The Runic Ideal

Stage 1

Birds.  I believe that's where it all began.  I remember a bird, sitting in the grass, with its small, beady black eyes staring at me, such a small thing.  With clawed feet and a sharp beak. I'm sure it was a sparrow.   I stared at it from the backseat of the car, my little sister sitting next to me, holding her stuffed bear in her arms.  My mother and father sat up front, smiling happily at each other.  I looked back to where the bird sat, and watched it cock its head at me curiously, as if expecting something.  It shouldn't expect much, it's not like anything interesting was going to happen around here. It's just a small town, with small people, in a small world.  But the bird still stared.  It's not like there was anything to stare at, it probably couldn't even see me through the window.  The way it looked at me, though, I'm not so sure that was true. 
The light ahead of us turned green, and the car began to move.  The sparrow flew away at the movement of the car, as if scared of the sudden movement, and roar of the engine.  The light turned red again, and my dad cursed the traffic.  The sparrow sat in a nearby tree on the largest branch.  The radio began to play Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, from Mary Poppins.  My sister bounced up and down in her seat to the tune and began to sing along, while my mother scolded my father for his poor use of language.  But I was still looking at the bird.  It stared at me, for what seemed like a lifetime, and if it could speak, I feel as if by now, it would have spoken to me.  Something flashed in its eyes as the car moved at the next green light, into an intersection.  The sparrow opened its small beak to chirp, and then everything went dark.