Preface

EXT./DAY/ANGLE ON A BROWN MOTHER DUCK AND SMALLER DUCK

In November and in the water.

CLOSE SHOT ON MALE HUNTER AND SHOTGUN

He sits in an aluminum boat in hunter orange and fires the gun with a SHOTGUN BLAST. A black lab leaps from the boat and into the water! The dog swims away from the boat.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

Ya got them both!

YOUNG BOY

(complains)

Dad …

MALE HUNTER

I didn’t mean to.

Cuts to: Male Hunter pulls the duck from the grasp of the dog’s mouth which is treading next to the boat. The dog turns and swims away.

CLOSE SHOT ON THE FROZEN SMALLER DUCK

With an outstretched left wing briefly before an eagle swoops down and picks up the duck in its talons and flies up and away with it!

MALE HUNTER

For the best, since it is small.

ANGLE ON PLUCKED DUCK BREAST ON A SPIT ABOVE THE FIRE

Being rotated by a small motor and in a nice glaze. ZOOMS OUT to include both hunters who are seated on folding director chairs in their hunting clothing, and while holding a bottle each. 

OTHER MALE HUNTER

I don’t think you should bring him hunting with us, again.

MALE HUNTER

(staring at the fire)

I know.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

What is he eating?

MALE HUNTER

Mixed nuts and seeds.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

Nuts and seeds?

MALE HUNTER

Ya, it’s the birds’ way.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

Birds’ way?

MALE HUNTER

Birds eat, seeds and nuts.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

What does he drink? Juice?

MALE HUNTER

No, just water, since birds only drink water.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

Well he didn’t get that from you?

MALE HUNTER

My mom’s side, of the family, it’s their national saying … We took only what we needed. Wild duck is one of the best cholesterol fighters. Beats a pill.

OTHER MALE HUNTER

I’m sure the eagle agrees.

(raises his bottle towards Male Hunter)

Cheers to, birds of a feather.

MALE HUNTER

(moves his bottle over to the other)

Stick together.

Male Hunter CLINKS bottles with Other Male Hunter, they draw their bottles to their mouth, and take a drink.

INT./ANGLE ON THE BOY

Seated on the front passenger seat of the pickup, with his head down into his crossword book while he has a pencil in hand, a plastic container with a spoon and mixed nuts and seeds: almonds, cashews, pumpkin and sunflower, rests on his knees which are tight together.

CLOSE SHOT ON THE PUZZLE BOOK 

Rhymes. 6 down: The crow always _ _ _ _ _ (plural). 

The Boy fills in the blanks by spelling ‘k-n-o-w-s’.

ANGLE ON EAGLE OVER THE DUCK ON THE SHORE

As the eagle straddles the duck’s wings and lowers its beak, and pecks into the side of the bird and keeps doing so … until it pulls something out between its beaks, and then takes flight, leaving the injured bird behind. An animal grunts nearby. Another fainter grunt. PAN over … to the lumbering old brown bear with wisps of grey as it slowly walks to a rotting trunk. The bear swipes her left paw across the trunk’s bark, she sticks her nose into the trunk, slowly turns around as a trail of bees follows her nose then swarm around the bear as she walks away from the trunk, across the ground … past her original spot on the portage … and to the duck as the bees leave the bear and take turns landing onto the duck’s wound and then fly back to their hive as the duck jostles about and the bear turns away from the duck … 

ANGLE ON APPROACHING BLACK WOLF 

With a large deep metal cooking pan in its mouth as it trots along and slows as it approaches the settled duck, and lowers the container before the duck who just stares at the black figure next to it. The wolf directs its snout to behind the duck, then nudges it ahead with the duck flapping its uninjured wing and waddles forward, and into the pan with a bit of a splash. The wolf taps the head of the duck down, and into the water with the duckling getting the message as it pecks the water and drinks, and drinks again. The wolf grabs the rim of the container, lifts it up, turns around, and moves along the portage, it slowly walks along the path, around the lying bear with its snout along the ground as her eyes are closed, and past it, further, past the open trunk with no bee activity, and MOVING SHOT following the wolf, past the trees on either side of the pathway … to the other lake’s shore. The wolf puts down the pan, looks up, into the distance, and at the group of five ducks who are paddling around closely together. The wolf turns away, and moves off to the left, climbs the hillside, to a small clearing on top of the rock. 

The wolf turns its head and is able to view down at the injured duck, looks over to the five brown ducks which are moving around aimlessly. Further still is a lone loon, which looks this way as it lets out a wailing call.

From the higher vantage point, the loon is spotted close to the orphaned duck, it waddles out of the water and onto shore with a small crayfish between its beaks. The loon lowers its head towards the duck’s, the duck pulls the crayfish out of the loon’s beaks and eats it. The loon turns away and walks back to the water and into it, then swims away as the duck studies its adopted mom. FADE OUT.

CROW

Caw! Caw!

FADE IN TO POV BLACK WOLF

At the still lake in the early morning, the loon nearby in the water. View over and down to the shore, with the other ducks seated around the injured duck who has a brown rabbit leaned against its left side. The wolf looks to behind the ducks as a fox is low to the ground and slinks towards the ducks. A gray wolf leaps from the hillside down towards the startled fox who spins to confront its much larger adversary! The fox backtracks, turns and runs away with the gray wolf giving chase as another gray wolf joins the first, the fox dodges around the trees trying to circle back but cannot because the two wolves keep it moving away!

Look back to the ducks and rabbit, but the rabbit has left along with the able bodied ducks, the lone duck is looking off to the water while still. The black wolf turns, moves down the hillside, and to behind the duck, grabs the pan from the edge, moves over to the bushes to the left, tilts his head down and pours out the water. The wolf moves to the lake, dips the tray into it, scoops up some water, lifts the pan and takes it over to the bushes, dumps out the water. It looks up, another gray wolf occupies its vantage spot on the hillside. Back to the water the black wolf goes. The black wolf scoops up another container full of water, backs up with it, to beside the injured duck, and lowers the pan onto the ground before it. The black wolf nudges the injured duck to the container with its snout, the duck is able to help more and enters it. The black wolf looks up as the loon is close by. The black wolf backs up, turns to the hill, and climbs it, passes the other wolf and continues to climb.

The black wolf moves towards the two gray wolves with blood around their snouts as they are over the carcass of a moose, with some flesh left on its hind leg, to which black wolf feasts.

From the lakeside vantage point, the gray wolf watches as a brown mother duck paddles with eight young ducks behind her, towards the five orphaned ducks who take notice.

MOTHER DUCK

(as she swims by the other young ducks)

Quack!

The five ducks paddle to follow the others as they all move this way …

The hen walks out of the water and to the injured duckling. Mother duck leans forwards, and places her neck against the young bird’s neck. Mother duck turns for the water, walks forwards and into the lake, the injured duck moves over the side of the container, onto the beach, and into the water too as the other young ducks paddle around and wait. Mother duck leads the way, the injured duck is fully able to paddle behind her. The other young ducks join in behind, and away they all go, as one big happy team …

THE END

NARRATOR

Birds of a feather, stick together. Blackbirds, are blackbirds.

ANGLE ON A FEW SMALL BLACKBIRDS FOLLOWING A FLYING CROW

A small blackbird swoops to the crow and pecks it, dives and is replaced by another small blackbird which pecks the crow, dives, the third blackbird flies up to the crow and pecks at it. 

     The blackbirds give up the chase and turn away from the crow which continues to flap away. 

     Walk along the sidewalk and to the lake as a couple of doves are eating from the ground along with some grackles, as I near they take flight, and from the yellow and green leaved tree: two doves fly with some grackles to the left, a dove flies with the other grackles to the right. I stop and pause.

NARRATOR

But … white birds were eating with blackbirds. And they flew off together.

I continue my walk, guided by the railing along the lake’s edge, curve to the left and walk along the waterfront.

Upon my return home, backtracking the way that I came, I walk past the area where I saw the doves and grackles. Nearby I spot the three doves eating with the grackles on the lawn of the hotel’s grounds, again I stop and pause.

NARRATOR

But the white birds are eating with the blackbirds. The doves are eating with the grackles, and the peaceful dove does not seem to be bothered by the grackles. They are eating together before they migrate. They must migrate together. Strength in numbers.

Out for a walk along the nature trail, spot a crow up in the tree near its top. 

CROW

Caw, caw!

NARRATOR

Ya, I see you too.

Continue walking along, look around, no other bird or animal in sight.

     Out for another walk, see the crow on the wires, just sitting there, not moving, I continue to watch it as I move by, it turns its head, surely an eye my way.

     A crow swoops down and towards the cedar tree, disappears inside of it. Movement within that tree in the neighbour’s yard, as the crow seems to be jumping from branch to branch, searching for something. A grackle flies into the tree, and another. The crow flies out of the tree with something between its beaks. A grackle flies out of the tree after the crow, squawks as it flies in a circle, lands on the chimney top and continues to squawk in an alarming way …

     The grackle breaths noticeably while not emitting a sound, flies into the cedar tree and disappears.

     I sit at the computer, reading the article off the screen. Grackles are not blackbirds, they are part of the oriole family. They look black from a distance, but have a shiny blue around their necks and heads. They are not from the blackbird family.

NARRATOR

So that is why, they are not friends with the crow. And the crow took the grackle’s baby bird, and ate it for a meal, no wonder it went crazy. All that nest building, to have its young bird to raise for the season, taken away, maybe having time this year to have another.

Walk along the gravelly road, two small crows eat from it.

NARRATOR

Are they eating sand?

A crow caws to the left, from the middle of the poplar tree, I look up at it.

NARRATOR

Ya, I know, I see them.

Look to the two small crows, they get nervous, and take flight into a neighbouring tree with the watching crow. They caw at me too.

NARRATOR

(look at them and speak sarcastically)

Sorry, for interrupting your meal on the trail.

I continue to walk along.

Open the blinds from the den with my morning coffee, and look out at the robin digging in the lawn for a worm, joined by a grackle, it pecks at the grass too. They are joined by a spotted brown and white bird, with a long pointed beak and a red upside down triangle on its back neck, a black triangle around its front neck.

NARRATOR

Have to look that one up.

Continue to watch as three different species of birds peck at my backyard grass for food, the robin and grackle happy with eating a worm, the bigger bird just digging away at a spot with its bill.

NARRATOR

Birds of a feather, do not necessarily, stick together. Although, they all do have feathers, and are birds.

Down by the lake, at the beach, there are gulls on top of the shore, just sitting there, gray gulls mixed in with the white ones; a sandpiper jumps about by the water’s edge near the cattails; spot the brown ducks along the water’s edge further away.

NARRATOR

Again, different birds of a feather, sticking together.

Continue from the parking lot and onto the paved path, concentrate on my footsteps ahead.

     Along the lake, amongst the shrubs, see the little brown birds jump from branch to branch, sparrows fly from the trees across my way. I continue along and see the redwing blackbirds flutter about and move away from me in their gathering flock. 

NARRATOR

More different birds together.

Up further still, starlings take flight from the cattails along the lake, and head to the dead tree just standing there.

NARRATOR

I think I walk lightly, but they still fly away from me.

In the distance, the crow sits in a tall tree with its back to me. 

CROW

Caw!

Gulls cross my vision with the crow.

NARRATOR

Sparrows with redwing blackbirds, plus starlings, crow and gulls. They all seem to get along.

Look off into the water, there’s a loon, some ducks, gulls sitting on the lake, the loon goes for a dive.

