Flight of the Sparrows

by Annie Jones

  “Don’t push me. I’m goin’ as fast as I can, but I can’t see the stairs.” Dud’s voice set off a new round of noise, this time the softer, more humanlike vocalizations of the blue Amazons. “I asked you to take that newspaper out of the window, Charlene.”

  “I couldn’t reach it, Dud. Just be careful. We don’t want to upset the Amazons any more than we—”

  “Hello, Charlene” was all Artie said when the small, dark-haired woman stepped into the well-lit foyer, where he, Kate, and Bonnie were waiting.

  “Oh my...” Charlene looked as though she might suddenly be sick.

  “What?” Dud reached the bottom of the stairs holding a large cage by the top handle. “Now, Artie, this isn’t what you think.” Dud held out his free hand as if to calm a frightened animal.

  “I think you’re tryin’ to steal my birds,” Artie said through clenched teeth.

  “Your birds?” Charlene stepped forward and confronted Artie practically nose to nose. “These aren’t your birds. These are birds you ended up with by default.”

  Sensing Charlene would handily fill in the blanks of the rest of the story, if only given the chance, Kate put herself between Charlene and Artie. “Were you the previous owners of the birds?”

  “No.” Dud came forward and held the caged birds out to Artie. “They weren’t ever ours, and they ain’t ours now.”

  “What are you doin’, Dud?” Charlene’s voice was strained. Her face was red. She looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

  “It’s over, Charlene. We never shoulda tried this, never shoulda convinced ourselves it was the right thing to do.”

  “The right thing to do?” Artie jerked his head up from looking over his birds. “How could y’all possibly think this was the right thing to do? To take somethin’ that don’t belong to you? To act like you were my friends just so you could—”

  “We did it for Joanie,” Charlene said in a voice firm but soft.

  Artie’s face went pale. He set the bird cage on the floor beside his feet. “Joanie asked you to do all this?”

  “She don’t know, Artie, I swear it.” Dud put his hand on Charlene’s shoulder and stood behind her. “Neither does Cassie. We came up with the idea all on our own.”

  “Cassie?” Kate thought of the young woman hosting Sparrowpalooza Weekend as a fund-raiser for Joanie’s Ark. She had mentioned that they had expected the proceeds from the event to keep their doors open only for a couple more months. “So you two thought that since the birds had originally come to Joanie’s Ark, you would get them back, sell them, and donate the money?”

  It made sense now, why they hadn’t touched the money in Artie’s donation box. They weren’t crooks, at least to their convoluted way of thinking.

  “You know Joanie?” Artie hadn’t moved past that point.

  “She works for us,” Charlene admitted as she hung her head. She tucked her hair back behind her ear and looked at her hands, taking a moment to flick a few flecks of polish off her fingernails. “We aren’t birders or outdoorsy types, but we do know about handling birds. We own a pet shop, and we always have a few in the store.” She held up her hands, showcasing the beak-shaped scars as evidence.

  “In Pine Ridge?” Artie’s whole face lit up.

  “In Atlanta,” Dud said.

  “Georgia.” Kate tapped her finger to her temple. “That’s where your accent is from. My daughter lives in Georgia, so I knew I’d heard that accent before.”

  Artie looked at the couple, obviously still in shock. “Y’all know Joanie? My Joanie?”

  “And she told us about Artie,” Charlene affirmed. “Her Artie.”

  “Yeah,” Dud said. “She was the one who told us she sometimes sees your name pop up on the message boards for parrot owners.”

  “She was in the same online community as me? Why didn’t she...? I must’ve come off soundin’ pretty bad to you folks.” Artie looked at his feet, then peered up at Charlene to catch her reaction. “Since you wanted to do this to me.”

  “I think you must have come off sounding pretty sweet,” Kate observed, placing a hand on Artie’s arm. “Since they thought they could do this to you.”

  “A little of both.” Charlene took Dud’s hand, then looked back at him. With the parlor full of Artie’s awards and recognitions as a backdrop, her eyes filled with tears, and she sniffled. “Joanie lost you, along with everything else that mattered to her. It seemed so wrong that she’d lose Joanie’s Ark too. And there you are, this man who has everything, with these birds that had originally been brought to Joanie’s Ark. We just thought we could help her.”

