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Grape, the Christmas Bird A Christmas Tale by Celia Downey In The Beginning December swirls in bringing Jack's Old Friend. Years ago, Jack had named her Christmas Grape. She is a Blu Jay and flies in at Christmas time. Today is cold and grey outside, lonely leaves flutter and wave good bye on the trees, the sky is blank. Jack, Jack Russell Terrier, sits intensely and warm inside while peering out the front windows. Hmmm, he anticipates an event, zoned in on some event I cannot yet see. Perhaps it is a Helicopter. Jack watches for those air choppers and announces their arrival with great barking and blah blah blah. Suddenly Jack stands on all fours, alert, blowing steam on the window, spotting an incoming from the Northwest, flying low and flying fast. Jack snorts and begins a slow wag of his short stub of a tail, shares a low yowl, and then relaxes back on his haunches. Jack locks on as his Old Friend, a bedraggled starved bird slams into the tree limb and plopples onto the rocks. Jack whines, steaming through the window, wiggling with joy of her arrival, yet distressed due to Grape's crash landing. Jack prances and dances at the front window. "Get up, get up. Help her," he pants in panic. This is a big humdinger of an event. Grape, the bird, is Home for the Holidays. However, Alarm Bells rang in my head while watching the stunned bird lying limply on the rocks while snow covered her bluish, purpled, and frozen body. Jack continued to whine, wag, and look from me then back to his old Friend Grape. Jack said, "Go outside and rescue Grape before Willow the Cat finds her! Hurry, Hurry!" I replied, "Are you ignorant? Yes, Grape needs rescue from the frozen snow and needs food. Just look at her." Through the window I saw a blue crumpled frozen blob lying on the ground. A true Rescue Mission waiting to happen. With deep thinking, I asked Jack, "How should we rescue Grape?" "Use the Deer Catching Gear from last year", Jack yelped. Now that was a good idea and that I did. Jack grabbed the orange camouflage gear from the back closet. He quickly brought the snow goggles and snow shoes too. Little toenails tapping, he had not for gotten anything. I was ready to rescue Grape from the frozen snow. The Rescue A Crash Landing is difficult for all, particularly and mostly for those who crash and heartbreaking for those who witness the tragedy. It is also difficult for those who perform the actual rescue of the crash victim during a blowing blizzard search and rescue mission. The Rescue Mission consisted of Three; Me, Myself, and I. Fortunately Jack had kept the "Deer Catching Gear" from the last year, somehow knowing we may need it in the future. Crawling into the gear, I told Jack to "Get Back, you may not go, too cold. Just watch from the window!" Then sliding over the iced front porch, I spotted Grape, the Rescue Victim, covered mostly by fallen snow by now. Jack, from the warmth of his TV watching cushion shouted through the window, "Over there, I see her blue wing sticking up from the snow bank. Go slow, Willow the Cat is in her bed in the back." Jack's comforting words were barely heard over the winds, the white out blizzard decreased the visuals. Trudging onward through the whiteout... then sure enough, through the binoculars, I the spotted a blue purplish wing reaching up from a snow bank. I was approximately three feet from the front porch, it seemed like three hundred feet. "Pick her up, quick, bring her in...Yap, Yap, Yap. Hurry. Grape is cold! Grape is starving," yelled Jack. I yelled back at Jack "Shut up, we have a situation here!" Jack and I gave each other bad looks while I tucked the frozen bedraggled Blue Jay under the Deer Catching Gear from last Fall. Through the blinding snow, Grape, the fallen bird, and I slid back across the iced porch and stumbled into the warm house. Jack locked the door behind us and wisely put Willow the Cat in the sunroom. Jack was as excited as he'd been when he found Wee Baby Possum on that cold Fall morning. Again, Jack panted, barked, whined, and danced around on his back legs. He wanted to see Grape. I had to show Jack the flyswatter for him to understand the magnitude of the Rescue! Stay Away for Now. Jack understood and retreated, curling with Wee Baby Possum in the warm corner of the room. Placing Grape on her side in her Gilded Cage, Grape peacefully slept in the heat on her red Christmas towel, safe and warm. Purple/Blue on Red in a Golden Cage. The Colors rang of Christmas. Christmas Eve Night Jack whined and continuously wagged his stubby tail. "It is Christmas Time, why can't I just see her?" Later that night I softly placed Grape's Golden cage on the floor. Grape and Jack exchanged glances, like glances in the night. Peering in at the Bird, now at eye level, Jack whispered, "Hey Grape." She weakly raised her head and smiled at Jack through the cage. Jack took a deep breath, wiped a tear, and said, "Grape fills me with Joy." Grape whispered, "I love you Jack," and slept. I shed a tear too. Grape was home, she slept, warmed by the white tree lights. Jack resumed watching his Christmas Movies, waiting for Grape to thaw. Jack and Grape were at Peace. It was a Silent Night for all. Christmas Morning The next morning Jack resumed acting ignorant while demanding to examine Grape, our now warmed bird. Grape was not a Grape. Grape was a Raisin, shriveled and starved. She had flown hundreds of miles to reach her Kentucky Home Family only to tragically crash land into the tree by the window. If Jack had not spotted Grape coming in low, slow, sideways and frozen, we do not know what might have become of our Christmas visitor. Jack has a knack for spotting trouble. He had found Wee Baby Possum, who by the way is fine. During the last three weeks Jack had been scanning the skies. Last week he randomly said to me, "Best be getting some snacks like Raisins and Flakes boxes at the Dollar Gentral." Christmas Food Hmmm, Jack has an innate ability for knowing the unknown, however; his pronunciation is atrocious at times. But I listen to him. So Jack and I put on the snow chains and to town we crunched to buy a box of Raisins and Flakes. Jack danced and pranced around in the shopping cart while yapping, "Get more, get more. We gotta get plenty of Holiday Food for Grape and her friends." "Well of course we do have to have plenty, a box will not do in this snow storm Jack. Let's just go to the Bird Food Store. We will get plenty there. So onward Ho we go. With the car trunk laden with 500 pounds of Bird Feed Jack was Happy. We crept through the blizzard towards home, to Grape. Grape was Happy while she thawed and squawked around in her safe new bird cage. Willow the Cat purred from the sunroom while Wee Baby Possum smiled from the corner. I unloaded 500 pounds of Bird Food. All is Good and Christmas Dinner is ready. GOOD GRIEF! LESSONS LEARNED:
Celia Downey 2018 This story was posted on 2018-12-27 14:45:31
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