The Pole Shift

The Sparrow Departs

The Country people gathered around Mnem.  There were perhaps thirty all told. A dozen men, less women, an attitude of teenagers then some very small children. The old woman in the poker fleece backed off with a grunt,  irritated that she had been halted in mid gush, she had been enjoying the audience and her anger.  The man that had spoken approached. Mnem did not sense his interest in her as a female, only that he had stopped the terrible woman from poking her.

                "Thank you." She said, her eyes large. The man's face lit, his cockiness gone and he smiled then looked to the ground.

                "Oh God," said his mother, clocking her son's interest,  "don't!"

                "Don't what?"  

                "Fall for a pretty girl with a flashy van! It's the end of the world in case you hadn't noticed!" There was some laughter and various comments directed at the suddenly shy son. Someone shouted out:

                 "You love her." There was further laughter. The son was near to middle-age, but retained the last sips of youth in his face.  He frowned at his mother, looking her up and down. Finally he said:

                "Take my poker jumper off I've told you not to wear that you look stupid."

                "Oh and you look like the Pope of Ballarat in it Peter!" Whilst mother and son began to bicker, Mnem looked back up at the tree. A wind had caught the gum leaves, they turned and spiralled and whispered. There was no sign of the sparrow, her hand reached for her collarbone, there was the beginnings of a lump in her chest she had not experienced before. She wandered off, and the bickering instantly ceased.

                "Where do you think you are going Little Miss Missy?" All faces were on her.

                "Mnem, that's my name not Little Miss  Missy."

                "Mnem?! A hippy name, a great grandchild of a hippy. Since when did hippies drive vans that look like they'd be more at home in a war? What gives?"

                " A man gave it to me to survive the Pole Shift thing, I've got to be in the cabin when it comes, the cabin will become a life pod and withstand a lot of things that crash into it. I haven't figured out how to get into it yet, some button somewhere. Only, I wonder where the little sparrow has got to? " Mnem's story had them transfixed and they all looked up and down and all around for the sparrow, much to the ire of the old woman.

                "A sparrow! A sparrow? What say we all help you  find a way into this van of yours instead?"  She went to snatch at Mnem's arm, but Peter got in her way, his eyes rigid,  draining all power his mother momentarily  had over the strange female visitor.

                As the standoff ensued, and the bickering went this way and that, Mnem looked back up at the tree. Nothing, no flutter of nut brown feathers or a double barrelled chirrup. The sparrow had gone.