White Bars

by David Dagley

  “Don’t confuse the lad,” said a crow from high in the branches of a bay tree.

  Both Juliet and Soren strained their necks to look up at the crow. The young myna bird and the crow made eye contact. Soren moved towards the pipe entrance but didn’t go inside.

  “What do we have here, a poetic lovebird and an enlightened pet shop stray?” said the crow as it hopped down the tree from branch to branch with a black disk tucked under one wing.

  “Don’t be frightened, Soren, it’s just one crow. Romeo told me that they’re not bad when they’re by themselves. It’s when there are a lot of them that they get nasty with a mob mentality,” assured Juliet.

  The crow laughed, then grabbed the disk in its beak and flew down near the young myna bird.

  Soren took a step backwards into the pipe entrance.

  The crow dropped the disk at Soren’s feet and did a pirouette. “So, how do you like my disguise?” asked Fife.

  “Fife!? What happened to your colors? You look like a crow,” exclaimed Soren.

  “Soren, I am now Reo the crow, but you can still call me Fife unless we are in the company of others that we don’t know.” Fife put one of his feet on the disk and opened it with his beak. The lid popped off. “Soren, we can’t fly around right now as myna birds. The pack rat is looking for us with his crows, so we might as well be a crow since they are flying in every direction out there. The pack rat is looking for two myna birds with a lovebird. If we get in trouble, we’ll just say Juliet is being escorted to the pack rat. We need a disguise until we can get away from the pack rat. The pack rat is afraid of us because we’re strong, wise, good-looking, and have a gift for gab.” Fife whistled, looked at Soren and continued, “I don’t know what else to do for now except blend in and make it difficult for them to spot us. We are the only two free myna birds within a day’s flight from here. I have searched everywhere, up and down the water’s edge, over the mountains and deep into the desert to the east and beyond. As I said before, I have a rough idea where we come from, and with your help we may find some more clues. If we are successful, then we return to our homes and help spread the word about some of life’s obstacles: egg stealers, nest robbers, traps, hunters, and more. I’ll tell you all I know when we are somewhere safe. For now, we need to hide. This is black shoe polish. You can usually find partially filled tins of this stuff behind shoe stores or cobbler shops. Humans put it on their shoes to make them darker, or to cover scuff marks. In your case, Soren, cover up everything orange on your body: your spindly legs, your beak, and lay it on thick on the orange band behind your eyes. Keep this stuff on. If it comes off, dark mud works until it dries and falls off. Also, some cars leak dark goo that, if you mix it with dirt, you can brush it on. But it stinks, it will make you sick if you swallow it, and it doesn’t come off very easily when you want it to. Keep an eye on your colors; it’s very important not to let those you meet know that you’re not from here. We have to blend for awhile. You have to trust me,” explained Fife.

  Soren did what he was told and began smearing black shoe polish on the orange parts of his body with his wing tip. While doing so, he looked at his new surroundings. Soren looked at the thick red bark surrounding the trunks of the redwood trees following it with his eyes as it stretched up in a gradual spiral. He could feel the fractured sunlight filtering down through the green leaves and dark limbs. He heard the creek as water fell down small waterfalls on its way downhill and out of sight into the darkness of the drain pipe. New shoots of ferns were uncurling through the dried redwood fronds and leaves on the ground. A car drove over a nearby road above the pipe making the ground below Soren’s feet tremble.

  “The park is only a short flight away from here,” interrupted Fife. “After what we’ve been through this morning, we should have no problems flying there. Here, you missed a couple of spots.” Fife took a swipe of polish and coated the back of Soren’s legs and head.

  “What a funny trio we make, two crows and a bright red lovebird,” Juliet pointed out.

  “What about Juliet? What disguise is she going to wear?” asked Soren.

  “There are many red birds around here; Red finches, red robins, cardinals on occasion, red tail hawks, and red roosters. She’ll be fine,” assured Fife. “Like I said before, if we get into any trouble, she’s our prisoner and we’re escorting her back to the pack rat. Everybody ready for takeoff? Soren, you were made to fly. It’s totally natural so don’t think about it, just do it.”