August 29th, 2014: open the den’s blind with my morning coffee in hand, and see a couple of flickers (those spotted white and brown birds with an upside down red triangle on the back of their necks) digging in the ground, no not two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight of them! They are spread out under the pine trees of spruce and balsam, pecking away, in comes some starlings with their spotted chests, they peck at the grass, a sapsucker flies onto the trunk of a balsam tree, see it for a second and then it hops to the far side and out of sight, a few grackles swoop down onto the grass, the sapsucker flies away, a robin lands onto the lawn, another robin too.

NARRATOR

I can’t believe my eyes. A gray day and look at all of this activity at 9:10 a.m. in my backyard!

     A chipmunk appears from the right and my neighbour’s lawn, moves under the fence and close to a flicker, too close as the flicker pecks at the chipmunk who moves away a few inches, moves close to the bird again, the flicker charges the chipmunk who rushes away. The chipmunk comes back towards the flicker, who turns and moves away, the chipmunk feeds on a seed, the flicker moves even further away.

NARRATOR

The chipmunk is jealous that something else is in its territory.

The chipmunk turns, and runs away back under the fence and through the neighbour’s yard. Something flies before my sight, a couple of feet up, and stops, a greenish hummingbird, turns its back to me, see its rapidly flapping wings for a few seconds, it moves to its right, its first resting place is taken by a second hummingbird for a second and then they both continue on.

NARRATOR

They are all feeding for their long flight south.

The starlings take flight and away, the grackles too, the robins leave as well, sparrows swoop down and into the gardens, the flickers take notice and hop towards them, chase the sparrows away, a few flickers leave the yard, and a few more, one flies towards the sparrows, and off it goes leaving one behind. A young loon flies over the house with its laughing call …

NARRATOR

The season is cooling and they all came by to say good-bye.

The sparrows fly away!

NARRATOR

So much diversity in the summer. Soon the geese will fly south too … Thank you birds, for visiting me this spring and summer. It has been a joy to watch and learn from you.

THE END

EXT./DAY/ANGLE FROM SECOND FLOOR BALCONY ACROSS THE AIRPORT TARMAC

At a lone white cloud above the stand of trees in the otherwise blue sky. Below the cloud but not directly, a column of brownish gray smoke rises. Look down to the left at a rectangular device which is strapped to the forearm, touch an icon with a map of the United States appearing, tap onto South Carolina, tap onto an airport, center the lake surrounded by trees on the screen, as it is labelled: 33rd Sanctuary. A finger taps 33rd Sanctuary. A description appears: a former sanctuary for unwanted pets. A metal door rolls up to the lower left, a diesel truck starts up, a door is closed, the truck is put into gear, look up as the truck moves forward, onto the tarmac goes the fire engine as it accelerates towards the smoke with flashing lights, a water cannon is on top of the truck, the cloud is gone, just blue sky and the smoke.

OLDER MALE

(from the right)

What’s the commotion?

Look up and to the right at older black male in light blue coveralls. 

YOUNG MALE
A fire at a former pet sanctuary.

OLDER MALE

(looks down this way)

Pet sanctuary?

YOUNG MALE

Yes, I just looked it up.

OLDER MALE

You are going to fossilize if you sit out here during all of your spare time.

YOUNG MALE

I can’t stay inside all the time.

OLDER MALE

Get used to it, for our trip.

YOUNG MALE

(curiously)

I notice a cloud each time, near where the smoke is now, each time I am out here, yet the sky is blue, and there is no other cloud in the sky.

The fire engine has reached the side of the runway and the driver’s side is placed along the bush, Older Male looks off to the fire, the firefighters exit the vehicle with their uniforms on, two from the passenger side join two others on the far side.

OLDER MALE

Does the cloud change shape?

YOUNG MALE

No, not really. Similar size and shape each time.

OLDER MALE

Is there water near there?

YOUNG MALE

Yes, a small lake.

OLDER MALE

Could be evaporation.

The four firefighters head towards the forest with a pair holding onto a hose each, and into the forest they go.

YOUNG MALE

But it is the same size each time. You would think that I would notice it being smaller then grow in size one of the times.

     Older male looks down this way.

OLDER MALE

Viola wants us all inside. Our next exercise is prepped.

Move to stand up and do so, Older Male turns this way and around, turn in his direction to the patio doorway which he passes through, join him into the medical clinic, turn and slide the door closed. Turn back around, pass between the beds of four each on either side with medical monitoring equipment this side of each.

MOVING SHOT THROUGH THE AIR AND TOWARDS THE FOREST

With the lone cloud above the sanctuary, rise up and fly towards it, the cloud is about three hundred feet above tree level, fly towards the center of the cloud which starts to rise, rise up to adjust with the cloud which continues to move upwards at now a quickening pace as we arc up towards it, the cloud moving faster than our speed, causing this craft to move towards vertical and enter a vertical ascent and begin a spiral upwards with the cloud continuing to move up up and away, this craft starts to slow, turns over with the camera rotating to heat seeking view: a white circle inside a dark circle with then white around the dark circle, this plane enters a dive, the camera rotates around to the regular camera view, and this plane arcs for the lake before the way, a burnt spot of several trees, switches to the heat image of the view below, curve to the left and slow, a small heat signature, rotates around to the camera view and zoom in upon a, brown hare running towards a burnt dock with charred vertical posts, the camera rotates around to the heat image, continues to fly around the shore of the lake, around the north side, along the east side, spot a smaller heat image, the camera rotates around to reveal a brown rooster on a stump, rotates to heat seeking, around to the south shore as a flame is emitted from an area, rotate around to the camera while the view is burnt up.

ANGLE ON A VERTICAL MONITOR

View up and to the right to Older Male in his blue coveralls.

YOUNG MALE

And what animal breaths fire?

OLDER MALE

(matter-of-factly)

A dragon.

YOUNG MALE

A hare, a rooster, and a dragon …

OLDER MALE

A rabbit, a rooster and a dragon.

YOUNG MALE

What is the difference?

OLDER MALE

North American to Chinese terms or signs.

YOUNG MALE

Why would there be, Chinese signs or animals in an American pet sanctuary?

OLDER MALE

And don’t forget, the cloud that moved away from your plane.

YOUNG MALE

A dark image, with a bright center.

OLDER MALE

The propulsion source probably in the center.

YOUNG MALE

Then a craft cloud.

Older Male nods. 

YOUNG MALE

(getting excited)

The dragon started the fire in the forest!

OLDER MALE

There you go. And it has happened a few times.

YOUNG MALE

(continues)

The dragon has a temper.

OLDER MALE

It has yet to control its fire.

YOUNG MALE

(curious)

Still more questions. When does it tame its fire? Why only three animals?

OLDER MALE

I’ll leave that to you to figure out.

Older Male turns to his left and leaves, the door splits apart as it slides to the sides, he steps into a hallway and turns right. Turn back around and look at the blank screen.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

(to the left, finger onto the screen and swipes right)

As head of security …

(keeps swiping right)

I am concerned with what happens when the dragon runs out of food.

(the charred bridge is shown)

My theory, the dragon eats the other animals. He likes to cook his meat first. The rooster would move to a high spot like the stump or post certainly first thing in the morning. The dragon attempted to roast the roaster, and did so for another bird, burning down the dock.

ANOTHER MALE

(to the left and behind)

We have attended to four fires this year in that area.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

Then we must capture the dragon before he leaves the sanctuary in search of food.

Head Security Male pinches the screen, touches the top infrared icon, mapping the three animal locations which form an equilateral triangle, and with the southern location being much larger than the others by a factor of one hundred.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

I’ll set it up.

EXT./DAY/ANGLE ON DEAD DEER INSIDE THE METAL CAGE

Bloodied fur, open eyes. PAN up, to the open mouth of the cage and the edge of the forest.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

(VOICE OVER)

Road kill.

Out of the bush on four legs walks the young green dragon, stronger back legs, its tail flaps side-to-side with its steps, it enters the cage, past its center, the door tilts down from the roof of the cage to slam behind it, to which the dragon spins. The dragon turns back around, breathes fire back and forth across his deer’s belly. The dragon takes a bite of his meal.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

(VOICE OVER)

Told you so.

EXT./DAY/ANGLE ON TRIPLE CAGED DRAGON

Three sets of rectangular barred cages: a small inner metal cage containing the dragon with an earth floor; a middle cage about fifteen feet from the inner cage’s bars, a concrete tunnel at one short end: from the second cage to the first and with a metal door with a bottom flap door there to the inner cage; about a twenty foot gap between the bars of the second cage and the exterior cage; each with a caged roof.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

(VOICE OVER)

The second cage, is flaming distance away from the first set of bars, to protect the feeding workers, who feed the dragon through the tunnel, via a motorized cart that travels down the tunnel, tilts and drops the food into the dragon’s pen. The outer enclosure is a backup line of defense for the public.

ANGLE ON THE TUNNEL AND CART

With deep sides to the cart as heads of broccoli and cauliflower are shovelled into it by a worker.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

(VOICE OVER)

A vegetarian diet reduces the dragon’s flaming abilities.

ANGLE ON THE LEANER DRAGON

The now golden dragon munches on green vegetation in the 33rd sanctuary and finishes chewing on his mouth full. The dragon takes a few quick steps and takes off into flight, to over the water, and is able to fly high, as a domed hexagon cage covers the sanctuary.

HEAD SECURITY MALE

(VOICE OVER)

Given his trimmer physique, he is able to fly even higher than before. Remember kids, always eat your vegetables to stay healthy too.

THE END

A true story.

I started snowmobiling in the year 2000. Previous to that I had driven one a few times, and ridden on the back of one about five times. It was suggested that it would be an opportunity to explore the land and frozen waters in the winter time around Moose Factory. So I went out and purchased a used machine. 

From the bird perspective, I never saw too many of them on my trips. Of course I saw the crows when I set off from my rental, but only a couple of other species. 

A whiskey jack or gray jay would come to visit the campfires hoping for a treat of food. Interesting how those birds always found my snowmobile buddy and me. About four o’clock in the afternoon, we might see a grouse high up in a birch tree eating the buds. Spotted a snowy owl near the mouth of the Moose River where it joined James Bay. The bird was quickly lost into the sea of white to the horizon, broken by pushed up ice some twenty feet in the air. A land of few trees, more like bushes, so I guess there was no place for them to call home. 

I sold the used sled and bought a new one. It was shipped up by freight train. A treat to me for the four to five months of winter. Saw a lot of animal tracks, but no actual animals. I was warned about crossing paths with polar bears. In March the mother would be protecting her newly born cubs and could swipe a snowmobiler off their machine. Never saw a bear in the wild. Told that I might see a moose. Never did. Saw a lot of tracks for either wolf or fox.

After five years in Moose Factory, I decided to move on to a new teaching community as I wanted to teach a different grade that was not available at my then present school. Five years in one grade was enough for me and I had to leave, pushed from the back of my mind. 

To make a long story short, I purchased a second new machine. I looked to see what the trappers rode on and then made a similar choice. I preferred to go a bit bigger in the engine department than most so that I could power through the slush should I encounter some, as I rode mostly alone. 

The fresh air weekend escapes into the land of white, cleared my head and my mind. I felt refreshed to the core. I had the opportunity to travel, seek adventure, build a fire, cook a meal and boil a pot of water for tea. Alone with my thoughts, able to sort them out for a new plan for the week ahead. 

Again there were a lot of tracks. And the whiskey jacks found me out there too.

I was fortunate to find a couple of snowmobile buddies who bought used machines. It gave me a better sense of security as two could probably survive better than one, and cellphones did not work in that area. Still a lot of tracks.