  “Me? You think I got everything?” Artie asked softly. “Without Joanie, I got nothin’.”

  Charlene seemed at a loss for words. “We’re so sorry,” she said.

  “Very sorry,” Dud echoed.

  Charlene sniffed, and a large tear slid down her cheek. “I don’t know if it matters, but I feel like I have to tell you that I came up with this scheme myself. I convinced myself that a man who had an understanding with Joanie for all those years and then didn’t honor it and let her go, well, how much could he care about a pair of birds?” Tears were now streaming down Charlene’s face. “And then it got out of control. We had to set you up so Kate and Bonnie would be focused on you and not wondering about us. We set that trap to incriminate you, and we even went so far as to smear some of the oil from the seeds on a book in the library. We were so concerned with saving Joanie’s Ark that we forgot to be reasonable.”

  Kate’s heart went out to Charlene. But she knew this was between Artie and the Howells, so she stepped back and didn’t intrude.

  Charlene looked at Artie and, in a strangled voice, whispered, “We told ourselves it wouldn’t matter to you, that you didn’t care about anything or anyone. After spending time with you, I can see how wrong we were.”

  “Thank you,” Artie murmured, his head bowed. He held his peace for a moment and then raised his head and cleared his throat. “I’ll talk to Cassie and offer to give tours of the place for her Sparrowpalooza deal. If we pool our resources, Joanie’s Ark and Best Acres, I think we can keep the shelter goin’.”

  “What about Charlene and Dud?” Bonnie asked.

  Artie eyed the couple. His expression turned gruff, but he couldn’t quite maintain it.

  Charlene’s tears and Dud’s obvious contrition seemed to have truly affected him.

  Finally Artie sighed and turned to Bonnie. “You’re the one hurt by their shenanigans, Mrs. Mulgrew. You want to call in the law?”

  Charlene reached out a hand to Bonnie. “Please believe me, Bonnie, we never intended for anyone to get hurt, least of all you. You were nothing but kind to us. We were out getting ready to set more traps, when we heard you calling for help. We started looking for you immediately, and when Kate and Paul told us you’d been hurt, I thought I’d never forgive myself! We took down the rest of the traps, but words can’t express the regret we feel.”

  Bonnie limped to Kate’s side and took a moment to study the pair. Then, in much the way she would have done as a teacher, she folded her hands on the top of her cane and turned the problem over to the ones who were responsible, to see for herself what they had learned from it. “Charlene, Dud, what do y’all think I should do?”

  “We were wrong, and we are so sorry,” Dud said simply. “We made a poor decision to start with and then kept heapin’ on more and more bad decisions because we really thought the end justified the means.”

  “You’re hardly the first person in the world to do that,” Bonnie said empathetically. Then she added with a smile, “Life and literature are full of examples of it.”

  “We wanted to believe we were in the right. You got hurt, and we’re at fault. We’ll pay your bills, and make sure we reimburse the library for that book, too. But we wouldn’t blame you one bit if you turned us in,” Dud said.

  Charlene jumped in. “Sorry doesn’t begin to cover it. I’m sorry for the lie
s and the traps and your injury and not speaking up sooner.” She wiped the tears from beneath her eyes and held her head high. “I’m ready to take my medicine. Do what you will with me. It was a wild idea, a bad one, but it was mostly mine.”

  “No, Charlene, baby. I was right here beside you every step of the way.” Dud gave her shoulders a squeeze.

  “I just felt so helpless when I knew what had happened to Joanie that I pushed you into it,” she said, looking up at him. Then she turned to Bonnie. “That’s not making an excuse; it’s just my way of saying I should be the one you report to the police.”

  “Apology accepted.” Bonnie reached out and took Charlene by the hand. “I’m not going to report anyone to the police.”

  “Thank you so much. You have all been so kind, especially when we were so foolish.” Charlene asked, her voice thinned by emotion, “Now what?”

  “Now,” Kate mulled it over a moment, “there’s still a lot of work to do. I think if we all work together, we can give this story a happy ending.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Look at your bird journal now!” Kate settled down beside Bonnie on the dropped-down tailgate of Artie’s truck.

