The Secret

It happened so fast, I opened the door and stepped outside with my dog Scooby onto the front porch. We stood there for a moment, then we walked out into the grass. The sun was shining.

I looked to the left and I saw on the ground a flurry of grey and white feathers, Scooby noticed them at the same time I did and he ran over to them, pushed his nose into the pile of fluff, and started to shake his head back and forth furiously.

I screamed at him to stop and ran over to see what he had in his mouth.

It was a dove. Plump,grey, white and alive. I yelled again at Scooby to drop the bird and when he did I picked it up. I held the dove in my hands not sure what to do with him.

The sound that the dove made as I held him in my hands was one I can't forget, a tiny clicking sound from deep in his throat, as if he were choking, once, twice, three times and the bright red blood surprised me somehow. The blood made him seem human to me.

He died while I held him.

I carried him to the bushes directly in front of me and set him down under them. His feathers were so soft and clean in contrast to the dirt. The wind blew across him touching his feathers a little. I dug out a small indention in the dirt, set the dove inside and covered him with some leaves.

These bushes were in front of my neighbor's house with the loud voice. The one who would call out at the top of her lungs across the parking lot, "Hey girl! You losing weight right?".

Now when I walk Scooby by her house on our way to the park I remember the secret in the bushes.