Lucky Part One

 The following is part of a true story.

Lucky began on a cold January evening. It wasn’t snowing, but it was very cold. Mom was home, not working that day. She was resting in her bedroom. I was in the living room, reading digital comics on my laptop. We were both doing our own thing, essentially ignoring each other, or just minding our own business, to be more polite.

            At some point, we heard an enormous BAM! against the side of the house. I jumped, almost knocking my laptop off my lap. It was so loud and sudden and just so surprising. It came without any warning which, I guess are how things like this work.

            “What did you do?” Mom screamed from the bedroom. I’ve been known to throw and break things.

            For once this wasn’t me. “It wasn’t me! It came from outside!” I called back.

            Mom came out of her bedroom into the living room. Myself, well, I figured it was the deck outside the house. The deck always makes THUMP!s during the winter, the cold reacts with the wood, so I was ready to dismiss it. Mom, on the other hand, wasn’t.

            Mom walked over to the door and opened it. She looked over to the left of the door. “Oh, no!” she cried out.

            I kind of dismissed it. I was still reading my digital comics, after all.

            “Aww! Oh, no!” Mom said sadly.

            I sighed, and said almost dismissively, “What?”

            “It’s a bird. It flew into the side of the house,” Mom said sadly.

            “Yeah, like that’s never happened before,” I said, rolling my eyes. It does happen from time to time, after all.

            “I’ll go clean it up,” Mom said. Mom went to look for a shoebox and gloves. This was a standard thing for us. It happened once or twice a year. Mom had just gotten gloves from her Client that were given as a gift from The Humane Society of the United States, so she grabbed the shoebox and put on the gloves.

            I continued reading my digital comics on my laptop as Mom opened the door. She walked outside. I kept reading until she let out a gasp.

            I sighed and called out, “What?”

            “It’s still alive!” she cried out. She then started giving the baby talk to the bird.

            I just continued reading my digital comics on my laptop.

            “Come here!” Mom called.

            I sighed and rolled my eyes. “I’m reading,” I said, drawing out my words.

            “You’re never going to see this again in your life!” Mom called out again.

            I sighed again irritably and put down my laptop. I walked over to the door. There Mom was, standing with a little bird cupped in her hands. It was a cute little thing. It was looking around, confused. I could almost imagine it saying “Are you my mommy?”