SOLC3: The Bird

 
  I knew the assignment. I had to go through my neighborhood and find the quietest place. I had been trying to do that for a while. It had gone nowhere. My phone was dead, my fingers were cold, and I was honestly bored out of my mind. I thought to find a spot and then go home, but none of the spots I found felt quite right. This one was too close to the main roads, that one had a loud dog. They just didn’t work. I sat down. How was I ever going to find somewhere quiet in my little neighborhood? And then I saw it. It was a little brown bird sitting on a tree limb, just looking at me. I wasn’t sure quite what to do so I walked up to it. It flew a tree away. I followed it again and it flew a bit further. It began to fly through the neighborhood, stopping only occasionally appearing to make sure I was still following. It zipped through tight cracks or up and over rooftops. Yet, I continued to follow it. It flew down one street and took a sharp turn. I ran after it catching myself as I turned into the alley. There it was sitting on the ground, peering up at the sky. I began to walk toward it and it took off, soaring into the sky. I watched it slowly grow smaller and smaller as it went farther and farther away, until it was absolute nothingness. The bird became just another layer of the bleak skies. It was gone. I was crushed. My time had been wasted and I still had to do my project. And that’s when I heard it. That quiet. It wasn’t silence of course, I couldn’t have found that. It was sort of just quiet. And I was okay with that. And I’m okay with telling this story now, even though it’s my own personal story. Even though it’s never been told before.