Time to move on again. Flying out on a passenger plane meant that I could not bring my stuff with me. I was able to send totes and boxes on a charter to their home base. It was most of my accumulated belongings to that date. Had a couple of trunks stored at an aunt’s and uncle’s place too. But of course there was the fairly new snowmobile to get out of there. My most expensive item, more in value than all the other stuff combined. I was hoping to have it flown out too. That never happened over the Christmas break. Onto plan B.

I flew up to the community with my snowmobile clothing in a duffle bag. I was met at the airport by my sled’s caretaker, the store manager who sold me the machine. I got to ride my sled back to her store, through the small community of three hundred, Cat Lake in northwestern Ontario. I stayed at her guest apartment and got to chat with her husband who was one of my snowmobile buddies there. I was to ride out and follow the trail south to the neighbouring community as I had done the previous year with a nurse friend and her husband (my other snowmobile buddy). If I had done it once, then it would be easier the second time. 

After some sleep, I got dressed just before daylight, got into my layers, and I was ready to go. Rolled my duffle bag into a back pack with survival kit: my kettle, some water, tea bags, some chocolate, snack bars, a small axe, compass, army knife, spare gloves and balaclava. Got gas. Then said good-bye to the store manager. I went up the road on an overcast morning, over the snowbank, to the start of the trail at the summer boat launch, able to view where the trail should be on the river from the higher vantage point. Should be, because the wind blew in the trail the night before. I knew it existed because I had seen it the day before. 

I left confident that I would find the trail. Onto the river I went. I could feel the machine bog down in the snow and slush, so I pinned the gas even more. I stood up with my knees bent which took some weight off the track. I also weaved the machine to the left, and right, trying to find the hard packed surface that I knew existed somewhere under all that white. I could not get stuck so close to my start. 

After about a mile and a half, my speedometer and odometer were in American miles, the best way was left of an island where you had to stay close to the shore because there were rapids further to the left and open water. I knew from the previous year’s rides that solid ice was near to the shore.  At last I could ease up on the throttle, and go slowly over the bare ice, thinking that I should have a better chance of finding the trail on the other side.

Once around the island, I paused and surveyed my route. Again it was like a blown in mess of white. That was not part of the plan. Off I went, hard onto the gas again, going into deep snow, at least not slush, I turned left and felt my machine rise up onto harder packed snow, curved right a little and kept the whole machine onto the trail at last, able to reduce my speed, and sit down. My legs were relieved. Not easy to stand and ride. And then I realized that if I looked closely I could see the gray indentations of the previous snowmobile’s skis on what should be the trail, so I followed them. 

The next landmark was a four foot wide break in the trees across what was a spit in the summer time. I knew then to curve right. Again I was able to see the gray indentations. On I rode, realizing that this was not going to be an easy trip. 

Things went well until I came across fresh tracks. They curved from the right onto my trail. Must have been a trapper that came down on a different route at the start which was like the top of a capital ‘T’. I rode on. I knew that as I saw the landmarks, or open water spots, islands, trails, I would be OK. 

Then in the distance the fresh tracks curved right, and I said to myself, “The Great Spirit will show me the right way.” I looked off to the fresh tracks, but I steered the sled left, then looked ahead, able to see the gray indentations again. I glanced to my right: at the fresh tracks. Was that the right way? I looked ahead, no, the Great Spirit was to help me be on the correct path and it must be the one that I was on. 

Everything seemed OK, except for the fact that I had the landmarks in the wrong order. What I thought was coming next, didn’t. I knew there was one section where I would be safe, not exactly. It was a part of the river that was as wide open as a lake, and there would be slush there. Remembered the previous year where a machine like mine got stuck in the slush, was left there, ice froze around it and that is where it stayed, until spring dropped it to the bottom of the lake. Sure enough, there was slush ahead. At least the trail appeared there.

Up I stood, hard onto the gas. It was not exactly slush, more like ice that I broke through only to kick me one way and then another as I hit ice chunks below, and was able to continue forward for about the fifty feet, onto hard ice again. I backed off the throttle, sat down and followed more white and gray. 

I thought, what are the odds of the entire trail being blown in by wind the night before? As it appeared, 95%. I just kept going, knowing I was figuring things out as I went along. I had only moments of fear and doubt. I had ridden a lot out in this part of northwestern Ontario alone, and I made it back each time. I had heard stories of others riding like me at night and earlier in the season, and they made it to their destination. 

Landmarks kept appearing, still out of order. I guessed seeing them once in one direction was not enough. The second half of the trip seemed more confident and I was like narrowing in on my way as the river also narrowed. Remembered seeing more open water than I did the previous year which kept me alert. 

I drove into the neighbouring community, of Slate Falls, through their lake and up the slope to the nursing station. It was there that I found a snowbank to park my sled on top of. I walked into the nursing station and asked to make a call. I phoned my friend and informed her that I made it safely. Can’t remember her words precisely, crazy of me seemed an appropriate translation, I thanked her for her help and that of her husband’s. Now she could cancel the search party arranged to come looking for me if I did not call within three hours of my departure. 

And so I waited outside for my ride to appear. Half an hour later they did so. A father and son-in-law. I drove the machine into the back of their pickup truck. They secured it. I got to ride in the backseat. They offered me food and some hot coffee, better than my treats as we travelled the well-kept and plowed logging road.

At our destination, they loaded my snowmobile into the back of my rented cube van. I paid them. They wished me well. 

I then loaded up the rest of my belongings from the hanger: the boxes and totes. The pilot/owner wished me a good trip. Off I went, for my fifteen hour drive home. That trail I could see. 

I wondered what those three dark spots were, coming out of the ditch ahead. I slowed as I neared them. One moose, then another crossed the road together, one just stood there and stared at me approaching. I was about fifty feet away from it and near to a stop when it turned its head, crossed the road, through the ditch, and then disappeared into the trees. Good thing I spotted them, or I would have been one with my snowmobile as it was right behind me on the other side of the van’s wall. 

At home, I took a photo of the back of the van and my stuff. A safe trip it turned out to be. 

Stored most of my stuff including the snowmobile in a container since I did not have a house. Know my mom said what I did was crazy and that I should just sell that thing. After the hard part and the expense of getting that thing, selling it was the furthest thought in my mind. Now I could ride it around my home part of Ontario. That thing had a lot of happy miles, and stressful miles, the hard days were behind it and I wanted to enjoy it some more. 

In 2015, I parted with my sled. I put 6,119 miles on it (in the forward direction as it did not record all the backing up I did too). No adventure being as big or difficult than the trip from Cat Lake to Slate Falls. Thankful too, that the Great Spirit was with me, like the eagle print on my living room wall from my best friend gained from Moose Factory, “Live strong as the mountains and true as the eagle and the Great Spirit will always be with you (Ted Blaylock).” 

Whenever I feel that I am having a tough struggle in life, I think of the Great Spirit, and I remember of having survived tough times to realize that I am tougher. This story was inspired by seeing an eagle on the day of this writing, and a pair the day before. 

I hope there is plenty of snow this winter in what some describe as God’s country. 

And there was. I walked the roads and trails, and witnessed others enjoying their machines.

THE END 

Inside an old pickup truck, the male driver gets out of the vehicle, turns inside as his male friend holds out a coffee cup in his left gloved hand and squeezes it tightly, knocking off its plastic lid and spilling coffee onto the driver’s side blue foam cushion, then onto the glove forcing him to drop the cup as the driver backs up quickly! The passenger shakes his left hand as the cup spills over the rest of the cushion.

DRIVER

Awhhh!

PASSENGER

Sorry, it was hot.

DRIVER

Ah, we’ll leave the windows down, and let it dry out.

The driver rolls down his window, the passenger turns to his door with his coffee still in his right hand, opens the door with his left hand, gets out, rolls down his window too, the driver picks up the cushion and puts it onto the top of the seat, grabs the empty cup and the lid, tosses them to the ground, closes his door, the passenger closes his door. They move to the back of the truck. The driver opens the cap’s hatch, they both reach in, and grab a bag, pull it up onto the tailgate, and unzip the gun bags, take out each a rifle as a car pulls up behind them on the perpendicular gravel road with a dust cloud surrounding the car.

ANGLE DOWN ON THE VEHICLES

From treetop view.

CAR DRIVER

Where are you guys going?

DRIVER

(to the other driver)

For a walk.

CAR DRIVER

It’s not hunting season.

DRIVER

We are, target practicing.

The car driver lets off the brakes, looks ahead and drives on. The driver and passenger pull out their rifles, push in their bags, driver closes the hatch, and locks it with a key. The men move around the truck and towards its front, passenger takes a sip of his coffee.

Along the road with short new growth trees to either side, the men are looking to the ground and slow as they near a drying up puddle.

DRIVER

(points down at the puddle with his free hand)

There we go, fresh tracks, of a bull.

The men look up and move on. Passenger takes another sip of his near empty coffee, then throws the empty cup to the ground. 

     The men look up from the road and come to a stop. 

DRIVER

(raises his free hand and points down the road)

There!

CROW

(up to the left)

Caw!

The men look up to their left.

PASSENGER

Noisy bird!

DRIVER

(raises his gun, up to his left)

Maybe we should shoot it.

CROW

(up to the right)

Caw!

The men look off to their right.

DRIVER

Another one!

The men look back to their left.

DRIVER

Gone!

The men look up to their right.

PASSENGER

That one too.

The men look down the road.

DISTANT CROW

Caw!

DRIVER

(upset)

Dang! The moose is gone.

PASSENGER

Which way did he go?

DRIVER

Let’s take a walk, and see.

The men step forward while clouds are rolling in from the distance. 

     Further down the road the men come to a stop.

NEARER CROW

Caw!

DRIVER

Stupid birds.

PASSENGER

(looks up)

Looks like rain.

DRIVER

Let’s head back.

The men turn around with their guns pointed to the ground.

     The men approach the pickup truck in the pouring rain, the men go directly to the cab, they open their doors, and the driver reaches up for his cushion.

DRIVER

My cushion is gone!

PASSENGER

You should have fixed your seat, long time ago!

Shaking his head driver gets in the truck, both men roll up their window. Driver then hands his gun over to the passenger.

DRIVER

Hold onto this, better than my coffee.

PASSENGER

Ya, ya.

The passenger takes the gun, both doors are closed.

DRIVER

Ohh, that spring.

The driver reaches into his pocket, and takes out his keys. He puts his key into the ignition, and turns on the truck. He turns on the wipers, with the arms scraping over the glass.

DRIVER

(complains)

No wipers! The blades are gone!

He turns them off. 

DRIVER

(complains to the passenger)

What’s going on?

The driver puts the truck into reverse, he looks up into the rear view mirror and slowly backs up, turns onto the road behind, puts the truck into drive, and off he goes.

DRIVER

(complains)

Can’t see a thing!

As rain continues to hit the windshield, driver rolls down his side window.

The driver puts his head out his side window. An empty logging truck approaches and he quickly brings his head back into the pickup! Driver hits the brakes! 

DRIVER

(complains)

Who would steal foam and rubber?

Driver puts his head back outside the driver’s window area, lets off the brake, his right foot back onto the gas pedal.

Bouncing along the road.

PASSENGER

Don’t forget that big bump.

Just now the pickup hits the down bump and the front dips down then bounces up, they bounce down and the driver reacts in pain shortly followed by the passenger shooting off one of the guns through the roof of the cab startling himself as he looks above. The back of the truck bounces over the bump, the truck swerves with the back end coming around and slides into the passenger’s side ditch! Driver snaps a look at the passenger.

