white dice #2

 footprints/bird/"bang"/lightning/flame/key

 

"Heel, boy, heel!"

It was a good thing that dog had been well-trained, it could have jumped right on top of me before I could even think to get out of the way.  It did stop, although giving me a look like it was ready to pounce again at any second.  A young man came running up behind the dog, a little out of breath, but still calling out, "Sorry, he gets really excited to be out in the woods.  He thinks he'll bring down a bear or something."

I smiled, trying to look unperturbed.  The guy was cute.  I could even deal with a big dog for him, maybe.

"Well, no harm done.  I was just heading home.  It's nice enough out here, but everybody has to go back to civilization."

"Right," he scratched his head sheepishly, "But you do have to have your keys to your little piece of civilization if you want to get back into it."

"Oh, I saw some keys just down there, towards the creek!  I wasn't sure if I should pick them up or not, I thought somebody might be back soon for them so I didn't want to take them all the way to the police."

The young man's smile was intensely bright, like not even actors could have teeth so shiny.  He did look genuinely happy though.  "Thanks a lot!  We went that way, I bet those are my keys!  Have a safe trip home!"  He went off with a good deal more energy, whistling to the dog and breaking my heart.  OK, not really, but who knows what could have been if I'd been quicker to ask him out for coffee.  Oh, well, life goes on.

And little annoyances too.  When I got home, I saw the neighbor kids were running around in their driveway, setting off those shitty little firecrackers that don't have any color or smoke.  They just make a loud, stupid noise.  I went inside, planning to break out my heaviest metal to blast through my headphones.

I decided to do some old classmate snooping while I boiled up a pot of macaroni.  I might not have been able to finish shopping, but I still had some stuff lying around the kitchen.  Might as well use up the cheese before it goes bad.

Hot bowl in hand, I sat down to see what my old friends and enemies were up to, and was more than a little shocked to see obituaries come up for no less than three old classmates.  We weren't that old, how could there be that many at once?  OK, not at once exactly, over the last two years, but still.  All cancer, too.  Maybe those kooks who go on about the chemtrails are actually onto something.  And I haven't been to the doctor for a couple of years, maybe I should go just in case...

With these thoughts of mortality in mind, it's not the best moment for a surprise.  But, that's what I got when a large bird smacked into my living room window.  I guess it was disoriented by the firecrackers still going off next door.  I was musing about the fleeting existence we humans lead when in the last glowing fingers of sunset, I saw the winged animal collide with a hollow crack and slide down to the grass, just like in the cartoons.  It looked like maybe a crow.  I yanked off my headphones, only realizing then that there hadn't been any music playing for several minutes.  How else could I have heard the bird hit.  But was I so absorbed in thoughts of death and dying that I didn't notice the lack of Pantera?  Weird.  It had been a weird day all around.

So, I went out to check on the probable new death in my life.  The kids regrouped closer to their house, hopefully not organizing bigger and better explosions for the night.  I expected a still and shiny corpse to be lying on the grass underneath my window, but there was nothing there at all.  Not even a feather.  Well.  I guess the bird was just stunned, but for some reason I felt uneasy about not seeing anything there at all.  I looked around, just in case the poor thing had hobbled and hopped off to die under a bush or something, and I almost felt my heart pop up out of my mouth when I saw Basi standing by the corner of my house.

"Hey, Ranna," he said, "Got a light?"