Bobby and A Whole Murmuration

Just outside the backyard fence, canopied by three grand wisteria trees, were five paint-worn Adirondak chairs in varying state of decay. Bobby, dispatched by his wife for ‘no husbands allowed’ gossip time with the ladies, sat camouflaged in a green chair two hours before dusk. The pine and oak strewn meadow was the perfect place for his new hobby; bird-watching.

Bobby pulled his binoculars up to his eyes and located the tall blue spruce in the far southwestern corner of the meadow that was home to a flock of siskins. They popped in and out of the pine like tiny yellow fire-crackers against the evening sky.

“Beer, Bobby,” said a voice as the hinges of the backyard gate announced a visitor.

“Harv,” Bobby nodded and took the beer he was offered.

“Good bird-watching tonight?” Harvey asked. He sat in the purple chair, which was arguably the most comfortable, but had a trick left arm that would collapse at random. He pulled his binoculars up to his eyes.

“Yep,” Bobby replied.

“Pine Siskins?” Harvey asked.

“Yep, pine siskins,” Bobby replied.

“M’hmm,” said Harvey.

“Yep,” said Bobby.

A light wind blew through the meadow, tossing the heads of the wildflowers left and then right. A wild peacock cried out to the pinkening sky, shining with barely visible starlight.

The hinges announced another visitor.

“Bobby,” came a voice alongside the burst of carbonation as the cap was lifted off a cold fresh beer.

“Jimmy,” said Bobby.

“Jimmy,” said Harvey.

“Harvey,” said Jimmy. He brushed a little bird shit from the arm of the blue chair and then sat down. He took out his binoculars and looked up at the sky.

“Ladies all here,” said Harvey.

“Ladies all here,” said Jimmy.

“No Axel,” said Harvey.

“Nightmares, Hanna said, s’m’thing bout giant dander’lions and undead vermin, just us boys tonight, boys,” Jimmy said.

The clouds eased their way from sections of blue into the emerging sun-kissed orange that blazed over the peaks of the distant mountain tops.

“What’s the event for tonight?” Jimmy asked.

“Mountain grackle,” said Harvey and turned to look at Jimmy through his binoculars.

“Mountain grackle,” Jimmy said and peered back at Harvey through his binoculars.

“Swiss mountain grackle, supposed to be a whole murmuration of them,” Harvey said.

“A murmuration of Swiss mountain grackle,” Jimmy whistled through his front teeth.

“Whole murmuration,” Bobby nodded.

All the men went back to peering into the meadow as the the stars burned a little brighter and the sky grew a deeper shade of blue. The shadows stretched across the valley and the sun began its decent on the horizon.

“At yer’ 3 o’clock, you hear?” asked Jimmy.

“Lot of noise,” said Harvey.

“Lot of chirping,” said Jimmy.

“Sounds like a murmuration,” said Harvey.

“Whole murmuration,” said Bobby.

A full moon opposite the men’s view had risen, appearing a little larger than usual. A dog barked in the distance and a second dog followed its lead. The stars grew larger.

The men stared at the sky through their binoculars. They nodded every now and again.

The chirping grew louder and the stars grew brighter and then suddenly, and with very little warning, a star popped through the clouds and slammed into the field with a mighty thud.

It was followed by another thud and another and seven more. The bright pops of light crashed into trees, uprooted patches of wildflowers, slammed into the earth, and splashed into streams.

The men kept their eyes, binoculars focused, on the darkening sky until several dozen of the thuds came to an end.

“Were that, uhhhhhh,” Harvey said, letting his sentence dangle unfinished.

“I believe it were,” Jimmy said, matter-of-factly.

“They dead?” asked Harvey.

“I ‘em thinking they dead. Looks to be the whole lot of ‘em too,” said Jimmy.

“A whole murmuration,” said Bobby.

Fresh soil splattered the men’s shirts as another thud occurred twenty feet in front of them. The golden-haired angel in white toga had fallen face down into mud, wings bent and broken awkwardly, a harp twanged a broken string as a halo rolled across the bumpy ground and landed over the toe of Bobby’s left shoe.

The grackles chirps grew closer from the distance. The men kept their eyes out for...

"The whole murmuration," Bobby said.