DRIVER

(complains)

Ya just shot my truck!

CROW

Caw, caw.

Driver presses on the gas, the rear tires spin, he hits the gas some more, the tires just spin some more. 

PASSENGER

If you had a four wheel drive …

The driver puts the truck into reverse, hard onto the gas with more wheel spinning.

DRIVER

(reaches into his pocket and takes out the key)

We’re stuck. How about you get out and push? The back. Put the guns away first, and don’t shoot up my truck again.

Passenger points the guns down at the floor, driver passes him the key, passenger takes it, opens the door, gets out with the two guns, moves down the passenger side of the truck, the driver puts the truck into drive, the passenger unlocks the hatch, he opens it, goes to put in the guns as a crow swoops down with a big part of the blue cushion and drops it down onto his head, he is startled as the other gun goes off into the back of the truck with the driver reacting like he got shot! Slowly the driver turns his head around to his right, the passenger looks at the driver. 

PASSENGER

Something landed on my head!

Passenger puts the guns into the back of the truck, he moves back, looks down at the ground, and spots the cushion piece, reaches down for it, and picks it up, stands tall, holds it above the tailgate to show the driver, tosses it into the back of the truck as the driver peers at his friend, his friend places his hands onto the tailgate, places one foot ahead of the other, pushes on his legs and upper body forward, driver mashes the gas, lets off of it as his friend eases off, hits the gas again as his friend pushes, they try to rock the truck forward as another crow swoops down and drops the other piece of blue cushion onto the passenger’s back, the passenger looks to the ground, but the truck is not going anywhere anyways. The driver spins around and slaps his gearshift into park, reaches up for the ignition and turns the truck off. The driver slides on his seat towards the passenger door, glances up to the roof of his truck with raindrops coming in, and gets out of the truck. The passenger reaches down and picks up the other part of the cushion. The driver walks to the back of the truck, the passenger rises with the cushion piece, closes the hatch, locks it, takes out the key, turns and walks out of the ditch. 

PASSENGER

(holding up the piece of cushion)

What drops things from the sky?

CROW

Caw, caw!

PASSENGER

Not so dumb, after all.

DRIVER

And the wipers?

CROW

Caw, caw!

DRIVER

(resigned)

I guess, we are walking back.

CROWS

Caw, caw!

Driver shakes his head, turns and walks off down the road, the passenger turns and joins his friend.

THE END

    It all started in grade six. The teacher asked the class, “Who believes in UFO’s?” Everyone raised their hand quickly but me. “Paul, why don’t you believe in UFO’s?”

     “Show me one,” I challenged the teacher.

     “Sorry Paul, I can’t do that,” said the teacher.

     Paul: “Then I don’t believe in them.”

     Teacher: “Who believes in Sasquatch?” Again hands went up quickly, except for a friend who half raised his while looking at me, then he lowered his arm realizing I was not raising mine. “Paul, why don’t you believe in sasquatch?”

     “Show me one,” I repeated.

     Teacher: “Sorry Paul, I can’t do that.”

     Paul: “Then I don’t believe.” 

     I can’t remember exactly what the next topic was, although it was around the time that we did ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ artwork.

     From then on, began my curiosity in UFO’s and other phenomena. It became a passionate hobby as I searched: television, movies, newspapers, books and any available media, plus my own eyewitness accounts of strange lights in the sky, all for evidence. And to answer the question, why was I so different than my peers in not believing? In the bush, I kept an eye out for Sasquatch, especially around remote communities that I taught in.

     I did see, low level lights over the years. There was a streak across the sky while having breakfast, with my mom disbelieving that I saw anything, only to hear days later on the radio that it was a re-entering Russian radioactive satellite. Just lights.

     My first full-time teaching assignment was for grade six. I really enjoyed teaching the science which included topics like … the solar system and flight. 

     My last teaching community’s school’s name was ‘Amo Ososwan’ which translated to ‘bee hive’, as the kids flew out of the hive or school when the bell rang.

     A beehive’s cell or honeycomb has six sides to it. Six represents the heart. The heart is our personal engine. The heart is ruled by Leo or the sun. Six represents the planet Venus and the sixth day of the week which is Friday. You attract more with honey than with vinegar. And honey cures infections.

     About three years ago, I got into astrology big time. My sun sign is Virgo which rules the sixth house of diet and exercise. I usually eat well and I like to keep fit. 

     I also have gotten into numerology. It involves the study of numbers. The most important number is your Life Path (Hans Decoz). My life path number is six. It was calculated by adding my birth month (9) with my birthdate (4) and the sum of my birth year (2). One of the words that matches up with six is messenger. Certainly as a teacher and a writer, I have messages to share.  

     Did you know that a dragonfly can move in six directions: up, down, forward, back, left and right?

     I believe that there are six seasons. The two additional seasons are freeze-up and thaw, after which we can travel over the ice and times when it is not safe, respectively. 

     From my others stories, I believe that birds have totem meanings. The number of sites explaining the meanings on the web have grown the past couple of years. Birds are messengers from the spirit world. Birds come into our life or yard at times more than just to eat, they pay us a visit. To make us wonder what the bird’s message is for us. So it is ironic that I did not believe in UFO’s or Sasquatch because I did not see one, while spirituality is an invisible energy and I am now a believer.

     In Lessons 22 and 33, more about the magic of numbers is revealed.

                                                                                       THE END

     It is March, time for a break, before our big trip. One more circuit around our favourite places before we travel our 2,000 miles. 

     It is dawn and it is time to leave the trees and head to our number one eatery. The grass is very short and green. Water comes out of strange places and squirts all about. 

We can only stay awhile. We have to work fast to find our 10 hearted meals. Their homes get flooded out and they swim on the grass. Then the rain stops and they try to go back into their homes. And if we do not move away, these funny usually white birds with no wings land all around us. They get helped along the way by an animal carrying a big stick. 

     Time for us to move to a park. Have to keep an eye out for those four legged animals that like to run around and chase things. More of those two legged animals are nearby, this time with a branch in hand. 

     Off to the quiet yards we go. We make sure that we stay away from the ones with the four legged animals. They just chase us away too. Oh, ohh! I turn left around that big thing: not animal and not bird, turn to the right, and fly some more, swoop and land on a fence. I look to my right, over to my left. I hop around and take a look. I’m all alone! Where did my flock go to? 

     I push off and take flight. “Chirp! Chirp!” They must be around here somewhere. This is usually where we go. They haven’t gone somewhere else? I fly higher and higher, look all about. Where did they go? 

Did they leave north without me? I thought we were leaving tomorrow. I fly some more … and more. 

Time to go to our next spot? Mind as well. They can catch up with me there. I’ll get ahead of them. I’ll wait for them there. 

     Into the trees I go. I sing my song … I know it’s not raining, and it’s not early morning, but why not? 

     Well that did not work. Only see other birds. Smaller ones, and they eat leaves or something off the trees. 

     I take flight again. Going to go where I have always wanted to check out. 

     Land onto that nice patch of green grass. I have never seen such green grass before. Even better than our breakfast spot. A two legged creature is dumping a glass of water onto the lawn. Then another glass of a different colour of water. Keeps on doing so from a cart. 

     No more pouring of liquid.  Oh look! There is a worm! It’s moving nice and slow. I hop to it! The grass is nice and wet. I grab and gobble it down! Tastes kind of funny. A lit-tle dif-fer-ent. Turn, a-round. Time for a nap.

     Wake up and it is dark. A little light to my right. Those two legged animals walk by two-by-two. I have never been this much alone. Off I go into flight. I can’t fly that far I feel weak. Land on a pole. More light and more two legged animals. And a strange bird with all kinds of colours! It hops out from its stick, and lands onto a funny tree. It squawks. The animals turn and watch it. Some get up and move close to it, and open their beak. 

     What a strange bird, and it is all alone too. It hops onto one of them. A flash of light. They all move away, onto the sand, hop around, and they go to the water. They get into a boat. Off they go. I fly away and head north. I guess I will just have to go it alone. Up to the north, to find a mate!

     Aboard the boat. Parrot: “Wayne’s Beach Bar. Wayne’s Beach Bar. Wayne’s number one beach bar.”

     Their eyes are big. Their heads move side-to-side. 

     Parrot: “I’m a cool bird. Wayne’s Beach Bar.” They move into a huddle. They all move away to the front of the boat. Parrot: “Wayne’s Beach Bar. Hi Wayne.”

     Oh. A cracker. Of course they feed me a cracker. 

     Some water. Finally some water to drink. A parrot cannot survive just on crackers. Where are they all going? Going to leave me on some strange boat? By myself? Where’s Wayne? Are you going to get Wayne? Parrot: “Wayne’s Beach Bar.”

     I don’t think they are coming back. I don’t like flying far. Fly to the side of the boat. Fly onto the dock. Take a walk down the dock. Parrot: “Wayne’s Beach Bar.” Oh, someone is coming. I fly onto the end of a boat. I fly onto the person’s shoulder. They take me back the other way. Wow, now that is a big boat at the end of the dock!

     Hey, they are going up the plank of that big boat. I have never been on one this big. Parrot: “Wayne’s Beach Bar. Wayne’s number one beach bar. Hi Wayne.”

     He takes me to a room. I fly onto my new stand. Just as quick he leaves. Not like home. Squawk!

     It has been three days. I have yet to see another bird like me. There are the black ones with blue around their heads. They eat worms too. I seem to be following them. 

     I fly down and join their group. I do not seem to be a bother to them. I join them in our feast. 

     Some of the grackles fly away! I chase after them! They fly up to above the trees. We are flying north! I have friends again!

     All those crackers. And some water from a bottle. I can’t wait to get outside. I have been in this room for days. He only comes back at night. The door opens. 

     “Awh,” exclaims the woman! She backs up and leaves.

     In walks a couple of guys. They are wearing rubber gloves. A hand is extended to me. I hop onto it. I know where I am going. 

     Finally. Some fresh air. Where am I? 

It’s nice and warm. A little more humid than I like. No trees. Hills with bushes. Lots of buildings closer by. Parrot (slowly): “Wayne’s Beach Bar. Wayne’s number one beach bar. Wayne’s Beach Bar. Hi Wayne.” I get carried down the ramp and to the shore. Oh no, a cage, so much for freedom.

     Into the back of the car I go. I move onto a box. Where am I going to now? I am able to see out of the windows. The driver takes off!

     A long drive through the narrow streets. Lots of cars to the sides. The driver seems to be in a hurry to go somewhere. I did spend too much time on that boat. Hope it’s nice where I am going.

     Oh, those are strange birds. Big birds. And noisy too.

     We come to a stop near a smaller big bird. The door behind me opens up. I hop around, see a glove extended to me, I hop onto it. I get taken to the smaller big bird, and inside. I am brought near a perch. I hop onto it, turn around. Ohhh, my favourites: nacho chips, peanuts, pretzel sticks, and looks like some water in a sipping container.  I test the water. Ohhh, my favourite kind, with some bubbles. Ohhh, I’ll have a pretzel, just one to start.

     I’ll sample one of each. How did they know these are my favourites? 

I’ll take one more of each. Just like, “Wayne’s Beach Bar. Wayne’s number one beach bar. Squawk!”

     Oh look, clouds outside the window. I haven’t been this high in a long time. Pretzels! Just one more.

     Five landings and take-offs later, I’ve finished all of my food and water. That was good. Now we are landing again.

     It is hard on the ears this landing in a strange little big bird. Where am I going now?

