“Why do they want find us?” Danny asked. “What did we do?”
“We didn’t do anything, Danny, but the bad men want to find you because you have a special power.”
Danny raised his eyebrows. “The birds?”
Michael nodded. “Yep. They want to find you because you can talk to the birds.” He still wasn’t entirely convinced what that meant though.
“But Mommy can help them talk to the birds, too,” Danny signed.
Michael shook his head. “No, I don’t think she can. You’re special because it seems only you, out of all the people in this world, can talk to the birds and the bad men want to find out how you do it. You understand?”
Danny looked at him stonily. “Are you going to hit me again?”
Michael stifled a smile. “No, Birdman. I promise. Hey, you want another piggyback? I think I have some left in me.”
He put his backpack on Danny and his brother jumped up on his back. They hiked that way through the woods for a while until they came to another neighborhood. The homes were spacious, but very close together and there weren’t a lot of places to hideout and not be conspicuous. Luckily for them, it seemed quiet. It was a Wednesday, so almost everyone was either at work or school.
Michael quickly ambled through a backyard and onto the street. He finally got his bearings and thought he remembered a park at the end of the development with a tennis court, pool area, and walking path through a wooded picnic area. He moved in that direction.
When they reached the park, the first place they passed was the pool. There were some vending machines and after searching his pockets for some change he found seven quarters, three dimes, and a nickel. He dropped the change into the machine and bought some pretzels and an orange soda. Michael found them a picnic table in the woods and set Danny down on it. They ate in silence as Michael watched Danny toss some of his pretzels to the birds that came close.
“Danny,” he signed, waving to get his brother’s attention. “Are those just birds or are they really people?”
“Of course they’re people.”
Michael sat there stunned as Danny tossed crumbs at the birds and signed to Michael. “See that one there, the big one with the grey feathers? That’s Mr. Hamilton. And that one with the white fuzzy throat is Mrs. Kidder.”
Michael watched two small birds fly over to his brother, practically sitting on his shoes and pecking at tiny flecks of food on the ground. “They’re really not scared of you, are they?” he signed, shaking his head in amazement.
“Nope,” Danny replied, bending down. He tossed the last of his pretzels to the two birds. “They know I won’t hurt them.” Two more birds flew over to him and rested at his feet. “These two little ones are Jamie and Kimmy.”
Michael moved over to stand next to Danny. The birds became startled, ready to take flight, but Danny slowly put his hands together and shut his eyes. The birds relaxed.
“What happened to them?” Michael asked, his voice hushed. “If they’re really dead, why are they all still here?”
Danny cocked his head and seemed to be examining the birds. “Okay,” he finally smiled. “Mr. Hamilton had an operation on his heart last year. He was really old. He said the people in the hospital tried everything, but their machines didn’t work. He never made it out of the operating room. Mrs. Kidder was old, too. I think she mixed up her medicines and it’s why she’s here.” Danny then turned his back on Mrs. Kidder, so she wouldn’t see what he signed to Michael. “Mrs. Kidder is hard to talk to. I think she’s a little mixed up. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
“Why not?” Michael asked. “Is she sick?”
Danny nodded. “I think she had what our neighbor, Mr. Keely, had. Remember? I don’t know what it’s called, though.”
Michael thought for a moment. Suddenly, he remembered. “Oh, you mean she had Alzheimer’s.”
Danny nodded. “Yeah, that’s what she had when she was a person, but now she still has a little bit of it in her bird body and she can’t get herself to the light. She gets all confused still.”
“Danny, what about the Jamie and Kimmy birds?” Michael asked.
Danny made a solemn face. “It’s sad,” he signed and said no more.
“C’mon, Danny, what happened to them?”
Danny sighed. “Their Mommy got into a really bad car crash yesterday. A truck ran into them when she was taking them to school.”
“Oh, my God,” he muttered, feeling sick. He stared at the Jamie and Kimmy birds, watching as they pecked at the last remnants of the pretzel pieces.
Michael got Danny’s attention again. “Danny, but if they died and then became birds, why are they all still here? Why haven’t all of them gone up to the light yet? I mean, that’s Heaven, right? So, if this is all true, then once they die in their people bodies, shouldn’t they just go straight there?”
Danny shrugged. “They could, but sometimes they have reasons for staying. Do you want me to ask them?”
Michael nodded. “Yes. Please.”
Danny held his hands together again and closed his eyes. The birds tittered around. Danny opened his eyes and started signing. “Jamie and Kimmy don’t want to go yet. They want to wait for their Mommy. She’s still in the hospital, but she’s really hurt. And Mr. Hamilton’s just sad and wishes he were back in his people body.”
“What about Mrs. Kidder?”
“Mrs. Kidder doesn’t know what she wants to do. I think she’s been here a long, long time. I might have to help her.”
Michael stared at him wonderingly. “And you’re telling me that you can send them up to the light yourself? You have the power to do that?”
Danny nodded. “Sure, but I don’t have to send them all the time. Only when they get really confused or really hurt, like Mr. Jacobs.”
