that led to Augustus' favorite laying down rock. She was holding an umbrella and watching the sky intently. Augustus looked up into the bright morning sunlight. There was not a cloud in the sky. "You there, girl, why are you got that there umbrella?" he hollered.
May Beeline looked at him for the first time. "It's gonna rain, of course."
Augustus looked at the sky again, just in case he'd missed one little cloud the first time. But there was naught to see. "Listen girl, there aint a cloud up there. Somebody done lied to you."
May Beeline was used to people not understanding. She said, "I knew you wouldn't believe me. But it is gonna rain. I seen it."
Augustus was not sure if maybe the girl was not a bit touched. "Where'd you see it?"
May touched her temple with one finger. "Same as I see everything."
"Well, I got to get to fishing. You go on now." Augustus figured girls were always going on about pretending and this was probably just more of that.
"I'll not be going along." May looked up into the sky once more and held out her hand in expectation of the first drops. Seeming satisfied with something, May nodded smartly. "If you're wanting the old man what is sitting in that shallows, you best use the bit of baloney on your hook. He don't like the cheese none."
Augustus was annoyed for two reasons. In the first place, he had planned to use the baloney anyway, not being partial to cheese. So now he had to use the cheese, or the girl would think it was her idea but then he might not get the old fella. The second reason we felt annoyed was a bit stranger. "Eh, how did you know that old grey beard was in this shallow and I was gigging for him?"
May sat down on a large flat rock near his and arranged her skirt to cover her knees. Her bare feet were as dirty as the yard of a chicken coop. She set to washing them off in the creek. "Oh, the old man's been coming to the shallows here to feed for years. Sometimes I bring him a bit of something."
Augustus rolled his eyes. So like a girl to waste food on something that ought to be food. "Now you're chasing him off. Aint no fish gonna come swimming in your dirty foot water, especially whiles you're splashing around."
"He never minded before." May seemed unperturbed. "Gonna rain. You got your shoes on and no galoshes."
"It aint neither. Aint a cloud in the sky. You're plum crazy." Augustus purposely sat with his back to her and baited his hook with a bit of baloney. Careful to hide the hook from the smarty-pants girl, he cast it out into the larger creek. Maybe grey beard would come for his usual feed and see the bait before he noticed how the girl had mucked up his shallows. At least she wasn't one of those lip slappers that couldn't keep it buttoned up. They sat for good long pace with nothing but the crickets and bugs making a noise while the water slurped and smacked amongst the rocks until both kids pricked up their ears at a distant rumble.
"See? That's thunder. Any minute now, the rain's coming." May nodded once, certainly.
"It aint no such thing. That's the quarry upriver. They're dynamiting is all. It's gonna scare the fish. Wish them northerners would pack it up and head back the way they come." Just then, Augustus' line jerked. Augustus struggled to keep the fish on his hook. He didn't have one of those fancy rod and reel gigs you seen in the stores. Augustus had learned a trick of tying a willow switch to a hickory stick to get the right combination of flex and heave. He played the stick back and forth and up and down, the willow twitching and bobbing with his every movement. "Oh that grey beard, he's a wily one. He's trying to get himself loose."
"Best to let him then." said May.
"You crazy girl? I'm bringing this baby home for supper. Me and ma will eat good. You go on and get out of here. Can't you see I'm busy?" Augustus pulled mightily on the hickory stick, dragging the mighty catfish toward the bank. But the old man had been in these waters longer than the boy had been out of his mother's arms. It flipped and dived, taking the hook with it. Suddenly the line went slack in Augustus' hands, but he knew it was a trick. He ran along the rock to get a better angle and pulled it tight again. The cat was trying to cut the line on the sharp rocks. Augustus tried to drag the fish out from under the rock shelf. But he was standing on the wrong side of that argument. When the line was so taught it was singing, Augustus dug in his heels and pulled with all his might. The line snapped. The willow switch sprang back, catching Augustus across the face and splitting his lip. Augustus dropped the rod with a howl.
"Told you." May said.
"Daggit, I done lost my hook. I aint got too many of them." Augustus recovered his rod from the shallows before it could soak up too much water. He twisted a new hook loose from the bib of his overalls where he'd had three of them lined up this morning. He tied it onto what was left of his line and cast it out into the river, all the while casting evil glances at May.
No sooner did the hook and bait land with a plop, than the sky filled up with a boom so powerful, the trees shook and leaves fluttered loose from their branches. Augustus dropped his pole, but got it back before it could drift off on the river. "What in tarnation was that?" He looked over the way toward the quarry where the Army Corps was dredging up heaven only knew what for their latest building project.
"Oh that's the dam going I suspect. We probably ought to make sure we're holding on to something."
Augustus screwed up his face at the foolish girl. "The quarry's near half mile from the dam and it aint even on this here part of the river. That was dynamite all right though. Bet they done blew up something and made a right mess of it. Gran's been saying as how the Army's always messing up things that other folks have got to come behind and put right again. Always telling us how we ought to move for our own good and this road or that aint built right and taking away people's homes and farms to put up something or other aint nobody need in the first place. It's a mess alright. Bet you they done blew something up that wasn't suppose to be."
May smiled and nodded as she rose, careful to keep the hem of her dress from the water. "I'm just gonna back up a pace. You ought to take your line out of the river."
"I aint no such thing. I'm catching that old man cat today. If I don't, I'm getting two. I plan to have fried catfish for dinner, and that's that. You can just go on home, if you're scared."
May backed up from the river's edge and tucked her umbrella into a rope she had secured around her waist. "You'll have all the catfish you can eat in a fl
ash."
Augustus ignored the girl and baited the hook one more time. He didn't want to use all the baloney, but that wily old grey beard wouldn't be caught on some moldy old cheese. Augustus tossed the line out into the calm water. The whole river had gone sort of flat. "Aint never seen it so glassy on a summer day." He muttered just loud enough for the girl to hear.
May had wrapped her arms around a big old elm. "Yep, like the hard calm right before a tornado."
Augustus shook himself all over. "You aint gonna spook me." But the water was draining away, all slow and yet all at once, like someone had just pulled the plug on the bathtub down at the end toward the quarry.
"Just like the Red Sea." May said, just as he