     The door is opened. Ohhh, it can’t be? It can’t be? It’s, “Hi Wayne! Wayne’s Beach Bar! Hi Wayne.” I hop onto his shoulder. He pets my feathers. I rub his cheek. Ohhh, it’s Wayne, he came to rescue me. My favourite two legged friend in the whole wide world. 

Into his car we go. I can be on my special swing in the back. I am so happy to see Wayne. We must be going home to the beach bar. I miss the ocean. I will never hop onto anyone else’s shoulder again. 

     To the cage I go. Wayne pets my feathers some more. Oh what a pretty picture, the waves rolling onto the shore. The seagulls are flying around. I’ve had enough of an adventure thank you. I’m glad to be back home again. 

                                                                                     THE END

     “Tap, tap. Tap, tap.”

     “Where is that sound coming from?”

     “Tap, tap. Tap, tap.”

     “Go figure it out,” mom said.

     So I left the dining room to investigate. Sounded like downstairs. “Tap, tap.” I went into the basement. “Tap, tap.” It was against the glass. I went into the workshop. There at the window was a robin. “Tap, tap.” I turned the light on. “Tap, tap.” I moved up close to it. “Tap, tap.”

     “It’s a robin, hitting the window,” I shouted up to mom. 

     “Tap, tap, tap.”

     “It’s probably thinks it’s seeing another robin, and is attacking it,” she said. “Put something in front of it.”

     So I looked around, found a white piece of cardboard, and held it up before the robin. Silence. I peeked around the board and the robin was just standing there. The robin hopped around, and then took flight. I turn towards the doorway, “You were right!”

     “Watch out for the goose, if you walk down the road. It will attack you.” I was warned at my summer work place at the Ministry of Natural Resources on Riverside Drive in Timmins. I did not need to go that way so I watched it chase a co-worker on her way home many a time.

     Then one day, it was my turn to walk that way to get something from a nearby building. The goose walked towards me, but kept its distance. I thought it was odd since it attacked most everyone else. I went into the building, exited, locked up, then curved towards the goose and back to the parking lot without an attack.

     The goose was a rescued stray. Being feed it had found a new home. Can’t remember where it went for the winter.

     I remember seeing a barn owl as a kid. It was held on a glove in a neighbourhood, a barn amongst the homes. Very alert the bird was, and quiet too.

     I made a bonfire at a camp for school kids. It was so large, that we all had to sit far back from it. I got the last watch of the fire and was assigned by the staff supervisor to ensure that it was out. It was taking forever for the wood to burn down to coals. So I went down to the lake in the pitch black with a large cooking pot to get some water. I squatted down, and begin scooping water and felt something approach behind me, only to lift off and flap its large wings up into the darkness. An owl I presumed. I guess it realized I was too big to carry. Relieved I was. I scooped up the water, as much as I could. Had to make a few trips back and forth from the lake, and did not see nor hear that owl again. Realized to make the fire smaller next time. 

     I drove around a corner at night to the surprise of an owl lifting off from the road. I checked with a town resident, and the owl liked to be there, and many people had spotted it. 

     Two years later I returned to the same area. I enquired about the owl, but it was no longer around. I guess it learned that some territories were not worth protecting. 

     Driving around a tight corner on a rural secondary highway on the way home from work. There on a wire in broad daylight sat an owl. I looked at it. As I drove past slowly, I looked in the rear view mirror to see it turn its head towards me. 

     I knew owls represented wisdom. I reasoned that wisdom was building in me. There are other interpretations too that include fear based thinking that someone near you will die. No one did die so I went with building wisdom.

     Went hunting with student families. The doormat to the cabin, the host family got permission to use, had a labelled ‘Timmins’ mud flap from a transport truck. “Paul! You’re home!” One of them shouted. In the middle of the province of Quebec there was a mud flap from back home which was about a six hour drive away. Ironic.

My camp responsibility was to watch the fire. Got kind of spooky one night when the others went to visit other families, leaving me alone. I didn’t mind much, until I heard noises in the bush. Cracking of branches. The loon shrieked across the lake. A moose called across the way. Oh, and it was moose hunting week. 

     As I have aged, I have gotten less afraid of the bush, especially after all of my snowmobile rides alone. Except that night, I retreated from the campfire’s chair, back to the porch of the cabin. I kept the fire going in the cabin too. Then the hooting begin. 

I could tell that it was coming from my right. I was not sure about whether or not there was an echo across the lake. After a while I realized that there were two owls. They were taking turns hooting up in the trees, as they moved closer to me. All I could see were the branches lit by the fire and the stars. And to make it even spookier, they got an answer from an owl to the left and across the lake. There was: one unknown animal to my near left cracking branches, a loon, a moose, and a total of three owls. Oh, and me, by the campfire, sort of.

     And the name of the lake on the other side of the fire was: ‘Soulevent’. It seemed very fitting. A ‘Soul’ ‘event’ was going on in my life. 

     During daylight, I went for a daily walk. I did not see any animals, only a couple of birds: the loon and sparrows. Had a feeling that a moose was hanging out in the nearby swamp and that it was visiting me in the night. 

     One of the hunting guides brought his dog along. The dog was smart enough to detect a nearby moose. One night the dog took off from camp into the night and ran down the road barking! The owner went after his dog. He and the other hunters gathered that there was a moose nearby and it was probably the animal cracking in the bush at night while I managed the campfire. 

     Like the dog, I thought to myself that I was developing super hearing. That I could hear every living thing around that lake. 

     As I rode passenger in a tow truck, a bird sat on the road as the truck continued to get closer. At the last possible moment the bird took off! The truck driver looked at me, I looked back at him, his eyes returned to the road ahead, as did mine. We did not talk about it because he spoke mainly French while I spoke mainly English. I could tell that both of us thought that was unusual. 

     Carpooling home from work the next day or so, a duck flew straight for the windshield of the sports utility we were in. The duck flew up and over the utility. We all commented on how that was weird. And for the record, it was just past where I saw previously, the owl on the power wire.

     A colleague who was into animal sightings and their meaning described that general area as a geographic crossing for the animals. I certainly did see a lot of birds and animals in that general area and that part of the country. 

     Another one was coming around a corner to see a flock of gulls on the road. Then they took flight as I was very near.

     Probably the most awe inspiring moment was the osprey eating the skunk on the roadside. The osprey took flight and turned to the car.  I could foresee the osprey come through the windshield. However it soared up and over the car, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw it curve, then land next to the skunk to continue its feast. 

     Thankfully the animals were respectful to me and my vehicle. It was a rock on the road that took out my car for the tow truck to fetch. Knew of a dog that fetched smooth rocks …

     Throughout my life, people have gifted me with birds. Statues. Pottery. Carvings. Tamarack birds. Prints. Paintings. Animals too: even stuffed ones. Clearly more birds than animals. 

I have gifted prints and photographs to my mom, only to get them back later in life. People can sense what type of gift suits someone. Now I accept it and add to my collection.

     Funny thing about birds: they do not need much. They do not live in a house. They do not drive a car. They do not wear material things. They are all that they need to be. 

     They fly from place to place with all that they need. They make homes from things that they find: straw, sticks and mud. Nothing fancy, just practical. They hop around on their legs or if born that way, a leg. They have wings to fly and soar. No matter the weather, they always move about. How spoiled some of us seem to be. Progress is measured by what kind of car we drive. Each to their own. I growingly admire the birds. A simple life they live.

                                                                                            THE END

     A man walks into a kitchen while holding a take-out coffee in each hand. As he nears the counter: “Here’s your double double. Is my sandwich almost ready?” He places one of the cups down as his wife is adding the egg to the sandwich using a knife.  

     She looks up at him and gives him a frown.

     A young boy arrives in tinted googles, a zebra print jumpsuit with a black belt, and black leather boots. “I’m ready,” he announces.     

     Dad: “Where’s your helmet?”

Turning away and complains: “Awwwhhh …”  The kid walks away down the hall.

     The wife adds a slice of bread on top. Dad looks from the son’s spot as the wife wraps up the sandwich in plastic. She picks up the sandwich and places it on his side of the counter. Wife reaches for her coffee, slides it over to her side, tears open the lid, up to her mouth for a sip, and takes a drink as the son reappears while carrying his helmet, and puts it on as he gets closer.

     Kid: “Can I start it up?”

     Dad (to his son): “Yes. Remember to open the garage door first.”

     Kid: “Ya.” Kid pushes off as he tightens his chin strap.

     Dad looks to his wife. “Well, got to go for our big adventure.”

     A door opens, then closes. Wife: “Enjoy your trip.”

     Dad (as he reaches up with his free hand), “Thanks.” Dad picks up the sandwich. Takes it as he turns around, walks across the kitchen, and opens the garage door and leaves. 

     The son sits on the back of the idling four wheeler in the neatly organized garage, with the garage door open, dad gets onto the driver’s seat with his coffee and sandwich.

     Son, “Where’s your helmet dad?”

     Dad places the cup into the holder, down with his sandwich by the controls, gets off of the machine, goes to the back of the garage, gets his helmet, puts it on, returns to the four wheeler, and gets back on it. He finishes doing up his helmet tight, with visor up. He gives the machine some gas, leaves the garage, pauses outside of it, grabs the door remote from its dash clip, presses it back to the door which closes, returns the remote to the holder’s clip, hand up to his visor, both father and son lower their visors, hand onto the throttle and hand grip respectively, dad squeezes the gas, and heads down the dirt driveway, his son is happy with the ride as he hangs on.

     They arrive at the end of the driveway, dad turns off the machine. He grabs the sandwich, unwraps it, raises it to his mouth, tilts up his shield, and takes a bite of the sandwich. The son climbs down, goes for a walk. Dad, “Take your time.” Dad flips open the coffee cup, raises it to his mouth, has a sip, replaces it, sandwich back into his mouth, sits back a bit and relaxes some, and continues to enjoy himself. A door is tilted open … the door is tilted closed. Dad continues to enjoy his sandwich. The boy comes back with the mail, climbs back onto the four wheeler, turns to his left, unclamps the plastic rectangular box, deposits the mail, closes the box, turns ahead and gets comfortable. Dad, “I’ll just finish my sandwich.”

     The boy looks around. In flies a blue jay into a tree. The blue jay places the shelled peanut from its mouth and onto the branch, it lowers its head and pecks at the shell. The blue jay takes out the peanut, he enjoys it … pecks the other half of the shell, and enjoys the other nut. Another blue jay flies into the tree. The first blue jay flies away releasing the shell, and then the second flies off. 

     Dad, “I need to take my time, give myself a break from your mother. It’s good to leave the nest once and a while.” 

     Son: “But birds stick together.” 

     Dad pauses his chewing and is perplexed. Dad continues his mouthful. Dad takes another sip of his coffee. 

An ostrich runs by them on the street in a gallop. Dad pretends that he did not see it.

     Son: “Look at that! Where did it come from?!”

     Dad points off to his left. Dad: “The ostrich farm.”

     Son: “Shouldn’t we go rescue it?”

     Dad: “Not sure how.”

     Son: “Come on dad, let’s be a hero, and return it to its home!”

     Dad: “I don’t know what ostrich’s like, to get it back home.”

     Son: “Give it part of your sandwich. How about a peanut? Come on dad, it’d be a great story to tell the kids at school tomorrow! Or my dad’s four wheeler can’t keep up with an ostrich.” 

     Dad: “We could just call the ostrich owner.”

     Son: “What if it gets lost before then?”

     Dad puts the coffee into its holder, recaps it, then wraps up the rest of sandwich, and places it by the windshield. He starts up his bike, moves ahead several feet, brakes, checks to his left, and departs to the right. 