Suddenly, a beautiful blue jay flew down to the group. Michael watched as the blue jay and the two birds Danny had called Jamie and Kimmy gathered together. Immediately, the blue jay started preening the other two birds and then, in a flash of color and wings, they flew away together. Danny laughed delightedly as they disappeared into the trees.
Danny immediately stopped laughing when he saw his brother’s stricken expression.
Michael was upset, his eyes tearing. “That was their mother, wasn’t it? She just died, didn’t she?”
Danny ran over and took his hand. “Don’t be sad, Michael. She only left her sick people body and now she’s a bird. She’ll take Jamie and Kimmy away so that they can start a new life.”
“A new life? Do you know what kind of life they have in Heaven, Danny?”
Danny simply shrugged. “I don’t know. It must be a really nice place because everyone wants to go there. Except the bad people. They just disappear.”
“They just vanish? Like magic?” Michael asked.
Danny shook his head. “No, not like that. When a person dies they go right into a bird body, but if they’re a bad person, then, poof, they get killed in that body.” He tried to explain. “When you see a dead bird on the street, or floating in the water, or wherever, it’s usually a bad person.”
“But what about Mr. Jacobs? They shot him when he was a bird, so he was going to die. Does that mean he was really bad, too?”
Danny shook his head. “No, he was a good person and the mean men shot him when he was a person and then again when he was a bird. They tried to completely kill him. Mommy says I have special powers so if a good person gets hurt while he’s in a bird body, I can help him get to Heaven. If I don’t send him, he’ll just roam the Earth until he gets R-I-N-C-I-N-A-T-E-D.” He tried to fingerspell the word, but had trouble.
“I don’t understand.” Michael said. “Spell it again.”
Danny tried again.
Michael finally understood. “Oh, you mean reincarnated. Wait a second! You mean they come back to life? How do they do that?”
“When a bird lays an egg, silly!” Danny laughed.
Michael was speechless a
nd shook his head. “Okay, let me get this straight. You’re saying good birds can always take themselves to the light when they’re ready, right?”
Danny nodded.
“And, if we see a dead bird on the ground or the road or whatever, then most of the time, that was a bad person who was bad when he was a human being? So his soul simply disappears and he can’t go to Heaven, right?”
Danny nodded again.
Michael was getting excited. “Okay, I think I’m getting this. So what you’re saying is birds can stay on Earth as long as they like and lead bird lives until they choose to go to Heaven? And when a bird lays an egg, that’s a good person who died when he was a bird before he got the chance to go to heaven?”
Danny clapped his hands and nodded yes.
I think I’m finally getting it.
Danny added more. “You want to know something else? Eggs can also be little, little babies. A lot of times when people babies die they never get a chance to have a people life and so they get to be the baby birds.”
“Unbelievable,” Michael said, looking around. The trees were brimming with the sounds of birds, and he knew he’d never be able to look at them the same way again.
Danny was trying to get his attention. “Remember when my friend Cindy’s daddy died?”
Michael nodded.
“Cindy’s mommy got her a bird to keep her company.”
Michael couldn’t believe it. “That was her dad? No way.”
Danny nodded. “Cindy cried and cried when the bird flew away a few months later, but her Daddy just wanted to stay with her until he knew she’d be okay. I tried to tell her that he was fine, but she didn’t believe me. Do you understand?”
Michael did. As he sat there thinking about it, he remembered something. “Hey, Danny, what about the machine? What is it?”
Danny shrugged. “Mommy calls it ultraviolet. She says the colors inside help me to talk to the birds. I tried to tell her that I talked to the birds all the time without the light, but she says it will help me focus. She said when I was a baby in her tummy the ultraviolet accident made me deaf so I could hear the birds. So I could have special powers.”
At least Dobber hadn’t lied about everything.
A sound made him turn and Michael watched the Mrs. Kidder bird flapping her wings and tittering around in circles. He got up to take a closer look and saw she had gotten both her legs caught up in the plastic wrapper of a six-pack someone had thoughtlessly left lying on the ground. Michael moved to try to help her, but she became scared and skittish and kept trying to fly away. The wrapper got even more tangled around her thin legs.
As Michael tried in vain to help the bird, he felt a light tap on his back. Danny was signing to him. “It’s time, Michael. She has to go away. She can’t do it by herself.”
Danny turned to the bird, clasped his hands together and shut his eyes.
Mrs. Kidder stiffened and faced Danny. All her skittishness and fright disappeared. Danny bent over her and picked her up, gently cradling her in his hands. Just like the last time, Michael saw an instantaneous beam of white light shoot up out of his hands and encircle the bird. Immediately, the bird became lax in his brother’s hands while he glanced up into the sky, smiling. The faintest of shadows seemed to streak across the sky.
Slowly, Danny moved over to a nearby tree and gently laid Mrs. Kidder beneath some undergrowth. Then he turned back to Michael who stared at him.
“Danny, did you just kill her?”
“I didn’t kill her,” he said, indignantly. “She wanted to go to the light, and she was so sick she would never be able to find it by herself. That’s why she’s been here so long. I just helped her like Mommy and Daddy showed me.”