  Artie, Charlene, and Dud had taken the van to make a trip into town to talk to Cassie at Joanie’s Ark. They had hatched a plan while Kate had called Livvy to catch her up on the goings-on.

  Artie would donate enough money to Joanie’s Ark to cover any extra costs incurred by taking in Dot’s strays. He’d also donate his time and expertise to the weekend event and share any donations he took in over the weekend with the animal-rescue organization.

  Dud and Charlene would do some work toward raising awareness about the plight of exotic birds—and they’d tell Joanie about Artie’s contributions to Joanie’s Ark. And somewhere along the line, Kate hoped that Artie would find the courage to contact Joanie Capshaw and tell her he had never stopped loving her.

  That left Kate and Bonnie with some time before dark to observe the birds. So Artie let them borrow his truck, because the birds would be comfortable in it, even if Bonnie and Kate weren’t.

  “I’ve seen a little bit of everything out here.” Bonnie took a deep breath and looked around her. “But I’ve probably missed a lot without my binoculars and field guide.”

  Kate leaned over and skimmed down the list. Though dusk was fast approaching, she could still make out the words in dark ink on the white paper. “No umber-throated mountain sparrow? I thought Artie said he’d seen two pairs around his property.”

  “He did. But they’re pretty hard to spot. Not to worry, though.” Bonnie shut the journal and tucked it in her shirt pocket. “Artie has invited me to come out first thing in the morning when he puts the seed out. It will be a regular bird-watcher paradise!”

  “So he’s going to keep up with the feeding schedule, then?” Kate jumped off the back of the truck, then held out her hand to help Bonnie down.

  “Yes. He thinks that’s the best thing to do. He’ll offer to bring groups into this field for an hour at a time.” She limped toward the passenger side, with Kate hovering close by.

  “I’m impressed. He really is capable of great thoughtfulness.” Kate looked around her. The birds had quieted some, but she could still see some of them flitting from tree to tree.

  “I just wanted you to know that I’m proud of you, dear,” Bonnie said.

  “Thank you.” Kate helped her former teacher into the truck, then moved around to the driver’s side, took a deep breath of crisp country autumn air, and climbed in.

  “HEY, PAUL! HOW’S YOUR SCHEDULE look for one more flight this afternoon?” Lucas Gregory asked over the phone on Thursday morning.

  “You need another test run?” Paul asked. “I thought you’d be setting up for paying passengers today.”

  “I have three flights slated already, as a matter of fact. But I just realized that I hadn’t done anything to thank you for being my...”

  “Guinea pig?” Paul suggested with a chuckle.

  “I was going to say test cargo,” Lucas joked. “But guinea pig works too. So, what do you say, you want to be the first one up to take the Sparrowpalooza Special?”

  “Do you need me to do this?” Paul had thoroughly enjoyed his time up in the small two-seater, but so many flights in a short span of days was enough for him.

  “No, just offering it as a way of saying thanks for your help the past week.”

  “Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it, but I think I’ll stay on the ground for now.”

  “Hope that little altitude adjustment didn’t sour you on the experience.”

  “No, not at all. In fact, there may come a time when I come to you for flying lessons.”

  “Excellent!”

  “Then again, I may decide to stick with just being a happy passenger,” Paul was quick to add. He didn’t want Lucas to get the wrong idea. “For now, I know that fuel doesn’t come cheap, and I don’t want to take away any time or profit from the folks at Joanie’s Ark. I hope you’ll ask me to come flying again sometime, but for now, I’ll let you focus on fund-raising for them.”

  Lucas promised to invite him again, and the two men said their good-byes.

  THOUGH KATE wouldn’t have minded if Paul went flying, she was glad to have him all to herself as Bonnie headed out for the opening events of the big weekend. By Friday their lives pretty much returned to normal, as the weekend centered in Pine Ridge, the countryside in general, and now, Best Acres. Bonnie reported that of all the speakers they heard on Friday, Artie showing his exotic birds was the biggest hit.