     The ostrich is a ways down the road. Dad speeds up and gives chase … to the limit. The ostrich looks back over its body, turns ahead and continues its gallop. 

     Gain upon the ostrich. Close in on it, it slows, it turns for the ditch and enters it, stops along a fence as dad slows to match the ostrich. Dad unwraps the sandwich, tears off a piece, tosses it into the ditch, the rest to his mouth, and takes a bite, the ostrich watches him carefully. Dad completes his mouthful. “Needs more mayonnaise.”

     The ostrich moves to the ditch, lowers its head, and throws its head at the bread, takes a bite and munches on it. Dad reaches into his pocket, takes out his cellphone, and dials 9-1-1. 

     Operator: “9-1-1, how may I help you?”

     Dad: “Yes, there is an ostrich on the loose on Goldrush Road. The owner lives down the road, it’s in front of me now, I’m with my son on a four wheeler. Would you send a squad car to assist getting it back home? I wouldn’t want a driver to hit it and for it to get hurt.”

     Operator: “What is your approximate address?”

     Dad: “808.”

     Operator: “Your surname please?”

     Dad: “Ward.”

     Operator: “Thank you Mr. Ward.” Dial tone. 

     Dad taps his phone off as the ostrich takes another jab at the bread. The ostrich eats some more as Dad replaces his phone. Dad holds out the rest of his sandwich, the ostrich looks up at it. Its head goes down for the rest of the sandwich on the ground, and eats it. Dad passes the sandwich back to his son, who takes it, dad puts his hand on the gas, accelerates slowly, the ostrich watches carefully, dad checks over his left shoulder, and turns the wheeler to the left with son switching hands with the meal, dad to around facing the other way. The ostrich walks forwards, up and out of the ditch, dad gives his machine more power, and the ostrich follows, the son holds the sandwich out to the side, the ostrich picks up the pace, dad glances in his side mirror and powers to keep ahead of the ostrich which matches his speed and tries to catch up. Away they go as a truck approaches in the other lane, it slows as it has penned sides to the pickup truck. The pickup driver opens his door as dad slows down, the ostrich snaps the rest of the sandwich out of son’s hand to which he is amazed. The farmer closes his door, reaches into his shirt breast pocket and pulls out a sugar cube, holds it out to ostrich which moves to its owner, spits out the sandwich, and carefully takes the cube and munches down on it, farmer nods to dad, turns around with ostrich following him, dad moves forwards slowly, the farmer and ostrich to the back up the truck, the ostrich and farmer climb the wide and short steps. The ostrich steps into the back of the truck, farmer pulls closed the scissor door, to shut, latches it, the mesh tight enough that the beak cannot fit through the space. Farmer turns and steps down, over to dad.

     Farmer: “Thank you for your help.”

     Dad: “You’re welcome. I called the police for backup so they may be along shortly.” 

   Farmer: “I’ll turn around up ahead.  I’m sure they will notice us.” Farmer glances to the son, “If you both would like to visit, then you are welcome to come down to the farm. I’ll have to fix the latch there so that he will not get out again.” 

     Dad: “Thank you.” 

     Farmer: “Some people get some different pets, then don’t know what to do with them when they get big.” Farmer shrugs.  “I never had an ostrich before.” Farmer smiles, turns, and walks ahead. The ostrich is looking down this way.

      Dad turns to his son, “Looks like you have a new friend.” Farmer gets back into his truck.

     Son: “Wow! Can we get one?”

     Dad is wide-eyed at his son.

Dad: “No. We will just visit, once a year. Mom’s going to be worried about us.” Dad looks ahead, checks for anyone, hits the gas, moves ahead, up the road, the son glances back to his new friend with a smile.

     Son runs into the house with his helmet still on and visor up, “Mom you won’t believe what we saw!” He finds his mom in the living room, seated on the couch with her book, and wide-eyed at her son. 

     Mom: “What?”

     Son: “An emu!”

     Dad as he approaches with his visor up too, “I think it was an ostrich, son.” At his wife: “From the ostrich farm down the road.”

      Mom: “That’s why you guys were gone so long.” 

     Son: “Ya, we can go visit it if we want to. Dad said once a year!”

     Mom: “Well, I’m sure it would be happy to see you too.” 

     Son turns away from his mom, “Wow, cool.” Son fist bumps with his dad, then continues away with his big smile. Dad moves forwards with the mail, holds it out to his wife, she places down her book onto her lap, she accepts it, he heads over to his chair, and plumps himself down. 

     Son talks in the distance as he opens a cupboard, “An ostrich, need to buy some sugar cubes. He liked it better than your sandwich. And dad said it needed more mayonnaise.” 

     Dad quickly flips down the visor on his helmet as mom shoots a frowned look at her husband! 

     Mom eases up, smiles and shakes her head, and looks down at the mail. Dad is motionless.

                                                                                   THE END

     My brother and his friends were building U-control model airplanes. It looked interesting and I wanted to build one too. 

      I used my paper delivery money to finance a new hobby to go along with my: hockey card collection, stamp collection and comic book collection. I choose a red winged aircraft with a single propeller engine. 

     It took me about forty hours to construct the balsa wood frame, skin it, and add a chemical liquid dope via paintbrush that hardened the skin. One had to apply the dope in limited exposure given its strong odour. I choose not to put on the supplied decals. After a winter of building, we were ready for a late spring flight day.

Being the youngest, I let the others show me how it was done. The most experienced pilot took the lead. It required standing in the center of a circle, with the U-controller in hand, as two wires were attached to the controller and to the edge of the inner airplane wing, while someone else held the airplane and started the engine by spinning the propeller with a stick. Once the engine fired up and idled, the handler moved out of the way, released the fuselage and the pilot rotated counter clockwise with the speed of the plane, going round and round, got a little fancy by changing the elevation of the plane and upon the forth and a half revolution he drove the plane into the ground into a broken mass while also stopping the engine! Disbelief by the pilot quickly became sobbing. 

     Over one hundred hours of building an experienced flier, and a few minutes of excitement had ended in tears.

     After about ten minutes of collecting himself and the plane, it was my older brother’s turn. He spent about sixty hours making his blue wonder, all decaled out. 

     I think that one went around a few times before it too crash landed. Its damage was minimal, but still required a home fix before another attempted flight. 

     And so it was my turn. I did not feel that confident, never have done this before, and only had the knowledge of how it was supposed to be done. Also, the flights before me were by more experienced pilots, and gave me little faith that I could match them nor better them.

     So I got ready in the circle, the engine was fired up, the plane was released, and around I went, surprised at how fast I had to spin on my feet! After one revolution of: off the ground and to a level flight, I thought I would introduce a dip. One and a half revolutions and my flight too ended in a crash. 

     Upon closer inspection of my plane, it was a write-off. I did have the engine and the decals as a memento and keepsake. And so ended my interest in U-control airplanes. 

     I knew I was better at flying a kite. And it was so much less time consuming and expensive as well.

     For a good work-out, throwing projectiles became the pastime.  Frisbees and footballs seemed more practical and more fun. And basketball shooting too to practice for the school team. Sadly I was better at basketball assists and rarely sunk a basket in the presence of others.

     Speeding up to 2014: spotted an unusual or different bird on a drive near where a neighbourhood boy did modelled glider flights. It was a small to medium sized bird, with a tail like a swallow. I watched it land onto the top of a light pole. 

     It took me quite a long time to research its name on the internet: a kite. The kite is like a falcon. 

     On a walk, I saw a kite in action. It hovered over a field while flapping its wings, looking surely into the grassland below. It swooped down and moved forward where it hovered some more. I continued on as I walk for exercise and try to keep moving until I am back home.

     During an evening when the sun was setting there was quite the sight in the sky. About three hundred gulls were dipping and soaring in front of my sight above the neighbourhood rooftops in the distance. They gradually moved closer. They must surely be eating something in the sky. Insects they must have been. Certainly insects that I could not see. And then there was a kite the bird, doing like the gulls. That bird was all over the place in front of me. Until I realized that there was not just one, nor two, nor three, nor four, but five of them! Previously in my life, I was only so fortunate to see one by itself in a few different locations, and then that evening I saw five! I watched as they flew over my home, and over the backyard and then they disappeared behind the neighbour’s big deciduous tree, never to reappear. 

     Looking up the meaning of kites, and falcons, it basically represents: making the most out of opportunities (http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/falcon.htm). 

     I guessed that it was a message to me, to be like a kite the bird. To move swiftly, and take the opportunity to do what I enjoy a lot. I like to write. What do I like to talk and write about a lot these days? The birds of course. And in the year of the horse. To wonder about what the birds know. What they teach us. Yes, the summer is so full of diversity, and as the years pass, I get to see many more birds than ever before, all above my own backyard. 

     They say that the weather is changing. It must be because there are different birds in this area, than there were last year or in previous years. And I live in the same neighbourhood now as I did from the age of three to thirteen. What new birds will appear next year?

     So my fascination of things that fly, has gone from model airplanes, to observing actual birds. My life has gone to the birds.

                                                                                         THE END 

I flew into the community for the start of another year. 

After settling into my tree, I set out to find the other bird with whom I was to fly around with. 

I found birds I knew from previous years. After we chirped a bit, they suggested two places of where I could find my air buddy. 

Off to the first one I flew. Discovered a young bird, not as young as I was told, and yet she was familiar, not like Deja vu I know you for sure from the past, just I know you. 

Off I went to the second place. It was there that I found my flight buddy. We arranged to take off together in the morning. 

Back to my tree I went. It was that time of year where old mixed with new, and myself, I felt somewhere in between. Life for me has been a series of one year adventures. For me each year began in the fall.

Off we went. I instructed the other jay that he was to be the navigator, to alert me of any dangers, as we had quite the flight. We went around corners, over hills not knowing what was at the bottom, over a dirt road, then onto asphalt which was mostly flat with few trees, a sharp corner, to the hills surrounded by trees, and into the bowl shaped land. It was there that we were to instruct the bees.

A slow buzz of activity always on the first day. Got to get organized and a feel for the place. Met all the other birds from last year, a reunion of sorts. The young bird wanted to fly with me and the other jay the next day. Interesting to fly as three.

Every day we would sail the 32 kilometers one way, do our work, then travel back. Got to share conversations about our interests, and listen to each other’s different tunes: whistles and beats. Found out that my first navigator was actually a crow. 

The crow sees things from the higher perspective. They are always watching up in the tree. They are vocal birds that communicate well with other crows, and even alert other birds and animals if someone comes into their territory. Different has a way of shifting the way you look at life. So we became two blue jays and a crow, traveling together. But even the other blue jay saw things another way. 

I started to wonder what was happening to me. I thought I knew this world pretty good. I knew at times I was like a chickadee and spoke the truth, a promise I made to my father. Plus the promise to both of my parents not to do any recreational drugs. Only a few times in life, did a bird offer me some, and each time I did say no. I became an extra thinking bird.

I also guessed things before they happened. And if I didn’t say predictions out loud, then the bees would express my thoughts. The bees were very perceptive. Plus there was an owl to share his knowledge too.

All kinds of other birds and animals started to appear. Saw eagles on takeoff and landing. Groundhogs and moose would hang out on the roads. Was always lucky to steer around the much bigger them. Somehow the presence of the other jay and the crow were opening up my life.  Life was like a spiral out from the circle. 

Certainly both challenged my words. I no longer seemed like the expert I thought I was. The skies are so blue, but what was beyond that? I had to keep my eyes on the trees. The trees were home and a source of food. 