Michael was thunderstruck. He now realized what this power truly meant. His brother was playing God. His family had never been particularly religious, only going to church on Holy Days, but Danny’s actions struck him to the core. If a human’s soul left its body when it died and was transferred to a bird, then it could be considered alive at that point. Was Danny justified in sending them on to the light by killing them? Is that what Herrington wanted? To control the birds and thus, the people in the world? He pictured humongous pens for millions and millions of birds with the members of Herrington’s organization deciding who would and who would not get the chance to go to Heaven. Or, which bird he’d kill outright if someone’s family didn’t pay up and that person’s soul would be gone forever.
He had a disturbing thought and turned to his brother. “Danny, what about chickens and turkeys or all those birds we eat for dinner? Are they people, too?” He was horrified to think he might be personally responsible for sending people to their untimely deaths and stopping them from going to Heaven.
Danny made a face at him. “No. We eat chickens, silly. Only pretty birds that can fly up into the sky are people.”
“Like bluebirds and doves and stuff like that?”
“Yes,” Danny explained. “And pet birds and even eagles. But, not chickens or turkeys or big birds like ostriches. They can’t fly more than a few feet. They could never get high enough to go to the light.”
Michael sat back. “Unbelievable.”
They stayed in the park for the next few hours. He was sure the Somerses had made the call to Herrington’s people, but they were now miles away from their house and he felt secure for the moment. By three o’clock, he knew they had to leave. Kids were getting off from school, and the park was starting to fill up. He and Danny made their way out of the park and the moment they came to the entrance to the main road, two brown sedans came whizzing around the corner.
Chapter Eight
Day 3 Wednesday 3:02 p.m.
Michael moved behind a group of trees and peeked around a tree trunk. The sedans were idling and several uniformed policemen showed passers-by photographs. They looked like fakes to Michael and he couldn’t imagine why people didn’t just cringe from being too close to them. As for who were in the photographs? Well, he didn’t have to think too hard about the subject of the pictures. Person after person shook his head until an old man, who Michael had seen sitting on a park bench near them for most of the afternoon, nodded. The man stared at the picture for a long time and then slowly pointed in their direction.
“Why’s he pointing at us?” Danny signed.
“Because the men who are after us are here. We’ve got to go.” He backed away and quickly led Danny deeper into the park.
“Where are we going to go?” Danny asked.
“I’ve got an idea.”
Michael took them around the outside of the park and they exited on the east side which led to an area with a small local hospital, a library, and a post office. After weighing his options, Michael turned towards the hospital. The library had too many kids and the post office was closing at four.
Michael went through the main doors and straight into the gift shop.
“Can I help you, boys?” an elderly woman manning the register asked. She smiled, her face cascading into a mound of wrinkles.
He couldn’t help smiling back. “Yes, ma’am. Would you know if the cafeteria is still open?”
“Oh, I think they closed at three,” she said. After looking at Danny’s crestfallen face, she called Michael over to her.
“I’ve got a better idea than the cafeteria, and it won’t cost you anything either, dear.” She handed him a hall pass from her front sweater pocket.
“On the ninth floor, outside the Geriatric Ward, they’re giving out snacks to the residents and their families. It’s a special floor. Would you believe a hotel runs it?”
Michael knew about those private floors. A friend’s dad from his history class had surgery a few years before and he had stayed at Harlem River Hospital in Manhattan. The kid had come back telling them about how the entire floor looked like a hotel and there was actually a concierge who would direct people to their relative’s rooms.
Michael gratefully took the pass. “You don’t think
they’ll give us a problem?”
The woman smiled. “Oh no, you should be just fine. If anyone questions you, just flash the pass. I’m sure no one will even say anything, but if they do, tell them I sent you.”
“This is great. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.” He led Danny over to the elevators. Michael flashed the pass at the security guard and sighed in relief when the guard waved them in.
As the doors opened on nine, Michael searched for the signs to the Geriatric Ward. He finally found them and moved through the double doors into a different world.
The first thing he noticed was the smell. The antiseptic hospital aroma was gone, replaced with the perfume of hundreds of flowers. They were displayed in vases on every available open space. Ahead, in a carpeted atrium, snacks were set out on a white linen tablecloth with real dishes and silverware. A man in a tuxedo was playing classical music on a grand piano, accompanied by a lone violinist. Visitors and patients milled about as if they were at a garden party instead of a hospital floor.
Taking a deep breath, and hoping desperately they would simply blend in and not be recognized, Michael walked Danny over to the snack table. He made them each a plate of tuna fish finger sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies. He was relieved no one questioned him. Michael turned to give Danny his plate and saw he wasn’t next to him. Fear flooded his body. His adrenaline racing, he dropped their plates on the table and frantically searched around, finally noticing his brother on the far side of the room, sitting on a striped upholstered couch next to an old man connected to a portable IV drip. The man was holding Danny’s hands.
Michael quickly walked over to them, not knowing if he wanted to yell at Danny for leaving his side without telling him, or to hug him until he squirmed.
He was saved either choice by the old man. “This your little brother?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
Michael nodded.
Flying to the Light Page 7