The Pole Shift

Macka meets Mnem

Macka had to make contact with all his custodians after his intervention of Sean and Lett. He had to time them so they understood the implications of his help in chorus. Mnem got marked because of the sparrow. Of course algorithms, then collectively 'Prophet'  had been watching her, like everyone else, shuffling her here and there as a type of person. Always in the benign groups, the servile. She had briefly been in a group known as the 'touched' and was watched very carefully, but Macka decided, with the help of many surveillance techniques,  that she was just odd.  In fact Mnem bored him, and he had rarely watched her. He was instructed to watch her with a new eye. In fact he was confused that Prophet thought the adopting of a sparrow made her worth watching again, it just made her  more of a loon, he thought.

                He waited for a cool and sunny day, which came a month after the Mad Weekend. Melbourne had changed, it felt like the last day of school on the streets. The fear had gone, in its place suspicious anticipation. He noticed groups of people huddled at cafe tables, the supermarkets were being paced relentlessly. The canned foods, the pastas, the rice had all gone. Now people were buying up salt, vinegar, sugar, anything that could preserve food. If there were not earth tremors, even that dropped off. People really did live in the moment, no matter how hard society made them live by the book he thought.

                He saw Mnem exit her apartment block and walk up Market Street. He knew she had the sparrow nestled in her hoodie. It was the first time she had taken the bird outside and he decided not to orchestrate a meeting, she would be too distracted. Instead he paced behind her, not bothering to check what Prophet thought. The Plane trees that lined Melbourne's streets were dropping their leaves, and the lack of business people suggested it was the weekend, or a surreal Monday. He thought how sweet it was, the cooler autumn air and deep blue above. The sun made rectangles of light and shade out of the skyline.  A tremor raced through the city, reminding  everyone they sat on a knife edge. Mnem had taken a turning and headed into Flagstaff gardens. He lost the sentimentality that had coursed through him, and quickened his step to enter on the other side. He watched her sit on a bench, there were many people in the park,  some talking earnestly in little groups like they were in the cafe's, others no more than loitering. He watched Mnem tentatively lower her hoodie, and on her finger perched the young nut brown sparrow. There were other sparrows about the park in little groups, much like the people. Mnem's sparrow did not take flight, and she made a throwing action with her hand, a shove.  Was she trying to set the bird free, or give it choice, or exercise it? He had to turn to Prophet for its opinion. Prophet, strangely poetic said, She is offering alternative but hopes the sparrow will home come to the finger.

                The sparrow did not make a move, other sparrows gathered around the bench chattering urgently. The strange young lady shoved the bird at them. It briefly flitted into the air and Prophet seemed to be watching too. It said, the other sparrows are all family, they will kill it.  Was Prophet suggesting he intervene? Macka was confused, Prophet seemed to be involving itself. He could call a fly down and have it rampage through the host, and he stood as the dozen or so sparrows encompassed the intruder and swirled it up then to the ground. The viciousness was breathtaking.  He ordered the fly, but there was no command to tell it to kill sparrows, he could explode it but possibly kill Mnem. He found himself involved with the battle, and raced towards  the scene. As he did, she stood and parted her arms, she made no emotional movement, but spoke something, not to him or the sparrows,  but the brutality. The family of European Sparrows ceased the attack. On the ground was the little sparrow, it was bloodied and possibly dead. Mnem knelt and tucked it into her sleeve then stood and they were eye to eye for the first time. The ancient moment took a second.  She made no show of surprise, nor was there fear.   It was hard for him to describe those eyes. Instantly they weren't the normal, they were pale gas  blue and enormous,  like earth seen from the moon. He said:

                "I hope your sparrow's okay." She looked at him deeply, uncaring it seemed.

                "She's not dead, she's not mine, why do you say she is mine?" Macka cocked an eye brow that told the surface truth, he had seen her handle the bird. She smiled a little at his expression,  then earnestly looked at the sparrows still agitating at their feet, she looked at one and nodded at it, "He says, that she ow says!" Mnem paused, her eyes darting from sparrow to sparrow, "They says, she ow says!" She was not with him, she was with the sparrows.

                "What?" said Macka.

                 "They says that she ow says."  She whispered that, looking at the meinie of sparrows. She frowned at them then him. She put her hoodie back up, he saw the sparrow pass from sleeve to the nook above her collar bone. Then she left.  Macka watched her go with his mouth slightly parted. Was she communicating with the bird?  There had been some deep engagement on her part,  understanding outside human norms. That's why they want her then, Jesus wept, he thought. He was reminded strongly of his times in the bush with his tarp and rifle,the things he couldn't explain, like the orange orbs or unexplained animals. He wandered off, lost in his thoughts, thiniking tarp and rifle, tarp and rifle.