Run Rabbit Run

Run Rabbit Run 4

Lara frowned. Somehow she hadn't pictured Ivy as the natural type, but she shrugged her shoulders. Cool people always had quirks. "Uhh sure."

"Great!" Ivy latched onto her forearm, practically dragging her to the back yard. She pried open an old tin bucket till she got at the seeds inside, then filled up the feeder. She made sure to spill plenty below it.

"Some birds feel safer feeding on the ground," she explained to Lara. Lara thought the bird feeder had seen better days, deep scratch marks were chewed through its wood. Bits and pieces of it lay scattered in the dirt but Ivy looked at the finished product with satisfaction.

"Now what?" Lara asked. Ivy put her finger to her lips and slowly backed up, leading Lara to the porch. Crossing her legs as she sat, Ivy faced the feeder, watching, still as a whisper. "Now we wait."

None of this was what Lara had expected. She had pictured Ivy as far more likely to offer her a beer, than make her watch a bunch of dumb birds, but hey a new friend was a new friend. She settled down, making herself as comfortable as possible on the wood as she tried to relax. Ivy however, sat bolt upright, her arms wrapped around herself in a tight hug.

The sun began to darken, shifting the trees into silhouettes. Lara shivered. She wasn't an outdoors kind of person. She wished she had brought a sweater. Hoping Ivy would get the hint, she tucked her hands into her pockets, and gave a little shiver. Ivy did react but not in the way Lara had hoped.

"Don't move," she said softly. "They won't come if they know we're here." Then her face lit up. "Look."

A group of small birds, cardinals, wrens and a bluejay had found the feeder and were blissfully eating the seeds. Every now and then, one of them would look up and stare cock-eyed at the sky, but then seeing nothing, it would dart back down to its food again. Lara began to get bored as they watched. Birds were nice, but really who cared? Ivy however was on the edge of her seat, her knees locked together as if poised to jump up. Her hands were taut on the floor, nails curved and ready.

A dove appeared in the sky. Wings hovering, it tried to land near the Jay who drove it off. The dove landed a few feet away watching the other birds feast, every now and then cooing as it tried to get close enough to eat.

Lara stifled a yawn. Ivy shot her a glare that made her go still at once. Something was happening. It was as if the air had gone bad. As if on cue, all the birds rose in the air and disappeared, all but one. The plump little dove started eating happily, able to gorge itself to its fill. Lara heard nothing, but Ivy's eyes flickered to the right. She followed them. There on a branch ten feet in the air sat the hawk. It was over in a second. The hawk was there and then it wasn't. Instead a screeching blur shot down thru the air like a bullet bursting into feathers. Lara screamed, curling herself up into a tight little ball. The dove hadn't had a chance. Ivy laughed as she got to her feet.

"Show's over for tonight," she grinned, leaning over the deck. "Wasn't that amazing. Man, there isn't even a feather left over!"

"It was awful." Lara rocked, back and forth, unable to shake the softness of the dove's eyes out of her mind. "That poor bird."

Ivy's face darkened. "Everything needs to feed, Lara." Then she rolled her eyes, patted Lara on the shoulder. "Hey c'mon it doesn't happen every night, relax. You wanna go watch a movie now, or not?"

Shaking, Lara nodded. Ivy was right. Everything did need to eat. What she had just witnessed had been a wonder of Nature, not a carefully orchestrated butchery. But still she shuddered, did Ivy have to look so happy about it? Then she thought about herself, still rocking on the deck floor. How pathetic she must look. It was a bird, just another stinking side-of-the-road drive-by. Only this one had been lucky, killed the way nature intended. She was being ridiculous. What would her new friend think of her now?