Angry Birds

It was one of those rare moments I was home alone and my imagination was on fire. I sat in front of my computer, lost in my own little world as I worked on my next book. During times like these, I'm fairly oblivious to everything around me. Time absolutely flies with only my grumbling stomach as a reminder I've been sitting in one place too long.

Of course, if someone calls or the doorbell rings, I'm aware enough to respond. On this day, however, it wasn't either of those things that drew me away from my writing zone. It was the sound of something banging. Usually I dismiss such sounds as the kids doing something that I probably don't want to know about, but should respond to. But then again, I was home alone.

The sound was random enough that I couldn’t image what could be causing it. I tried to dismiss it, but it kept happening. Finally, I had to investigate. I went upstairs and looked in each room, trying to find something out of place, but found nothing.

I heard it again, and it came from downstairs. We've lived in North Carolina now for over three years and are still getting use to things we hadn't experienced elsewhere. Like the time I was mowing the lawn and I saw a stick on the grass ahead of me. At least I was sure it was a stick until it lifted its head and stuck its forked tongue out at me. And in that case, I did what any self respecting man would do. I screamed like my 8 year-old daughter and promptly ran the snake over with my mower. And I let it still there a good couple of minutes so I wouldn't see any trace of the slithering creature.

Thoughts like that ran through my head as I headed downstairs to investigate. I got to our main hallway and stood there, listening for it to happen again.

For a long, drawn out moment. . .nothing.

Then, there it was again! The sound came from kitchen area. Upon entering said location, I noticed a red cardinal sitting on the porch right by our sliding glass doors. I stood there for a moment and watched as the bird flew to one of the trees behind our house and perched itself on a branch. While this was odd, it didn't explain what was making the sound.

That's when the cardinal flew from the tree and right at the sliding glass doors. The bird hit it, creating the sound I'd been hearing, but not hard enough for it to hurt it or our window. It was one of the oddest things I'd seen.

I didn't want the bird to hurt itself, so I closed the curtains, hoping to trick the bird in thinking there was a solid object there. It seemed to have worked because I didn't hear the sound after that.

What makes this whole situation somewhat surreal is that my youngest daughter and I like to play a game on my cell phone called "Angry Birds". In this game, birds hurtle themselves at objects and buildings, trying to crush the evil green pigs inside that have stolen their eggs.

I'm not an evil green pig, and I haven't stolen anyone's eggs. But one of the birds in the game is a red cardinal. Life imitating art?