A lynx leapt across the road in the winter a couple of times. My favourite yet rare animal. Another lynx let me exchange eye contact with it. Saw a coyote for the first time in about thirty years. It was an unpredictable animal, raced up ahead, then darted to the left as I got near, only to change direction and run towards my back. An elk for the first time. A beaver crossing the road. The sand cranes landing in the fields. After all my travels through the bush, the animals and birds were all letting themselves be known to me. 

And through all that time I knew too there was something special about that other jay. She reminded me of a younger version of myself, but in the female form. 

I saw a rock one morning and said to myself, “I better remember that on the way home.”

On the way home, I was chatting it up with the crow. And forgot all about that rock, standing up on its edge like a brick. I was too low and I hit the rock. It caused me to stumble. The crow felt sorry for me. I was an injured bird. It was June 11th and we had 11 more flights to go. 

I said to myself, “I have seen two 11’s, where is the other one?”

The next day, a bee showed me his device that had, 

’11-11-11’ on it. He thought it was rather cool. I asked, and within less than a day I received. 

Back to confused I was. The other birds were acting a bit weird too. The bees were growing unsure. Right to the end of the year. Only for a graduation of the older bees, and the end of the school year. Off we were to go to our summer homes, yet I would not be returning either, nor the other jay, nor the crow.

I felt that it was a whole new world, even though I was in the same body. I wanted to find work closer to my home for a change. It was where I was supposed to be. I saw a thrasher for the first time. A bird not common to our area. Even if I did not take flight during the day and stayed near my tree, other birds would come to visit, in their variety of colours and sizes. Only for the geese to fly south. Then ducks. Plus the loons disappeared.

I was left with the usual winter crowd: the other home jays, the crows, the squirrel, the chickadees, and another visit by my favourite animal.  I looked down the road and could not believe my eyes.  They were not two dogs approaching as I could tell from their pointed ears. I moved closer to the street to see them prance along: a large cat and a smaller one at its side. Yes a lynx, with a woman walking behind them too. 

I watched as they moved into the neighbour’s yard across the street and one house over. The mother cat started sniffing. I was concerned for the neighbour’s small dog. The cats then went between two sheds and were gone. The woman said that she had not seen a lynx since her farm living days and that her and her husband used to feed them. 

Into my house I went for a camera. I came back out with the cats in the other neighbour’s yard across the street, I readied the camera, and got a shot of them from the side as they walked in front of the house, only to realize that there was a problem with the camera. They continued on so light on their feet that I heard nothing. The camera was stuck in the movie mode, got only a second of them. Onto the snowbank they went, foot tracks I could study. To the end of the street they continued, through a yard and away, with another neighbour taking photos.

I did not have to go off into the bush, my favourite animal was coming to see me. How special I felt. You know how cats like birds, but they did not bother me.

More of me looking for food and debating about finding a new home. One always searches for food. One needs food. Home is where the heart is. Does that mean, wherever I am, I am home? Wherever I am, is my heart. 

Being spring, I did my best to prepare the nest. I divided every space in half. Half for me, and the other half bare. A place for her to fill in. 

Should I stay in my favourite tree of the past seven years coming at that time? The seven year itch and we want to go? But that itch sent me back home to stay. No longer did I want to travel out to find a new pasture. No longer did I want to leave each fall. I wanted to stay right where I was. 

And then I knew for sure that my mother was not well. I could not leave now. I promised that I would be there if she needed me later in life. A promise was a promise. The highroad said that I had to honour my word. So my vision was to stay home, find food, keep my shelter, and deep down hope, that my dreams and wishes would come true. The big dreams and wishes would come true. That another blue jay, my twin blue jay, wanted to be with me too!

Who is that bird?

I keep seeing that bird. She looked like a blue jay too. I keep bumping into that bird. Even when I went for a weekend adventure far from home that bird was around. 

But I wanted a free bird. A bird that could stand on their own two legs. A free bird who says, “You are number one. You are the only one I want to be with.” As blue jays are loyal to their partner. That means just the one as long as both shall live. It was the way of blue jays. “You make my heart beat full of life, my mind is challenged to be the best that I can be, you make me happy, and you give wind to my wings!”

Where was my lovebird? 

I had already searched: north, south, east and west. I had found her, but she was not with me. She went west without me. She said that she loved trees and ended up with the meadowlarks. She said she liked lakes, but went to be near potholes. I heard from a bird who talked to another bird who talked to another bird where she was.

How come my free spirit wanted me to settle down and stay home? Then I read that free spirit is not out there, but it is inside. That was why, no matter where I went, I always felt alone. The one person I needed to love, was not someone else, it was me. I needed to think the best, for me.

Still I wished for the return of my twin bird. We got along mentally, spiritually, I was able to understand her emotions, plus even though I did not agree with everything she said, I still respected what she said. Will my twin ever return?

Yet one has to do more than just look at the skies and into the trees. One has to take action and care for the one who needed it most. My mother. And as will be discussed in Lesson 22, it was the most special time that I will treasure forever.

                                                                                       THE END

Looking out the window from my mom’s palliative care hospital room, I saw so many squirrels during the day. Squirrels of black, gray, brown and the lone red colour.

Most of the squirrels were black, about eight in total. Five were gray. Three were brownish including one which had missing fur on the back of its neck. Occasionally I would see a small and fast red squirrel, almost tiny in comparison to the other squirrels. 

My mom called the area the ‘Squirrel Yard’. Being a teacher I thought of it as fitting, instead of a ‘School Yard’ was my guess of what my mom meant, as she did not elaborate when I asked her about it a few times, for clarification.

I also saw many birds over the course of the six weeks she stayed in that room. I saw what I called the upside down bird. It was a little gray bird that would stand on the bark of the tamarack with its tail up along the tree while its head was pointing to the ground. The nuthatch would place a bit of food behind the bark, take it out, move to another spot of the tree, hide it, take it out again, repeating this task about five times, before eating it. All that energy wasted trying to find a good hiding spot, or was it something from the tree that made it tastier? Then it would place its head level with the ground. A bird feeder was near the base of the tree.

Every day the chickadees would drop by. An aunt of mine gave my mom a card with two chickadees on it. I called them ‘The Get Well Chickadees’ as they came by every day to wish my mom well in bird form. They hoped about the tree outside the window, then down to the feeder. Back up into the tree, and then quickly flew off!

There were robins and grackles too. The robins were especially in large numbers. It was winter in Toronto and I thought that both species would have migrated south for the winter already. They ate from the grass, looked like seeds. 

Occasionally there would be a cardinal to make its crimson appearance. 

Plus a large bird would soar and circle high in the sky. It was not an eagle, nor a falcon.  I identified it to be a hawk. 

I saw the massive bird again, on the top of a broken tree, about fifteen feet in the air. Just looking around it seemed. It had the body about the size of a large owl. Then it moved its feet, and either a black tail or tail feathers appeared from beyond the trunk of the tree. It would tilt its head forward and peck into the trunk of the tree, what exactly it was doing was hidden by the hollowed out section of the tree. It did lift its own tail feathers at one point, and secrete a white liquid trail, then lower its tail feathers and head, to resume what I knew was a feeding. That was enough of a site for me. Was it a squirrel or some small blackbird?  I could not tell from its distance away.

Each day there was a musical performance at 2 p.m. If my mom was feeling up to it, she was placed into the wheelchair by the nurse, and I’d wheel her down for the show. My mother loved music and at home she would at least have the radio on. It was nice to see and hear the variety of acts by people who were volunteering their talents for the veterans and other residents. My mom would smile and move her right foot to the music as she was paralyzed on her left side. 

I would glance out the wall of windows, as birds and squirrels would go to the feeders nearby. 

One day, a small hawk made its appearance on top of a trellis. Audience members were as observant as myself and noticed it too. I watched the hawk closely. It constantly turned its head side-to-side. It quickly flew down to the rock garden! Pecked at the ground, then just as rapidly it flew back up onto the trellis. I glanced away to the musician, then back again to see what appeared to be a cardinal in its grasp. It just held the small red bird in its talons for about a couple of minutes. Then it pecked down at its meal and white feathers began to fly. A glance to the crowd and others were keeping an eye upon the sideshow too in angst. Back to the hawk and the feeding. I said to myself that it was snowing feathers. I did not share this fact of life with my mom as it was a dark reality or negative news. Birds, all birds can be so nice, but they do have to eat too, and some do eat other birds.

Once the performance was over, many people would head over to the other lounge. It had a fireplace, with a large mural above it of a river and farmland scene, a red barn, with in the foreground were three tombstones; some other artwork on a fur wall hanging; and some clear glass encased carvings. But the main attraction was outside the front windows. 

Between concrete dividers, the residents would sit on their wheelchairs while their attendants would sit on provided chairs. The view included a large deciduous tree, a small juniper shrub to its left, before and to the right of the shrub was the sign for the residence, and all were surrounded by a small eye shaped area of short grass, plus a sidewalk along the windows. Beyond the green space was another sidewalk, and then a two lane road. Further still was a multilevel concrete carpark: the basement and the first level near to us, then two more levels stepped up to the main entrance of the hospital.  The city buses, taxis and cars would travel along the top level, and eventually curve down before us as they departed the view towards the right. Above the hospital was one of the flight paths from planes leaving the Pearson International Airport. Yet again, those were second billing to what everyone came to see. 

A few birdfeeders were located on the grassy area. The main attraction were sparrows. They would fly out from the basement level of the parking garage, all manage to dodge the much bigger buses, and land either on the sign’s top or at the base of the juniper bush, while others went straight for the feeders, especially the two to the left. The odd time a lone pigeon would join the feast on the ground. I called it the bachelor pigeon because there was just the one and it reminded me of me.  The pigeon was mainly grayish blue with a radiance of rainbow colours to its chest area, it liked to eat and eat, much more so than the smaller sparrows. It did not matter if people or even if a grey squirrel walked by, the birds would continue to feed. Then for some reason the sparrows would fly away across the road to land on the railing of the first level or to under the first level. Only to come back again.

Visiting family members would talk about the squirrels and sparrows with the residents. I would discuss what we saw with my mom too. She said that she liked being there to see the traffic, and the people, just like her apartment back home faced the busy highway. My mom liked seeing people in action. We would stay for about an hour. Total time of being in the wheelchair averaged three hours a day, with some weeks being a few times while other weeks would be just once. It all depended upon how much strength my mom had and what she wanted to make her day better. 

Back in the room I would put on music for her. I brought in a couple of her CD’s from her car. She liked instrumental music too, and for the first time I learnt that she liked jazz. Until darkness, I would report any bird sightings, then it was time to close the blinds.

My mom stayed long enough that my favourite winter bird appeared, the blue jay. It would make a brief appearance, more like into a tree for me to spot it, then off it went! Saw many woodpeckers too. Some with red on its crown while others did not. I researched these to be either downy or hairy woodpeckers with the male having red on the crown while the females did not (Wikipedia). During my daily walks I often saw the largest North American woodpecker which is the pileated. When a woodpecker taps, higher messages are about to be received. We have to use our intuition to figure out what those lessons are. When the woodpeckers stop visiting, then we have learnt our lesson.

And yes, more visits by the hawk, which got even closer. I was able to see its hunting pattern. It would place its back to the feeder, its feathers blending in well with the tree while it had a whitish front, and looked side-to-side and a little back too. If it did spot a smaller bird, it would push off and swoop towards its meal and give chase. That day, I wondered why the hawk was giving me it seemed like plenty of opportunity to witness it. Hawks stand for discernment, and in my case, knowing who I could talk about birds with, and who were not really or at all interested for their meanings. My mom said that she did not mind if I talked about the birds.

