Not so blue Sky

This won’t take long. After all, it’s the eve of the Big Day.  Still much to do … packages to wrap, dogs to walk, firewood to bring in, Christmas tunes to hum.

It took Sky about 24 hours.

We're grateful for silent nights.

Of uncertainty. Of quiet.

But Sky’s always been a bird of confidence and resolution.  Since young, he’s loudly proclaimed, “I am here.”  His song is hard to describe.  Not simply a warble.  Unlike Sarah’s, whose quiet chirp rarely rose to full refrain, Sky’s full-throated onslaught is deafness a-comin’. 

Five years ago, we started the two birds in the TV room.  Then we moved them farther back in the house, to the sunroom, because they – mainly Sky – grew too vocal when the TV sound cranked up. 

It was especially bad during movies.

Mel Gibson’s William Wallace would ride into battle, and Sky would cheer. Harry Potter would zig and zag in chase of the quidditch snitch; Sky would zig, zag, too, but his tune would soar above even Harry and his broom – many octaves at least. 

Even during a movie’s tenderest moments – like, say, when the hero finds love – Sky would butt in with his own Hallelujah Chorus.

So when Sarah died, I think we all were on pins and needles.  It was Meghan who suggested Monday night that we bring Sky back to the TV room.  But, selfish, yes, we also knew such a move risked our movie-time sanity.

I’m happy to say Sky has remained in the sunroom and seems his old self.  Yes, he still flits his head back and forth, up and down, searching.  There’s still a void there.  And I imagine the dark nights are lonely for him.

But so far each morning, when I remove the cover from his cage, he’s joyfully greeted the light with high-pitched fervor, with his own Ride of the Valkyries.  And it goes on all day.

As I write this, I’m at the west end of the house.  Sky is nearer the east end.  There are  between us three rooms, a stair, a long hallway, a bend around the corner, and another room.

Sky is singing. And bless him … I can hear every note. 

Would that Sarah could, too.