More Fractured Tales stories!
She sat in the recliner… which was tucked snugly into one corner of the living room… put the footrest up… and picked up the book she was reading… eager to pick up where she had left off the previous day.
The starlings were out there again too… flying up and down the driveway… back and forth across the window.
She could see them quite clearly… having cleaned the window the day before… but she did not think they would be too much of a distraction.
They were not what she considered ‘pretty’ birds… but still attractive in their own way… their dark, feathers had a real shine… especially when they were in direct sunlight.
They had a reputation for being noisy and aggressive… often driving smaller birds away from feeders… just by their appearance.
But they also had the ability to mimic the vocal sounds of those same little songbirds.
Suddenly…she realized something she had not been aware of before… because of the freshly cleaned window… they could also see her.. and, for some strange reason… that revelation did not appeal to her at all.
Then she shook her head… how silly… they were just birds… fairly common in the area… nothing strange or unusual about them.
Sometimes one – or more – of them… perched on the corner of the roof of the house next door.
And then, she was plainly visible in their sightline and… oh yes!… now she knew they were watching her… she could feel it.
Chills ran up and down her spine… every nerve ending in her body tingled with awareness… and it was a feeling she did not like.
What she could not seem to figure out… was why they were watching her… and though she searched her brain for possible reasons… she came up with nothing.
However… since they were watching her… she decided that she would also keep an eye on them… it couldn’t hurt.
Perhaps something had happened to frighten them… causing them to behave a little out of the ordinary.
And that was what prompted her to add one more thing to an already long list of daily activities… observation of the birds… their movements… and their behaviour.
Maybe… if she watched them long enough… she might get a clue about the reason for their interest in her backyard.
She was not really a bird watcher… never had been… not in the true sense… as in searching for new and different species.
At times it amused her to watch them in the trees… hopping along the branches… or flying from one branch to another.
But, for the moment… she was focused on one particular group of birds… the same group that seemed to be observing her… and trying to determine WHY they were doing so.
They were not building nests… that required only a pair, working together… not a whole flock… and this was certainly not the nesting season.
It was not a pair of parents… teaching their young how to fly… that had been done several months ago.
She was watching a group of at least half a dozen… sometimes as many as fifteen or more… and they were all adults.
Most of the time they were silent… but when they pitched on the roof next door… their incessant chattering was loud… noisy… and somewhat disturbing.
She told herself they were just normal birds… chattering among themselves… passing on the location of a food source… sharing gossip… whatever it was that birds chattered about.
At times, when they were very loud… she was almost afraid to move… fearing what their reaction might be… if she startled them.
She had the strange idea that… as long as she remained still… they would eventually fly off somewhere else… but so far, that hadn’t happened.
Now, when one is anxious about something… many strange ideas can form in the head… sometimes rather scary ideas.
It was pure nonsense, no doubt… the idea that they might be planning an attack was preposterous… absolutely ridiculous… such things happened only in movies… did it not?
However… strange things did happen… sometimes… unusual things that defy a rational explanation… and one never knew…
She shook her head… telling herself it was a silly notion… opened her book… and reached for her mug.
Just at that moment… something smacked hard against the window… and she froze…