  VIII

  THE THREE BIRDS flew out from the edge of the creek, over a bridge and above some telephone lines. The wind lifted them higher and higher into the sky, towards the park where Romeo was supposed to be waiting.

  As the three birds flew over a small neighborhood of houses and streets, Soren recognized the differences between what he had heard of the outside world and what he was seeing firsthand. He expressed himself to Fife. “It’s strange. Being in my cage, I have only been able to imagine what it would be like out here. I’ve listened to cars rumble by and flash their lights in the window, humans talking and crying out, and dogs barking or bickering. Now, I’m flying and nothing before seems real. What I thought was out here is mostly wrong. Is it the sun, or is it all the new sights that make my eyes water and squint?”

  Fife squawked a loud laugh and responded, “You remind me of myself when I left the twins’ house and flew out the window and into the forest. I too felt the pain in my eyes. At that point, my immediate need, I think, was to eat. Once I figured out how to get food and had a full stomach, the questions began. I had no answers, and didn’t have a clue on where to begin. So I started flying around, looking for other birds that looked like I look, like us. The realization that I was really alone, one of a kind, was impossible for me to believe because of my early youth. I had seen so many myna birds as a baby at the brokers’ house. I knew it would take some time, but meanwhile I had a few disagreements with other birds, and that’s when I found out about my disguise. I saw some crows hanging around a dumpster. When they left, I went over to inspect what they were playing with and eating. I put my beak in the shoe polish tin, then wiped it off on my leg. My disguise allowed some animals to ignore me that wouldn’t have otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, Soren, I will always be in search of who I am, what I am, and my true home. The disguise just made it a little more tolerable for now. I’m waiting for the day when I can wash this stuff off completely and forever. As a crow, though, I’m able to ask questions of other birds and animals without being treated differently, put down, chased away, or hurt because the others are fearful and competitive. Once I started asking questions, the more I realized how much there was to learn that I was just beginning to understand. Questions came first, then answers came more slowly. I began to use questions as tools to trade, and enjoyed them while I had them. I would find the answers, then move on to other questions. For example, I remember a time not long ago, I was sitting on the top of an oak tree looking out over a plain of golden dry grass. I had eaten my evening meal, and was just sitting there thinking. I looked all around, especially down at the oak tree I was sitting in. I felt the hard prickly dark green leaves, the polished golden-brown acorns under their scale-like caps and the green-grey branches. I watched some ants follow in trails down the branches, leading down to even thicker branches below those. All the branches eventually came together around the trunk of the tree. The trunk ran under the dry, brittle brown leaves of last season, covering the oak tree leaves from the season before that. I knew that these leaves were dark and damp. Even deeper were decomposing leaves which eventually turned into dirt. That’s where the worms live. When it rains a lot, the worms seem to come up for air, or maybe it’s just so they don’t drown. But at the time I wasn’t interested in worms. I wondered what the rest of the tree looked like if, in fact, there was any more of the tree than what I could see. I knew that a great horned owl lived nearby because of all the fur balls at the base of the tree. In one bold, possibly not so smart mom
ent, I decided to stay and wait and question the owl when he made his evening rounds. I waited. As usual, a few minutes after the sun went down and the day turned into long shadows, bright stars appeared one by one and then two by two. Soon the sky was sprinkled with red, blue, yellow, and green sparkling stars. The moon shown like a doorway of light in the night. A red-tailed fox passed through the tall grass under a warm breeze. The wind whispered through the grasslands and made the oak tree branches sway and scratch softly. I waited in the lower branches, hidden from sight. I awoke to hear a rush of wind against wing. The air was electric. The owl glided into the oak tree and perched on a branch way up high above me. At first I was afraid to say anything, but my question in my mind continued to dare me. In a low voice, as soft as the night, I asked, ‘Owl, I have a question for you. If you have time, could you possibly give me an answer, if you know it?’ ‘I may not know the answer but I will try,’ said the owl. ‘Below the leaves, below what you can see of this great tree; what lies beneath?’ I questioned. The owl began, ‘Below the leaves, below this great tree, stands another tree, a tree of another world. A world of darkness, but not of evil. The tree below has white limbs and fingerlings for leaves. Instead of feeling the wind and the warmth of the sun, the tree below grips the earth and searches for water. The tree’s bark is thin and soft underground. At the tips, it bares flesh. The branches are much the same but reach out for a different purpose: above ground for the sunlight and below ground for water. The two trees live together and die together as one.’ ‘I understand,’ I said. ‘May I ask another question?’ ‘If you have time,’ replied the owl. ‘My question is; ‘Why are there trees, and why do they live in two worlds?’ The owl said, ‘In truth, it’s really one big world with many different environments.’ Then he added, ‘You have many questions, and the most important question you must ask yourself and others is, why. The questions you pose are of today while your answers are of another time; of which I do not know, and I don’t know why.’ At that point, Soren, I realized, it was okay to have questions and not be able to answer them all. I began to enjoy the questions and the answers more after that,” concluded Fife.

