On the Hillside

It is springtime, grass is greening.  Air is bringing soft rain and scents of sweet hidden memories.  The visit to the park breaks us out of cabin fever.  We are all so joyful to get out into the blue fresh air.     Children run off,  scattering like beach birds before the Glaucous gulls.  I wander slowly with air blowing my hair, a line of trail riders cross the road cautiously, and then move on under the bridge.  Horses must want to run free, too, not just walk in a circus line.  Would the children walk in a line at the park and enjoy it?  Does running free make it more fun?

I see a speck on a distant hillside.  Two large birds are circling high above.  From afar, more birds, turkey vultures, see the motionless object, and rise up the currents of air, circle and then drift down to see what lies beneath.  It is a process of  circling up with the warmer currents,  then diving down to direct their path to where they want to be.  I walk in the direction of that hillside, interested, as the birds are, what lies on the grass, motionless, dead, possibly a meal for a large bird of prey.

Several black turkey vultures have landed in the distance, their featherless heads a strange reddish hue, large beaks,  to tear flesh and eat dead meat.  As I near, I notice it is a child, lying in the grass, and not just any child, but one in familiar clothing.  "JEREMY!!!!!"   It is MY child, lying dead, in the grass.  I run toward him, what could have happened in that short time, a shooting?  an accident?  What could have happened,  as I run and chase off the massive vultures,  my son pops up, and starts yelling at me,  "Mom, you ruined it!  I almost got them birds to come up to me.  I could of grabbed them, and you scared them off!  I've been lying there so long, and now you had to scare them!"

Me scare the vultures?   What about how he scared ME?  On that hillside, far away, on that lovely spring day...