Caged

April 26, 2013 at 9:22 am · Filed under Bad Stuff, Crazy stuff, Mostly fiction, Stories ·Tagged birds, caged, equality, Fairness, freedom

Many times, when Kellie Elmore puts her Free Write Friday prompt up, I look at it and draw a blank. Usually, after I think on it for a bit, I come up with an idea and write a brief story about the picture or word prompt she’s offered. Today, I needed no time to think about it; I took one look at the picture, and immediately began to write. Enjoy?

Caged

It was a crazy idea, and I refused to have anything to do with it. I said, “I’ll watch, but that’s it. I want nothing to do with your hair-brained scheme.”

The rest of them gave me beady-eyed sidelong glances, like they thought I was the one who’d lost his mind. “He’ll kill you, fool!” one of them chirped as he idled past me. “Get your fine-feathered, uppity, butt out here and help us!”

“Nope,” I said watching as he attached the harness to the others. “He’s just using you, and when he finds out he can’t fly, even with all of you doing the actual work, what then?”

Several of them looked in at me with wide, knowing eyes, understanding exactly what I was saying. They knew once the fool saw his plan was failing, he’d blame them, and then cast them aside like the newspaper that lined the bottom of their cages.

Kellie Elmore’s Free Write Friday

I was at first shocked when he grabbed the cage, thereby including me in the doomed scheme he’d forced upon us, then realized it was all part of the plan; If I did not participate, I could not share the blame, and so I had no choice in the matter. Somehow, in his twisted mind, we were all destined to be equal; whether it was to be bounty or scraps, the spoils would be shared equally by all.

The flock began to fight, the weaker ones trying to flee, but tethered as they were, remained within striking distance of the stronger; there was no way to escape. I watched in horror as my friends tore at each other and one-by-one began to fall from the sky.

The man screamed at them to stop, but his shouts could not be heard above their cacophony of rage. When at last he stopped running, and stood amid feathers, blood, and bodies, only a few of the flock remained. The survivors fluttered to the grass and wobbled as far away from him as the harness would allow. He set my cage upon the ground and then sat down facing me. He stared blankly into my dark and angry eyes, both of us wondering which of us, truly, was caged.

 

Copyright © 2013 C Mashburn

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