  As Juliet, Soren and Fife flew over the edge of the park near where they were to meet Romeo, a shot rang out, and then another.

  “Head for the trees!” cried Fife. “There’s a boy down there with a BB gun! Very dangerous!”

  The boy fired another shot.

  Fife tumbled out of the sky. Juliet and Soren followed him down as he spiraled to the ground. Fife landed on a slope of ivy in front of a brown house. He lay on his back, with his feet curled up to his chest.

  “Fife!” Juliet yelled. Soren and Juliet stood on each side of Fife and shook him with their wings.

  Fife groaned.

  Juliet bent over Fife, watching and listening to his chest. “He’s still breathing and his heart is still beating. Soren, hold his head still with your wings and keep watch for the boy with the BB gun. I’m going to look for the BB or any broken bones.” Juliet took her time examining Fife’s head, neck, and chest. She then looked at his wings and his legs. She tilted her head puzzled.

  Fife groaned again.

  “It’s in his chest. That’s not good.” Juliet slowly unfolded Fife’s wings

  Fife flinched.

  “He’s coming around,” said Juliet with a sigh of relief. As Fife’s wings opened, something fell out of his chest feathers. “What’s this, a sunflower seed shell?”

  The sunflower seed fell to the ground. Embedded in the shell was a shiny round BB. Juliet looked at Fife, then at Soren. “He had the wind knocked out of him. Keep him still and talk to him, it may help.”

  Fife’s eyes opened and he rasped, “My head hurts.”

  “Fife, are you all right?” asked Soren.

  “Yes, I’m okay. I’ve never felt a BB like that one before.”

  “The BB hit the pack rat’s business card that you put in your chest feathers the other night. You were very lucky.”

  “Yes, I should say,” added Juliet. “You really scared us. We thought that you were – ah,” she paused. “Well, worse off than you are.” She buried her worries.

  Fife rolled over and stood up, ruffling his feathers and shaking his head. “What a fall. I think I blacked out when I hit the ground. I feel better now, except for this headache. Any sign of the little boy?” Fife looked around.

  Soren also looked around, “I don’t see him. Would he come after you?”

  “Sometimes they just want to see what exactly happened. Others don’t care.”

  Juliet changed the subject. “How far away from Romeo are we?”

  “He should be just over the playing field backstop and across the creek, by the old bridge,” directed Fife, pointing his wing towards a fenced-in corner of a vast green field.

  “Can you fly there?”

  “Oh, yes. I’m fine, really. “Let’s go.”

  The three birds took off towards the creek. As they flew over the old foot bridge, a shrill whistle came from an enormous oak tree on the other side of the creek.

  Juliet saw Romeo and whistled back with excitement. She flew ahead of Soren and Fife, flying straight into Romeo’s wings and knocking Romeo into flight.

  Fife and Soren perched where Romeo had been waiting.

  Juliet and Romeo flew out from under the oak tree canopy and high into the sky side by side, performing high-speed trick maneuvers before spinning like a helicopter towards the ground.

  Soren watched them as they fell towards the ground in a free-falling wrestling match, and said, “I’m not sure I understand what’s going on with those two.”

