Drone Lost, And Found

I was sitting at my kitchen table trying to decide just how crazy I was and what I should do about it.

There was a knock on the back door.

“Kathy, what are you doing at the back door?”

“I was retrieving the ball Trevor lost in your yard.”

I offered Kathy a cup of tea, hoping she would decline.

“I’d love one!”

While the water was heating, the buzzer on my washing machine went off. “Let me just run downstairs and switch the laundry.” She followed me downstairs.

While I switched the clothes, Kathy looked around. Then she froze.

“A drone? I never would have guessed you to be the type. Looks barely used.”

I’m not sure what she saw on my face, but she stared hard. “What’s the matter?”

“Uh, nothing. I got it for Christmas. I only used it once. Sort of.”

“There’s a story on your face. Tell me.”

“I had trouble operating it. I lost it an hour after I opened it.”

“What do you mean you lost it? It’s right here.”

“It came back,” I answered, not sure how to explain without sounding bonkers.

“It came back? As in you called it back with the remote? Someone found it and brought it back?”

“You might say that. Let’s have that tea.”

“Sure. And we can talk about the drone story while we drink.”

I took a sip and a deep breath.

“Perry gave me the drone for Christmas. I had no idea what I would do with it, but he was so excited about giving it. He said it was a really good one with all sorts of features. So first thing this morning I got it going. I got the camera running and took it outside. I thought I’d just give it a whirl in the backyard. It went up. Then it was gone. I tried getting it back, but I guess I didn’t have the hang of the controls. It veered left, went over the trees, and then it dropped out of sight.”

“I figured it went towards Cypress Drive. I jumped into the car and searched that whole neighborhood. It must have landed in someone’s backyard. Either that or it was stuck in a tree. I gave up and came home. I felt terrible. And I still have to tell Perry I lost the drone.”

“Then I went out to run errands. I came home and started putting things away. I looked out the back window and there was my drone on the picnic table. I downloaded the video of the drone’s flight and sat down to watch.”

“There was me looking pathetic, yelling up into the sky, begging the drone to come back. Then there were trees, and it got all jerky like the drone got stuck and bounced its way through the branches. It stopped. Then a few minutes later you can hear a huge gust of wind and the drone landed at the base of the tree. Then things get wild.”

“Two big blackbirds landed in front of the lens. They stared right into it.”

“What is this thing?” one of them asked.

“I don’t know, Bungo. But it looks like the thing we saw flying around a few minutes ago. From the smell of it, it’s human-made.”

Bungo pecked his beak into one of the drone’s legs. “Feel’s like something a human would make. Hey, Juju, I’ve got a crazy idea. Let’s return it. Just for the fun of it.”

“Return it to where?”

“Tuvee! Come here a second.” A squirrel appeared. “You’ve got a really good nose. Can you tell where this came from?”

Tuvee sniffed, thought, and sniffed again. He disappeared up the tree and came back. “Yeah. I know this house. I know the dog and the cat, Charlie and Minka. She lives under the shed. It’s the house where the humans throw bread on the grass. They’ve got a feeder and hung a bunch of nest boxes.”

Bungo thought, “That’s the place where they brought a bunch of worms when the robins were born last spring. Yeah, I definitely want to return their… flying junk.”

Juju bobbed her head a couple of times. “Yeah, why not? Let’s do it.”

I heard wings flapping and the drone rose. I could see tree tops. My house came into view. Everything looked bigger as the camera got closer to the ground. It zoomed in on the old picnic table.

I could hear Bungo off camera. “Looks like the feeder’s full”. And they flapped away.

Kathy just looked at me. “So you have all this on your computer. Right?”

“That’s the problem. I deleted it by mistake.”

“How did you manage that?”

“I don’t know. I’m a tech wreck. I thought I saved it. I remember hitting save. I closed it. But when I tried to get back to it, it was gone. The video’s gone off the drone too.

Kathy took a minute to reply.

“Donna, Trevor didn’t lose his basketball in your yard. But I thought I might have lost my mind back there.”

I waited silently for her to continue.

“This morning I was coming back from Walmart. I saw two blackbirds fly into your backyard with a drone in their claws. I ran up to my bedroom window. I saw the drone on your picnic table. Then I got into bed for a good long rest. When I got up, I looked in your yard and the drone was gone. I had to see up close in case the wind blew it off the table. When it wasn’t there, I had to see if it was in your house. But I couldn’t just ask you something like that.”

I considered. “No, I guess you couldn’t. What do we do now?”

We looked at each other and responded in unison. “Absolutely nothing!”