Delilah peered through bushes from the side of her yard, breath panting as she stared at the neighbors surrounding her house, the blue and red flashes of the lights from the police and ambulance cars. It had only been about fifteen minutes since she had squealed, running away as an Animal Control van had pulled up next to the growing crowd, the county worker fixing her with a fierce gaze and moving towards her with a practiced and purposeful trot.

Now Delilah looked out from her hiding place and saw the police had placed that classic yellow, crime-scene tape along the outside of the house, barring any neighbor or onlooker from entering. EMTs pushed the gurney from the backyard passed the bushes, a black canvas bag with Dad's body inside of it.

Delilah cowered in the bushes. She knew she should be running from the animal control man, but she had to watch. She had to know where they were going with her dad. All these police and people staring, but no one could say where her sister and mother had gone. It wasn't supposed to go this way.

"Pssst..." The bird in the tree above said. Only it didn't say that. It chirped a few high-pitched tweets that the human part of Delilah's mind, or was it the animalistic part of her brain?......either way, it was understood.

"Psst..." The bird chirped again, this time the tweets coming louder and more direct.

Some part of Delilah's mind understood the chirp-hiss-words were for her.

"Huh? W-what?"

She turned in a small circle. She looked at the county animal catcher, then at the ambulance, then up to the branches for the bird.

"You're stuck here, just like this." The bird said. "I keep forgetting things. But I remember this: there's an old sump at the end of the neighborhood. I've been using it lately to help make myself a nest. If you meet me there in a few minutes, away from this crowd, I'll tell you what I know and maybe it can help you. Everyday I forget more and more. I'd like what I do remember to help someone like you before it's too late and I really am just a bird."

"Right...right...okay..."

Delilah's words, or squeals, tumbled out as through she was in a daze. She had a hazy picture in her mind of where to go. One last look at her house then she dashed away.

Delilah joins thread

Delilah: What Went Wrong