The Window

The story below is taken from "The Powerful Influence of Odd-Eyed Oliver and Other Stories".

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     The blackbird may have been frozen with fright...Or maybe there was a devious intelligence there that understood he was in no real danger and he was just teasing Celeste? Celeste is my orange tabby. The cat’s teeth were chattering at a million miles an hour as she sat poised on the window sill. Her tail flicked side-to-side with only a slight delay at the end of each sweep. Her excitement was palpable. The bird sat motionless on the outside ledge just inches away. Its head was tilted so that it could keep its unblinking eye on Celeste. The only thing that separated hunter from prey was the screen in the open window. The standoff went on for what must have seemed like an eternity for the parties directly involved.
     Finally, Celeste pawed at the seemingly hapless bird and struck the screen with an audible “thud”. But, the bird still did not fly away as it seemed he surely would. The cat sat there momentarily with her paw against the screen frozen in mid-pounce. The bold bird then began to squawk loudly and dance from one end of the window ledge to the other.
     At first, Celeste did not seem to know what to do. As the taunting strut of the avian demon continued, the shocked cat turned to me and began meowing loudly as if she was in serious distress. I went quickly over to the window and picked her up. She just looked at me and continued crying out as I petted her in an attempt to calm her. The bird kept up its victory celebration. Celeste finally quieted a bit after I told her repeatedly in my most soothing voice that “everything would be alright”.     
     The little tormentor on the ledge seemed to lose interest in the game when he saw...

To read the rest of "The Window", please click the following link: The Powerful Influence of Odd-Eyed Oliver and Other Stories