Inspire by After the Storm by Nancy Howe
Dagny McKinley
After the Storm
The clouds gathered as heavy as life before an early June storm broke. Imperfect snowflakes landed on tree limbs and bushes, weighing them down. In the crook of a tree, two sparrows nestled together singing a dirge. A nest built with grasses, twigs, feathers and string, sat empty below them. The sparrows’ call, or cry, attracted others. The boy sat under a tree watching them, unaware of the cold or the snow. Other sparrows flew close, hovered then flew off. The boy could sit still no longer. He ran at the tree screaming, “Go on, get out of here. Go away!” Arms wrap around him, hold him tight until he begins to cry. The neighbor girl sank with him to the ground, holding him until he stopped crying. His face was red and puffy. He rubbed his eyes, not wanting to see. She led him back to the shelter of the tree where they sat down. She put her hand in his. A sparrow flew close, hovered, then flew off. “I hate him.” “Again?” “Their baby fell out of the nest yesterday and broke her wing. She was still alive so small, her heart beating so fast, so scared. I made her a bed of tissues and dug up some worms and cut them up for her. I don’t even know what they eat. When my dad got home he said she didn’t have a chance, that I was torturing her by keeping her alive. He crushed her. She made the softest sound right before... I couldn’t breathe. I can’t 28 | EKPHRASIS 2022
breathe Her bones crunched. He threw her in the garbage. I hate him so much.” The girl put her hand on the boy’s chest. His heart was beating fast. “Those sparrows sat in the tree all night chirping.” “Have you been out here all night?” “No one notices. The other birds want to help but they can’t. They hover but never land.” The girl gets up and walks over to the tree where the sparrows were. She shimmies up, carefully takes the nest, before returning to the boy where she presents him with the empty nest. “What do I want that for?” “It’s a nest. Put something special in it. Something you want to grow.” The boy pulled a blue thread from the nest. The thread was from an art project he never finished. The clouds began to brighten. The boy found himself shivering. “I don’t know what to put in it.” The girl took the string and shaped it into a heart in the middle of the nest. The two sparrows circled the tree, saw the nest gone, and flew off again together. “One day we will grow up and we can go wherever we want.” In the distance, the sun broke through the clouds. The world turned gold where it landed. The boy held the nest to his heart. He thought he could feel something warm inside. Something he had always been afraid to feel before. u