  The weather cooperated beautifully on Saturday for the big bird-watch, and by the end of the day, Cassie Capshaw reported they’d had just under two hundred participants and had raised more money than they ever dreamed they would. Of course, Artie’s contributions went a long way toward that.

  No one knew how things would go between Artie and Joanie, but Dud and Charlene headed back to Atlanta with a promise that they would put in a good word for him.

  SUNDAY, AFTER SERVICES, Paul and Kate stood outside Faith Briar with Bonnie. Her little yellow Volkswagen was loaded up for the trip back to Texas.

  “Well, I have to hand it to you, Kate.” Bonnie gave her former student a hug, then opened the door of her car. “I’ve learned more in the past week than I have in the months since I retired.”

  They were interrupted by Renee Lambert’s voice. Kate watched as Renee, with Kisses on his jeweled leash, made her way toward them.

  “Kate, I just wanted to make sure you were up to date,” Renee said, her cloud of Estée Lauder’s Youth-Dew enveloping all of them. “The bird-watching event was a huge success. It turned out that Artie Best was feeding the birds on his property all this time! And that’s why my Little Umpkins didn’t have anything to bark at that day.”

  Kate smiled. “I did hear about that, Renee. I’m so glad everything has worked out.”

  Renee sniffed. “So I guess there wasn’t much of a mystery after all. Well, except that Artie was being a tad dishonest by feeding all those birds, if you ask me. But all’s well that ends well.”

  Paul, Kate, and Bonnie agreed with her, and Renee turned and headed for her giant pink Oldsmobile.

  “You’re sure your ankle is strong enough to make the extended drive?” Paul asked as he stepped forward, ready to help in case Bonnie needed it.

  “I tramped up and down over the whole of Best Acres chasing those umbies, Paul. I even got a glimpse of one of the males when I went with Artie to feed them and stalked the little fellow through some heavy brush, hoping to spot his mate. I think I can sit and drive for a few hours just fine.” As if she needed to prove her point, she reached into the car, nabbed the rented cane, and stuck it out for him to take.

  “Yes, Mrs. Mulgrew.” Paul accepted the cane with a smile.

  “I’m just sorry nobody actually got a good picture of the umbies.” Kate put one hand on top of the car door.

  “It would have been remarkable if t
hey had.” Bonnie sighed. “Usually, good birding pictures are taken in a still setting, often after long hours of quiet and patient waiting.”

  “There really was a lot of activity out there on Saturday,” Paul observed.

  “Yes, it was fun, but not conducive to spotting traditionally hard-to-find birds.” Bonnie smiled, then put her hand on Paul’s shoulder. “That’s best done in God’s time, not by our own agenda.”

  Paul bowed his head to acknowledge the lesson of his sermon.

  “I have to say, your guidance and insight were so helpful during all this, Paul,” Bonnie went on to say. “You and Kate make a terrific team.”

  “Thank you,” they said together, smiling.

  “Wonderful examples that not all teaching takes place in the classroom,” she said. “I’m going to keep that in mind when I get back to Texas, especially if I ever start feeling like I’ve retired from life.”

  Kate gave Bonnie a big hug. “You do that. And don’t hesitate to come and visit again, anytime you want.”

  They sent her off, waving until her small yellow car disappeared from sight.

  “So, Katie, you’ve had a very busy week.” Paul put his arm around her and stole a kiss on the cheek. “You’ve solved a mystery, set in motion the means to rescue Joanie’s Ark by helping them get more funding. You’ve picked out a parrot pattern to do a window for Artie Best’s house, helped him rejoin the world and even encouraged him to make a phone call to speak to the love of his life again. What next?”

  “I don’t know.” She looped her arm around his waist and strolled up the walkway with the love of her own life. “I guess I’ll leave it with the Lord. He seems to find more work and learning opportunities for me in his own time.”

  Just as they reached the door of the church, a little brown bird with a rust-colored beard landed on the windowsill. And they both smiled.

  About the Author

  ANNIE JONES has been creating stories since she can remember and was first published a decade ago. Her books have won awards for Southern fiction and have been Alternate Selections for Literary Guild, Doubleday and Crossings book clubs. She lives with her husband and two children in rural Kentucky, where she is learning the ins and outs of country life.