Harsh reality

My heart felt like it would break this morning when I came across two little dead birds that had fallen out of their nest. It was startling to see their little bodies lying on the side of the street as I walked to the station. At first, my mind refused to grasp what it was I was looking at, and then the reality hit me.

I heard birds chirping loudly in the tree above the little bodies, so it was probably the parents trying to make me go away. I just stood there, frozen in my tracks, not knowing what to do. Then I decided that I couldn't just leave them there in the road, to be stepped on by passersby, so I picked them up one by one and set them next to each other in a little patch of grass and weeds, covering them as best I could.

An old man who had been walking behind me passed by as I knelt on the ground and glanced back to see what I was doing. He stopped and just stood there silently as I picked up the cold, stiff little bodies and hid them in the grass. As I slowly got up to walk away, he still stood there looking at me. Our eyes met for a second and I saw a glimmer of sadness reflected in his eyes, too. All I could manage to say was, "babies." He nodded, turned, and walked away.