The Reversal of Fates and What Happened Thus
The cross-hairs lined up with the buck's shoulder blade. I slowly eased in on the trigger. Blam! The deer mule-kicked and ran into the woods.
"Nice shot. I think you got him," my dad said sitting to my right in the stand. I leaned back against a tree and slowly let out a breath. The sun habitually splayed its light on the dew split grass and robins flew overhead. There was nothing quite like waking up with the world. We sat in the stand a few minutes watching a quirky fox squirrel scamper around on the grass. Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud racket behind us. I turned in my seat to see what it was. It sounded like a bird screaming.
"That's weird, I've never heard a bird make a sound like that before." I said.
"Me neither," said Dad. "What's that moss moving for? Why don't you go check it out." So I got out of the stand and walked over to where we saw the moving moss. Then I saw a little gray bird with a crest and rusty sides hung up in the moss, and some of it wrapped around its neck like a noose. I thought it was dead. Then it made another pitiful noise and struggled. I went over to it and gently undid its wing and tail. Then he fell a few inches and hung there from the moss around its neck. I quickly grabbed him, He struggled and tried to bite me, but I held on. The moss was very tight, and if I tried to pull it off he would choke. How did you get yourself into this mess I thought.
I eventually broke the last strand. The small Tufted Titmouse flew quickly into the tops of the trees. As I walked back to the treestand I gave my dad a thumbs-up. How ironic it was to have taken the life of one animal and resucued the life of another, both in the same five minutes.
