Up and Down

Up and Down Part 2

One by one Mother Bird uses her beak to nudge the baby robins out of the nest. Good riddance. I hope they suffer an agonizing death. Revenge is a dish best... Six little wings flutter before my eyes.

"Yip, yip." My mouth drops open. I cannot believe it. The Little Rascals are flying. They circle Mother three times before soaring into the distance. I try to shake my fist at them. My arm floats to the ground.

The days become longer and hotter. The longer is not so bad, but the hotter is unbearable. I am not sure which is worse, the heat or the freezing temperatures. It has been several weeks since the Baby Birds left. It is possible that they do not remember their way home. I say good riddance. No sounds of new beast attacks on my brothers and sisters since the Baby Birds left. What can I really do?

A large furry bug is chomping on my brother. He differs from the robins. Chomps does not spit out my brother. Instead, he savors each bite as if it is his last. I feel the pain of my Brother as Chomps bites him again. The screams stop. The pain pauses.

He crawls to another victim and the screams begin again along with the pain. I have to sleep each night with the fear of waking up to a new missing brother or sister. He gets closer as each day passes. It might be better if Chomps swallows me now. I am exhausted from living each day with the anxiety that one-day Chomps will choose me for his meal.

Chomps crawls towards me. I do not think my heart can take this much longer. I may keel over and die long before he takes his first bite. Wow, he is fat. I need a needle so I can pop him like a balloon.

"Mother, Mother," I scream. Has she abandoned us? Are we pawns in a chess game? Chomps inches toward me with hungry eyes. Each step he takes brings me closer to my own death. He stops and wraps his feet around one of Mother's tiny arms. At first, he spins slowly and then he spins faster and faster until he becomes a blur. Chomps stops.

I go from hating him with a passion to... I am not sure what to think. The Crawling Garbage Disposal has a protective shell. He destroys everything in his path and then creates a fortress. The Little Rascals need to come back and peck at it. I glare at it with malice for a couple of weeks.

A whimpering sound echoes from inside. Something new emerges. Chomps is no longer a furry beastie. Instead, he has gone through a complete metamorphosis. He has vibrant colors dripping from his wet wings that he flaps back and forth.

I give the new creature the benefit of the doubt. If he does not harm any of my brothers or sisters, then he is alright in my book. I am still mesmerized by Chomps' beauty. The movements of his wings are hypnotic while my eyes follow the wings up and down, up and down... Lightning bugs blink on and off in unison to the crickets chirping. Where did Chomps go?

The days become cooler and shorter. I am covered with dew every morning. My body tingles as if I am going through a change. There is a buzz of excitement in the air and I cannot explain why. Perhaps it is the cooler temperatures.

Far below me are strange orange objects with happy and scary faces. Flashing lights and frightening noises do not allow me to sleep at night. My brothers and sisters are changing into something wonderful before my eyes. The green disappears and is replaced with vibrant colors of red, yellow, and orange. I smile and dance to the rhythm of the wind. My brothers and sisters join me. We are having a dance party.

The fiesta ends. Our colors fade and merge to create a solid light brown. Each day more and more brothers and sisters leave Mother and rest on the ground below. Our time with Mother has come to an end. A gentle breeze rocks me back and forth.

"Why must I leave you?"

"It's your time, Little One. Your Journey is almost complete." A burst of wind releases my grip and I float towards the ground. A gust blows me up, up, up towards Mother's great arms reaching to the sky. She looks at me and smiles.

"Go to sleep, Little One." I close my eyes one last time and drift to the hard ground to join my brothers and sisters. My Journey is finally complete. And what a Journey it has been.