If I sang good in church my new foster parents would buy me a candy bar. I sang my little heart out. I’d never gotten much candy before that. It was a pretty sweet deal. 3 songs and I’d get my pick down at Piggly Wiggly. It was in that same old grocery store, that I first encountered the small blue winged translucent bird. It took me a bit to realize that no one else could see it. It was sitting on top of the candy rack with his head cocked towards me and singing a little song.
In the following months, I would go to the store often, Little Blue Wings was always there. The small ghost bird, who showed me things. When he flew, he left a trail of golden sparks that I would follow and her song always made me feel safe and unafraid… unafraid for the first time that I could remember.
One night I was sick with the flu and had terrible nightmares, nightmares that Little Blue Wings kept flying into the glass of my bedroom window. He struck it and struck it until he died. When I awoke in the morning I ran to the window and opened it. I didn’t see anything but I could smell the smoke. I hurried downstairs and my foster mom told me the Piggly Wiggly had burned down. No one understood why I cried and was so upset. Someone joked that I was upset because all those candy bars where lost. I never ate another candy bar again.
Many years went by and I grew up and forgot all about Little Blue Wings until I was at a funeral of a good friend and I heard a familiar song. I told my friends I wanted to be alone for a bit and I walked around the cemetery looking for that golden spark or flash of blue. Finally it got too dark and cold, so I gave up and rejoined my friends down at the bar. A year later, I heard the song again out on the street and I looked around and all I saw was a homeless man, sitting on the curb, happily eating a candy bar. I couldn’t explain to my wife why I started crying. I just told her that I was happy. Sometimes, lying in bed I hear his song right in my very own back yard. Oftentimes, I still sneak out looking for the golden sparks, other times, I just snuggle up to my wife and she sleepily coo’s and I smile, as we fall asleep there in our quiet little house. The blue wings fluttering all about us.
