Omens

The Birds

The old woman drew her shawl tight around her, shivering as she leaned against the rail of the east deck. She hadn't been able to sleep. Something deep inside her aged bones had called her here, and now she stood patiently, waiting....

Far off in the distance, where the edges of the black water blended with the dark sky, she saw an island rise.

The mounded shape rose and rose, growing taller and rounder. She watched without surprise, without curiosity, in the way of someone who has seen many things and always expects to see many more.

As the thing grew nearer, the huge shape of it seemed to dissolve into thousands of tiny dark specs, and gradually she realized that it was not an island rising out of the sea. It was an enormous flock of birds, flying towards the ship.

She slid her eyes towards the crow's nest high on the largest mast of the ship, where the lookouts were supposedly keeping watch. They were turned towards the opposite deck, gesturing at a young couple kissing against the rail. Nobody else was in sight.

When she turned back, she found--inexplicably--that the flock had nearly reached the ship. It was impossible that they had flown that fast...

She tilted her head back as thousands of birds flew above her, sailing over the ocean liner. They were some type of gull, she decided, definitely sea birds. Maybe...albatrosses?

The entire sky over the ship was a mass of white and black bodies, gliding silently, their many flying masses stirring a small breeze over her.

There were many things wrong with this, she thought. They were nowhere near any kind of land, nowhere near these birds' natural homes. Nor was it the right time of year for them to migrate. It was freezing, freezing cold...

Also---this came almost as an afterthought---she seemed to be the only person on deck who saw them.

As the last straggling few birds sailed overhead, and the massive cloud of feathers glided into the west, she turned to look at the lookouts again. They had their attention fixed on the young couple, who were still kissing. None of the four seemed to have noticed anything.

The old woman licked her lips and adjusted her shawl. "Flock of birds from the east...not right, not right. Wrong season, wrong place...from the east, the east..." she murmured to herself. She paused, musing. Then she hobbled quickly across the deck and down into the ship.

She wobbled and limped down stairs and through passageways, still muttering to herself. The halls were mostly empty, till she turned a corner and nearly ran into a woman and a young girl.

"Oh, excuse us," the mother said softly, stepping aside and tugging her girl's hand to make her do the same.

"Goin' to the deck, are ye?" the old woman asked, eyes fixed on the little girl. The child stared back solemnly. Their eyes spoke things to each other; they understood.

"Yes. My daughter can't seem to sleep. She's had awful nightmares every night of this trip so far."

"And she had one tonight, she did?" The old woman blinked at the girl, who blinked back.

"Yes, the worst one yet. She woke our whole cabin with her screams."

The old woman leaned in close to the mother, who shrunk back involuntarily. "Listen and listen well, my girl: take ye self and the child to the first class deck. Use the servants' stairs if ye must. But only the first class deck, ye hear?"

As the old woman began to hobble off, the bewildered mother called out "But why?"

She turned to meet the child's eyes. "Because," she muttered, "it's where the life boats are."

With this, she scurried away down the hall until she came to a particular cabin, one that had only two beds. One was empty; on the other lay a lumpy mass under the blankets. She shook the mass roughly and threw the blankets back.

"Get up, old man! Up, I say!"

A white-headed man rolled over and groaned. "What now, old mother? The devil himself would cry to disturb such a nice sleep as I was having!"

"That sleep of yours would last to eternity if I'd left ye. Up now! We're going to the decks, and no time to spare."

"And why is that?" demanded her husband.

The old woman looked solemnly at the darkness in the corner of the room. "Because," she said, "it seems there have been omens sent tonight."