Life is the Bird's!
Chapter 1: The Insidious Puddle.
"Welcome, welcome to your reincarnation" A sweet, deep, non-threatening androgynous voice whispered.
Suddenly a soft light peeked through clouds reflecting with rainbows like dew on flower petals. A young bird, barely old enough to fly was highlighted by a halo of warm light. It didn't know what to think as it tilted its cute round head to look around. It had died, only a few hand-full of days old, and it had already died.
Cheep, cheep, cheep!
"No need to swear young bird. This can be counted as a positive cosmic outcome. You will reincarnate into a human being and be reunited with your reincarnated bird family. They have also reincarnated into the human world. As the result of your good karma in your prior life, you will have a few options in your new world."
Chee. Cheep, Cheep? The little bird blinked its big baby bird eyes. It didn't believe it had collected enough karma as a few days old baby bird to earn a positive human incarnation.
"Ah, well, lets look back then…" the soft voice said. The floor beneath the little bird shimmered until it was reflective as a mirror. The little bird could see its prior life. Its big blue eyes blinked back tears as it could see its mama bird feeding the chicklets that were its brothers and sister. There were seven of them in this one little nest, five male and two female chicks. The largest female dominantly stepping on the face of the nearest brother. This one was a little glutton. She was currently the heroine of this flashback. The other female chick preened her budding flight wings in annoyance. They were all only fourteen days old, but the nest was so crowded. Their wing feathers had just started to bud red at the tips of their black feathered shoulders like tiny cloaks.
One at a time the little birds flapped their wings, exercising their feathers until they gathered their spirits. Today they would fly for the first time, leaping out of their little nest. Mama bird stood by, leading by example as she would flit from branch to branch. It had just rained and the branches were dark with recent precipitation, gingko leaves bending towards the earth dripping with the weight of water. On the cement covered ground lay a shining puddle of water looking like a veritable lake of drinkable water and a fun bird bath in the eyes of the little birds. This was their aim. A good playground after the rain.
Chi! Chi! Chi! No! No! No! The little bird cried out as it watched her brothers and sisters fly one by one to the puddle to splash and play.
Two small children ran out in their rain gear to the side of the usually busy road where the little birds played. The traffic had become non-existent in the rain. The two children stood in the road a few steps away from the curb, just watching the little birds until the last little bird was left on the branch, being nagged at by its bird mother to take the leap already. Suddenly a warehouse truck turned the corner, speeding way too fast, its driver dozing at the wheel. He had opened the driver's side window, hoping the wind would wake him up enough to drive. The truck's driver had worked 18 hours with a cold and his bleary blinking eyes didn't see the two children in the road, looking at the birds play. The little children, engrossed with their own imaginings and back to the road, didn't see the truck at all.
Chiiii! The little bird saw the truck from the branch. It made up its tiny bird mind. She would try to save the bird siblings in the puddle from the big truck. The little bird flew from the branch and swiftly flapped, flying into the truck window and into the face of the sleepy driver. He woke up instantly, turning his wheel to the side, slamming his feet into the brakes, narrowly missing the children in the street and the birds. The little bird who flew into the truck cabin was slapped into the window pane, breaking its thin neck, and returning it to the cycle of reincarnation.