The Bird Lady of Mill Street

Danny Huber was an annoying, snot nosed punk of a kid, who somehow felt entitled to doing pretty much as he pleased. His parents seemed to be in a constant state of denial as to his obnoxiousness, or at best, merely wished to be oblivious to the problems he seemed to constantly cause them.

It was not that they were as wicked as Danny; rather they seemed just overmatched by his tendency to cause trouble. That they also were both college professors, and suffered from a tendency to be rather much egg headed, absentminded, and a bit obtuse and oblivious, did nothing to help them cope with such an offspring.

For his part, Danny seemed to relish his role as the undisputed enfants terrible, finding great satisfaction, and not the least bit of shame, in being the cause of much trouble, even occasionally being referred to as the Spawn of Satan.

His parents had chosen to move rather frequently, mostly to avoid having the neighbors burn their house down, one imagined, and this only exacerbated Danny's isolation and feeling of power. How many children were so terrible that they could not only force their parents to relocate, but have an entire new neighborhood living in mortal fear of his arrival, before the first box was unloaded!

That history would repeat itself, when Danny's family arrived on Mill Street, the young Ghangis Kahn had no doubt, and neither did any of the other inhabitants, except for one; the Bird Lady.

The Bird Lady of Mill Street, as she was lovingly known, was actually a wonderful retired schoolteacher named Maxine Toms, who lived in a very well maintained cottage near the south end of the street, surrounded by lush flowerbeds, which she doted over daily.

As you might expect, she was called the bird lady, because of her rather substantial collection of birds. Depending on whether a person liked birds or not, most viewed her as either charming, a wonderful keeper of feathered companions, or as a crazy bird hoarder, if they tended more to dislike birds. Maxine was apparently oblivious to any who would have criticized.

The Bird Lady also was fond of cats, but with dozens of birds in cages throughout her house, she had sadly decided to forgo the kitties out of a firm desire not to torment her poor feathered friends.

In spite of the rumors of the impending arrival of Danny and his family, Maxine had been willing to have a look at the boy on her own, wishing not to give in to hysteria; she had been a stern, but scrupulously fair teacher, and saw no need to abandon her principles before there was a need. That there might be a need to do so suggested itself early on the day of Danny's arrival, when she stepped out onto her front porch and discovered Danny standing in her bed of irises, trying to peek into her window.

"Young man! Just why on earth are you standing on the flowers?" she demanded, trying to be civil in spite of her urge to beat the boy with a broom.

Danny had glanced down, puzzled a moment, but had then glanced back up, and grinning wickedly, announced, "Because they're in my way? I'm just lookin' in the window!" he declared.

"Well please have the decency to not...you're hurting the flowers!"