The other bird I would see often was the crow. ‘Crow’ or any word has two vibrations to it, the vowel vibration and the total sum of all of its letters. The number to letter guide is below.

1 = A, J, S.  2 = B, K, T.  3 = C, L, U.  4 = D, M, V.  5 = E, N, W.  6 = F, O, X.  7 = G, P, Y.  8 = H, Q, Z.  9 = I, R.

[O = 6, (C = 3 + R = 9 + O = 6 + W = 5 = 23 = 2 + 3 = 5)] or CROW = 6, 5

One day I said that I wanted to buy my mom a decoration for her room. She did not have any suggestions other than she requested it be something from here (the veterans center gift shop). So down there I went. I came back with two owls, one for her room, and one for burning a candle inside (on the annual day of souls: November 2nd to honour souls of past loved ones, Maria DeSimone). The owl has the vibrations of 6, 5. My mom’s first name has the vibration of, you guessed it, 6, 5.

Through the years, people have bequeathed me birds: prints, statues, carvings etc.  When we give a gift to someone we have the ability to find a fitting vibration that will resonate with that person. Sometimes we do not realize why until much later. It is like a way of foretelling our future. I was given a rooster and could not figure out its meaning until after I got into the word vibrations. Rooster’s vibration is: 8, 11 along with oriole (robin and grackle are part of this family), squirrel, coyote, numbers, energy, enduring, emotions, and Milky Way. So rooster and squirrel and numbers and energy have the same vibrations. Now it makes sense. That was what I was to discover, and the intelligence was going to keep giving me taps like the woodpecker on the tree, until I figured it out.

And what does sparrow add up to? Answer: 7, 11 sparrow, boat, my, super consciousness, vibration, rhythm, lymph, intimidation, competitive. So sparrow gave me the word of vibration. 

Other interesting facts … My mom’s favourite colour was yellow = 11, 11. Her favourite bird was the goldfinch = 6, 6. Her favourite season was the spring = 9, 11 (she was born during this season). I learnt a lot of details about my mom that I did not previously know. 

Since letters were made from numbers those numbers can be added. And there is a pattern. Squirrel yard was a school yard since there were lessons to be learned. 

After a total of three months in the hospital including palliative care, my mom passed away on February 4, 2015 at about 5:35 p.m. It would have been still daylight and mom’s spirit would have seen the birds on its way up to the Heavens = 11, 11.

I was not present when my mom passed. After she lost her voice and I had a vision of my father, seated behind the steering wheel in a car in my home driveway and facing the street, dressed in a dress shirt, tie, red scarf and overcoat, with a large smile on his face, even though I did not own that house while he was alive, I made the decision to say good-bye to my mom, told her that I would be OK on my own, and yes that I loved her.

Together my mom’s and dad’s full names at their time of meeting equaled 1, 7, the same as hawk.

More is explained in Lesson 33.

THE E

[Updated September 2019]

After I turned 48, I began to take interest in the conspiracy theories, to better understand the kids that I was teaching (the bees). Like a spider’s web, it lead me in many different directions. I studied Feng shui, bagua and pagua. Then I received in my sleep the idea of the chart below. 

6     1     8

7     5     3

2     9     4

Figure 1.1

If you add the numbers, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, example: 2+5+8=15 and 1+5=6, they all add up to 6. I kept the ‘2, 9, and 4’ along the bottom since it matches up with the sum of my birth year, birth month, and birth day, (which when added equal your life path number), and formed the base of my life. 

I also knew from Hans Decoz, there existed master numbers: 11, 22 and 33, being higher vibrations of 1, 2 and 3 respectively. So the chart then became:

6                     1 below 11     8

7                     5                   3 below 33

2 below 22     9                  4

Figure 1.2

Using the alphabet's number equivalent, I calculated the value of words. There are only two letters with 9 while all other numbers have three letters.  I believe the third is blank to represent 0 since 9 added to any number can be zeroed (ex. 1 + 9 = 10 = 1 + 0 = 1 or 1 + 0 = 1).

Review: each word has a pair of vibrations. The sum of the vowels and the sum of all the letters. The previous example being for crow that had the dual vibration of 6, 5.

I wondered if Figure 1.2 matched with the compass directions as calculated below:

11,7 flower, positive, mother, hello, wonder, northwest

6,3 grackle, sandpiper, butterfly, ox, candle, strong, of, lost, ancient, special, perspective, son, mate, amethyst, north

3,3 duck, hairy woodpecker, relationships, cosmos, moon, moods, wood, gut, northeast

5,4 grouse, red finch, harmony, questions, yes, eight, minded, nest, endurance, runaway, computers, vulnerable , west

6,9 fox, mermaid, Autumn, real, world, base, reality, head, XOX, know, health, eleven, brown, steward, answers, forbid, threat, extreme, east

5,33 inner, peaceful, kidneys, selfish, southwest

9,2 kind, equal, midst, catalyst, south

6,11 ostrich, wisdom, no, partner, sales, change, between, same, lake, bingo, independent, southeast

Special note: the letter ‘Y’ is sometimes counted as a vowel as in the word ‘by’ as it has an ‘I’ sound while in the word ‘honey’ it is silent so it is not counted as a vowel.

Interesting too that the word ‘eight’ has the numeric vibration of 5, 4 and ‘eleven’ has the vibration of 6, 9. I have yet to figure out why the number word and numbers do not match.

So if you stand facing north (6, 3), imagine an ox, be strong and say the matched words, to get perspective on your life. 

The locations from Figure 1.2 were moved around so that they were true to the compass directions to form the chart below.

4, 4     North     5, 5

7, 7     33,33/3,3 

8, 8     6, 6          9, 9          

                          22,22/2,2

                          11,11/1,1

Figure 1.3

All directions hold true except that 3, 3 or northeast is not located in the northeast box, but for 7 out of 8 locations the chart is accurate. There are no directions with ‘1’ or ‘8’ in them, but ‘11’ is a higher vibration of ‘1’ and is actually above ‘1’. In Figure 4.0 below, during the sun sign of Aquarius where I live, the sun sets in that part of the sky (southwest).

8,8 albatross, transitional, summer,   Aquarius, helpful, sunset, crystal, navigator, goodness

Figure 4.0 8 Vibrations

Since 11, 7 is northwest, I kept 7, 7 in its location rather than putting 8, 8 there. 

I constructed a grand chart I call the Numtionary (num for numbers instead of dic for words). I wanted to see what birds matched what words. For example, in Figure 4.0, albatross matched with helpful. Being helpful is a value we each can aspire to. So a chart that was true to the compass directions, was matched with birds and values.

 4,4 meadowlark, quartz, adult, thankfully                                                     5,5 titmouse, tiger,      

                                                                                                                                     life, key, circle,          

                                                                                                                                     infinite, nerd, den,         

                                                                                                                                     aura, when,       

                                                                                                                                     bells, house,       

                                                                                                                                     Michiel, kindness  

 7,7 parrot, great blue heron, goat, atomic,       33,33 (Guidance to World) 

      Archangels, Capricorn, collective, material,    3,3 duck, hairy woodpecker,  

      area, unconditional, magenta, develop,                 relationships, cosmos,  

      fearlessness                                                          moon,  moods, wood,  

                                                                                        northeast,  octave, gut

  8,8 albatross, transitional, summer, Aquarius,    6,6 goldfinch, raven,              9,9 junco, moon  

        sunset, crystal, navigator, goodness,                   messenger, I,                           unconditional             

                                                                                                                                         love, survivor,

                                                                                        mockingbird, owls,                  square, our,  

                                                                                      worm, dreams, great,             instinct,  

                                                                                         top, messenger,                      oxygen  

                                                                                       peak, valleys, optimism         helpful     

                                                                                                                                    22,22 (Action of 

                                                                                                                                           Vision)

                                                                                                                                      2,2 galah, 

                                                                                                                                            Shaman, 

                                                                                                                                            rara 

                                                                                                                                     11,11 (Vision) 

                                                                                                                                        vulture, horse,    

                                                                                                                                            monkey, 

                                                                                                                                            heavens, 

                                                                                                                                            galactic,   

                                                                                                                                            yellow, 

                                                                                                                                            practical, 

                                                                                                                                            successful, 

                                                                                                                                            telegraph, 

                                                                                                                                        collaboration 

                                                                                                                                      1,1 starling, 

                                                                                                                                           egret, lamb,  

                                                                                                                                           personality, 

                                                                                                                                           warm, air, a, 

                                                                                                                                           Eden, feel, 

                                                                                                                                           watch, bank, 

                                                                                                                                           and, intellect,  

                                                                                                                                           vitality, flash,                

                                                                                                                                           nocturnal, 

                                                                                                                                           perfect, map, 

                                                                                                                                          "Trust the 

                                                                                                                                        Process" 

Key

SoulUrge (Moon) #, Divine (Sun) #, Bird with that vibration, Words of same vibration or energy,

Value with that same vibration    

Figure 5.0 Matched Vibrations, Words and Values

Whether it is the moon or sun number, both in Figure 5.0 are the same or consistent for any time of day. Or it is double the energy during the time of a new moon when the moon and sun are conjunct, and lasts two weeks until the full moon (Dr. Loretta Standley). I am testing the summation of the degrees of the new moon from: http://www.drstandley.com/astrologycharts_2015_Moon_Phases.shtml with Figure 5.0 for guidance or as a mind compass. An example is from April 18th, 2015 when the new moon was at 28º, with 2+8= 10 and 1+0=1. My theory is that 1, 1 energy was present for two weeks after the new moon. In my part of North America, the starling appears when the weather is getting warm and we need to Trust the Process of seasonal and personal change. Again like Feng shui, one should face the correct direction to map out your life. 

Only through common world values, can we fully appreciate life on this earth. Birds are spirit, they represent our voice or our song, like the meadowlark we should live each day thankfully (as my mom said thank you often in her final months).     

4,4 meadowlark                            5,5 titmouse

       thankfully                                      kindness                  

7,7 parrot              3,3 duck           

      fearlessness          gut

 8,8 albatross        6,6  goldfinch    9,9 junco

        helpful                  optimism          cheerfulness   

                                                          2,2 galah

                                                                 rara 

                                                           11,11 vulture 

                                                                  collaboration

                                                           1,1 starling

                                                                 Trust the Process 

I am so interested in birds and animals that I research their totem meaning as well. It may be a sign of the times, since music makes reference to animals. How many songs have wolf in them? ‘Vuk’ which is Croatian, does translate to ‘wolf’. A synchronicity? 

Following the suggestion from linsdomain [no longer on the Internet], I have a power (animal) and a spirit (bird) totem which I refer to at times to see if I am on my life path (6) to my dreams (6, 6).

This is one of my power totems since it is part of my surname:

6, 2 wolf, page, gold, flow, rock, songs, "It's OK", steady, jealous, death, gavel

I included negative words like ‘jealous’ and ‘death’ since they are part of life, unfortunately. 

Next is a spirit totem that I have many examples of in my home:

3, 2 loon, seasons, canoe, ocean, music, system

I found first name vibrations on: www.sheknows.com/baby-names [but they are no longer provided].

And for even higher numbers, usually seen in clock times like 3:33 that we see often, visit Melanie Beckler’s angel numbers at: http://www.ask-angels.com/spiritual-guidance/angel-number-333/.

I hope that you enjoyed the lessons in Book 1!

Paul

Share your thoughts at: vukstarpro@gmail.com.  I am old fashioned and prefer email communications. 

                                                                                   THE END