Neil and the Nest

 

Neil made his way up the ladder, into the dilapidated box of wood his father calls a tree house. It was cobbled together from random wooden two-by-fours, pieces left over from his father's other disaster, the backyard deck. Everyone, including his father, is amazed it has not fallen.

The tree house is fun, as long as he steps in the correct spots. His former friend found the wrong spots when she broke her arm, a month ago. Her mother is now suing his father.

“I fixed it, I promise,” his father said.

Boredom is rampart without a friend. This is what boredom does, it pushes him into shanty tree houses.

Outside the crooked window, Neil spots a nest. It has three eggs. A pair of mockingbirds land next to it. They sing and tweet to each other. Neil imagines their conversation happening in English. In his head they are an old married couple, laughing, bickering, recounting their day, stuck together for life.

Neil decides to make nest watching a part of his daily routine. After school, for the rest of that week, he comes back to the couple and their growing family. He brings with him a notebook and writes down their conversations. He includes crude but effective drawings.

On Saturday, he gets up early and climbs back into the shanty house. His mockingbird soap opera is better than any Saturday morning cartoon. When he gets there, he see the nest, the eggs, but no sign of the happy couple.

They're up early getting the worm, he thinks. Then, he sees there are only two eggs. Before he can hypothesize reasons for the missing egg, his heart drops when he sees the culprit.

A rat snake moves towards the nest, ready to nap another egg. Without thinking, Neil finds himself halfway out of the crooked window. His left knee on the tree limb, he begins to race the snake to the nest. An egg eating snake was never part of his story.

He breaks a branch off the trunk of the tree and badgers the snake with it. The snake turns around and bolts. After successfully thwarting the snake's plan, his relief is broken by two very angry mockingbirds. Their anger translates into a large whack to the back of Neil's head.

Holding the back of his head, he turns and sees the female dive bombing his face. In a moment of reflexive action, he lifts his bracing hand to his face. With only his knees on the tree, he loses his balance.

In a frantic and unsuccessful attempt to hold on, his grasping hand tips the nest on its side. He falls to the ground. Face up, he sees the mockingbirds vainly try to save the two remaining eggs.

When he hit the ground, his chest compresses, forcing the air out of his lungs. He lies in the grass looking up, not breathing, watching the two eggs fall towards him.
 

One egg cracks on his forehead and nestles into the crevice made by his eyes and the bridge of his nose. He sees the partially developed baby bird through the crack. It breaths. A liquid oozes from the egg and into his right eye. The second egg hits his stomach and rolls onto the grass.

Twelve long seconds pass before he regains the ability to breath. The angry birds continue dive bombing. Neil gets up and hobbles back to his father's deck. He sits and watches the devastated couple. They stand between the under developed baby bird and their last remaining egg.

The couple’s cries pierce his heart. Neil cries with them.

After the couple leaves, Neil picks up the last egg. He turns it in his hand, inspecting it for cracks. There are none. He fixes the nest and puts the egg back in it. He guards it for hours, waiting for the birds to come back. They do not. Rather than leave the egg for the snake, he takes it home and keeps it warm.
 

~ * ~
 

Neil spent the next day in the tree. Watching the egg, protecting it from the snake. Only after the agony of watching it for hours did he accept that the couple would not be returning.

He brought the egg inside, and watched it for a few more days. When it began to smell bad, he knew it was not going to hatch. Neil never returned to the tree house. He never finished his story, but also never forgot the crying couple.

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