Don't be That Bird

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There was this one bird that Drew had noticed for a while now. Actually, it was Sophie, his little sister, who pointed it out for him. She was the one who noticed these kinds of things. Nevertheless, Drew found this bird funny. He wasn’t sure why.

The bird, which Drew named Bill, liked to sit in the neighbor’s roof, only visible from his room, exactly in the same spot every time. Rarely had they seen him fly – and boy did Sophie try to catch him flying – it was the oddest thing about him. Sophie would get upset if Drew brought him up, or if she stared at him too long because “that’s not how birds should be” she’d argue. It really did a number on Sophie, and Drew simply did not understand her. So, whenever she invaded his room and got upset by Bill’s static activity, Drew kicked her out. She would mull over that oddity out loud, and Drew got tired of her whining. “Just let the bird be”, he’d say, “stop caring about it”. To which, Sophie would get even more upset.

Because Drew’s room was the only one facing this neighbor’s roof side, and Bill’s spot, he occasionally glanced at him from time to time. He did not know why, but Drew liked the bird, he was his silent neighbor. Drew felt that that bird knew what he was all about, and that resonated with him. In any case, Drew never worried too much over it though- in the end it was still just a bird. Yet, when bored, Drew got a kick from riling up Sophie by bringing Bill up, but their brother-sister relationship didn’t go much farther than that.

Sophie, in the eyes of Drew, had just built an unreasonable, childish resentment towards him. He was like any other older brother. The question was, Sophie and him were different kinds of people, and she did not click with him. So, as the years passed, she and him fought more and more. Over brother things. Stupid little issues you’d forget about the next day.

Now older, looking back, there was one fight that stuck with Drew.

Drew had ignored Sophie throughout her childhood, always busy on his phone, or computer, watching TV, or playing with the tablet, or Xbox… but she, this one time, had been away for a month, during the summer, doing what she loves most. And Drew, upon her arrival, payed as much attention to her as in the past month- meaning none. Sophie had actually built the expectation he’d missed her, and, for at least a few minutes, would’ve wanted to hear everything she have to say. Or at least would’ve held his attention to hearing her talk about the most exciting weeks she had lived thus far.

Instead, he said five words the morning she came back: “oh- hey, you seen my earphones?”, and without looking at her for an answer, proceeded to turn around, go into the living room and take up the whole couch. He then spent an entire hour scrolling and tapping at his phone’s screen.

So, when he did talk to her again, later on that day, to say “get out of my room”, to which Sophie responded “You took the remote, I need it”, as brother-sister arguments go, this was enough to get them started. All it took was an aggressive response on Drew’s behalf; “No, I didn’t, now LEAVE, you moron!”.

So, they argued. Drew didn’t understand why his sister was like this. She had “no chill”, as he’d say. So fast-forward a minute or so and Drew howled, “GOD, Why’d you hate me so much?”

There. It was her rant, the emotionally charged monologue that ensued that Drew still thought about.

“You’re just like that bird. Always connected, always attached to the damn signal, and look: you’re stuck! See the slope of that line? The bird is at the bottom. It’s almost as if a reflection of where you and it stand in the scale of importance. Now, I’m no bird watcher, but that’s not interesting to see at all. What’s cool is to see them in the sky. It’s them flying, hearing them sing, seeing them bounce from twig to twig. Bird stuff. You, and that bird you see right now, you just sit. And watch. And occasionally let out a tweet. A literal tweet. That, my friend, is not music to behold. Every day we see that same bird sit there, relaxed like as if resting on his throne, in that exact spot, and look around, chirp sporadically and annoyingly, on its own. From our view, he looks connected by that wire, right? As if connected to the rest of the world out there. But the world out there is anywhere but connected to that wire. He’d have a lot more music to sing, a lot more sights to see if he weren’t so addicted to sitting right there. Go soar the atmosphere! Go search for crumbs to feed on! Go do something else! Everyone’s got it in their heads that that’s the way to go, that that over there, sitting there like that bird, is it. Well, it’s not. It’s a whole lot weirder. Unnatural, you know what I mean? He could actually be playing with other birds, fly south once in a while, but instead, it’s just… there. And it’s become so predictable. What’s the fun in that, Drew?

“What are you talking about?!”

“I’m saying, don’t be that bird.”