Saturday, February 11, 2012

Call 322 : BABY CHICKS

Hello Son,                                         (continue from Call 321)




Saturday, January 28



This Saturday morning, Justine gave a lil squeal from the guest room.




"The eggs hatched already ... There are two baby chicks ..."



Dad discovered a nest outside the guest room window during Christmas period last year. Yup, a small nest beside the air-con compresser (Is that even the right word - compresser? There's a red line by the computer indicating an error ... but Mom's got no time to check. She's got to get this call out before noon.)




Here's the photo that Justine took. She said it was dark, and the picture of the birds are not that clear.






Can You see the little birdies? 


That incident quickly brought your mother back to a day ... You must have been about 11 years old at the time ... Mom remembers both Dad and her, had come back from a company cruise trip ... 




It was Year 2006, if she remembers correctly ... 




No sooner had we walked through the door (after coming home from the trip), we were greeted by excited squeals from Justine and You. At first your parents thought you both had missed them, but it quickly became clear that You two were excited about something else.




There was a little nest outside the window in your room and there were two little eggs in it, You both exclaimed very excitedly.




Your sister and You were so ecstatic, and wasted no time to pull your parents by their arms to hurry them to the window.





Dad and Mom peered over the window, and yes, we saw two little white eggs nestling comfortably in the nest.




Wow ... a real nest at such a close distance. 




Mom had commented, "Among all the rooms in this house, the Mummy Bird chose your room, Daniel ... She needs a safe place and she chose your room ... Two little eggs ... Like You and Justine ..." :D






Yeah, two eggs ...






The Mama Bird with her two babies.




Just like Mom and her two babies.






Justine and You ...






Not long after that, the eggs hatched. 








You were the first to discover the baby chicks as You'd check the nest every morning before You left for school, and would check them again, the moment You came home. Several times, Mom saw You by the window ... just looking out ...




The nest was on the window sill about 2.5 feet below the window.






Then came one day, when You came home and found a horrible sight outside your window. You were alone then. Mom walked in to the house a while later. 



You told her, that one of the baby chicks was dead and that

"the head came off ..."












Pause ...







"The head came off? What do You mean, the head came off?" 

Mom asked as she went into the kitchen. She had bought some lunch.






"You come and see, Ma ... You come and see ..."








Mom went to see ...








She remembers popping her head out the window, and had a big shock when she saw the body of the birdie laying lifeless beside the nest, with its head about a foot away from where we were both standing.






OMG ... 








You left the room ...








Mom just stood there ...








It was horrible ... 




There were blood stains all over the ledge. A larger bird must have attacked the little birdie and decapitated its head. The other birdie (there were two) was nowhere to be seen and must have flown away.








Seeing the decapitated head made your mother feel suddenly all queasy. She was unsure if she had felt all weird because of the sight or because of the possible meaning behind that traumatic episode. She had made it quite clear that the Mama Bird had chosen your room because it's the safest place to lay her eggs, and now ...






Now look ... that supposedly safe haven has turned into a blood bath. Gosh, what must You be thinking? Especially when Mom had said, that the Mother Bird and her two little eggs were like Mom and her two babies ...
















Now, one of the babies was dea ... 



OMG ... Why couldn't she just shut up and keep all her thoughts to herself? Why did she have to make stupid comments when she saw the nest? Why God, of all things to say, she had to say that the two birdies were like Jus and You? 






Now one was dea ... 




Mom was at a loss for words. She felt she had to explain but didn't quite know what to say. What must You be thinking then? 





For some reason, You didn't seem to be affected at all, and had "moved on" quite quickly and naturally ... to your computer games.







Dad came home. 






Justine too ... 





While your sister reacted loudly with "eeeeeeee" ... 

"eeee-yearrrrrrr" and "eeee - yewwww" ... 



You had no reaction. 





On Hindsight ... This would be the second time, You witnessed death all alone by yourself when You came home from school (You were in Primary One 7 years old, if she remembers correctly) ... the first being your pet fish, Gary Dose. Mom remembers when she came home that day, about half hour after You did, she was greeted by your solemn, tear-stained face when You told her that your fish had died.


 

You were really upset when Dad threw your fish into the trashbin. 





Dad was supposed to "flush it down the toilet ..." 




Like Nemo (the movie). 




You had cried. 




Dramatic cry, Justine says, at the point of writing this call. Justine reminds, which your mother has forgotten, there were two fishes. Yours died. Her's lived. Then, we bought hamsters for your both. Again, yours died. Hers ran away.














With a heavy heart and a disturbed head, Mom watched your father cleaned up the mess. How he picked up the decapitated head, she's not sure, because by then she was sitting by the side of your bed ... thinking ... thinking of what she should say as a ... a ... proper closure to this ... strange episode that was somehow allowed to seep into our lives.






Seriously, how often do normal families on a normal day discover a decapitated head of a bird outside the window ledge of their child's room? Especially when that child's first doctor had carelessly told the boy's parents that he has not long to live?






What was that about?








Yes, all that ... What was all that about?








A sign?








Oh Gawd ...




(continue on Call 323)