Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BITTERN
My body is spent from being hit by the sun all day. After I eat in the mess hall, I sit on the porch steps until it’s pitch dark outside. Overhead, the porch light attracts swathes of moths and bugs. They buzz with the same sounds they did back home. I like that part.
My fingers move, a block of wood in my grip.
Slowly, a sparrow makes its way out. One of my favorites, a Chipping Sparrow, a tiny brown and white striped bird with a chestnut crown around its head.
They filled the fields in Kentucky, stirring up as I walked through them.
Another bird that doesn’t do anybody any ill, just digs around in the grass and eats seeds that fall from the harvest.
I set it on the porch railing next to the others.
Then, I head inside and go to bed with the lights off this time.