  Fife blurted out a scream and replied, “They’re lovebirds, nobody understands them. I think this is one of those questions that you can let go of for awhile. The answer to that riddle will come to you in time, all by itself. Your answer may be different than others’ answers, because there is no wrong answer when it comes to love. And if that response doesn’t confuse you enough, then ask Juliet someday. But I do feel we should probably hurry you along on your education.”

  “Yes, indeed, more education!” said Romeo on his final approach landing. Romeo gave Soren a gentle slap on the back with his wing and perched between the two masquerading crows. “You all made it! Congratulations! I want to hear all about it,” exclaimed Romeo. “And may I add that you two smell awful. Is that the shoe polish?” “Thank you very much and yes, it’s the shoe polish.” Juliet spoke up. “Romeo, Fife had a terrible accident on the way over here. He was shot by a boy with a BB gun and fell to the ground unconscious.” “I had the wind knocked out of me, that’s all,” interjected Fife. Romeo looked him over and said to Juliet, “He looks okay to me. Juliet tells me that you two are going to fly together and be traveling companions for awhile. Is that right?” “

  “Yes, if it’s all right with Soren here,” said Fife quietly, as he knelt down on a branch to sit on his feet. “

  “Oh, yes! It’ll be great,” exclaimed Soren.

  “Soren? Who’s Soren?” asked Romeo.

  “I’m Soren.”

  “You didn’t have a name before. I just called you, ‘Hey’, I think it was,” said Romeo. “Well, it’s my true pleasure to meet you, Soren.”

  Juliet interrupted. “Fife, Romeo told me of a place with a warm mountain spring. Do you know the place?”

  “Yes, I know the place; Fern Springs. Carleton’s cabin is near the spring.”

  “I would like to go there. Could you show me the way?” charmed Juliet.

  “Sure, we could go there now if you like.”

  “I think that would be best for you, Fife. I want you to be looked after. Shall we all leave together?” asked Juliet.

  Fife and Romeo looked up through the canopy of the oak tree and saw two large turkey vultures circling high above them.

  “Looks like the pack rat has hired a really top-notch surveillance team,” said Fife.

  “I suggest we split up in case we’re being followed,�
�� offered Romeo. “I’ll go with Soren.”

  Juliet looked to Soren and said, “Sorry this is so abrupt, but we have to keep going. We will see you soon. Be good and stay safe.”

  “That’s fine with me,” responded Soren.

  Romeo fluttered over to Juliet’s side and they spoke quietly together.

  Fife addressed Soren. “It’s a great thing you’ve done today. You’ve had your first adventure. Today marks the beginning of many changes in your life. You set yourself free. You’re free to eat, sleep and fly wherever you want to, just like all the other animals on this side of white bars. I’ll be spending lots of time with you in the future, but for now, I think Romeo has plans for you. Listen to all he says, and I’ll see you later.” Fife brushed the young myna bird’s head feathers the wrong way, and they stuck straight up.

  Juliet and Fife flew off towards the mountains.

  Romeo watched as a vulture veered out of his circling pattern above and went in the same direction. “Bye, love you.” Romeo looked at Soren and explained, “Not Fife. I was talking to my partner.”

  Soren just shrugged his shoulders.

  Romeo was concerned. “Juliet fears that our friend is not well. Fife needs to get to the spring quickly, for help and rest. He’s bleeding from his head. Did you notice?”

  “Yes, I saw it.”

  “Juliet will know what to do. He’ll be all right by the time we return,” Romeo chirped at the young crow look-alike.

  “Return? Return from where?”

  “Oh, I don’t know exactly. There’s no real immediate hurry. We’ll end up back at the spring, but I want to take you on a tour and maybe introduce you to some helpful friends. Say, do you want to see the ocean?” invited Romeo, fluttering his wings rapidly with excitement.

  “Sure. What’s an ocean?”

  The two birds squawked and laughed heartily as they took flight and followed the sun into the west. A fogbank glued itself to the mountain ridge before them. “You’ll see, it’s amazing. We’ll see Fife in the morning sometime.”