Fiction: Where are the Blackbirds?
Look for the helpers.
The eagle swoops down and takes a perch on the tree branch as the blackbirds dive bomb trying to knock her off. Her beak open, she raises a wing then drops from her perch and flies low over the lake, the blackbirds follow, flanking her. She tries making another run for the tree but the blackbirds don’t allow her. Finally in exasperation, the eagle turns and does a low glide back over the lake before soaring high and away.
Billy watches the mobbing, where smaller birds join together against a larger predator to protect their territory. The animal kingdom knows how to do it by instinct, not so with humans. Everyone in the town is so full of self interest and self preservation they wouldn’t consider risking a challenge to Mayor Hogan. Instead, Billy watches them fawn over him at the bar. Hogan is smirking, lapping up the free drinks and adulation. When he ran for mayor, people wondered why the well-to-do rancher would be interested in the job. But the money flowing into their businesses stilled the doubts. Why not have a benefactor mayor, someone rich enough that he could not be bought, someone whose own success depended on the town’s success. So Hogan was elected mayor of Freetown. He said in his acceptance speech that law and order is a top priority in his town. The use of the possessive “his” should have been a red flag to the townspeople.
Soon after the election, new ranch projects and water concessions were approved and awarded to known associates of Hogan. Two members of a nature group had the temerity to protest the building of large cattle holding pens on the outskirts of the town which would upset the wetland wildlife. Two days later they inexplicably “left town.” So began the rot, the unspoken suspicions, the misinformation, and the pretense of law and order. Billy watched all this with concern. His family had lived in Freetown for three generations and he did not like what he saw. Although many quietly resented and disapproved of Hogan’s activities, there were also vocal supporters, won over by the wealth he was bringing into the town. So what if he was personally handing himself contracts? These contracts flowed to the town and benefitted the residents. Neither they nor their families were harmed by it. On the contrary, their own businesses began to flourish as well.
Freetown, once isolated and little known, now serviced the needs of ranchers driving their cattle through to cattle auctions. By providing the lake water and cattle holding facilities, Freetown attracted a lot of new business. Hogan was able to increase his wealth by charging ranchers for the use of Freetown during their cattle drives. But Hogan was not satisfied. He had bigger plans. He saw the opportunity that diversification into gambling and entertainment would bring him. So a casino and dance hall was built and a lot of money began changing hands. The “blackbirds” should have started to wake up then.
The casino and dance hall was first viewed as a novelty by the residents of Freetown. Husbands, wives, sons and daughters began checking out this glitzy world of fun and make believe. Reality hit fast as some succumbed to the addictions of the place. Hard earned money was lost at the gambling tables and families suffered the toll of irresponsible behavior lured by false promises, pleasure and greed. Billy’s father lost the small family homestead which left him broken and addicted to the bottle. Townsfolk began to murmur and complain. Hogan no longer hid his true colors. Any who dared oppose him either “disappeared” or came to grief at the end of his 45 in a gunfight.
Young Billy tucked the revolver into his belt and walked to the casino bar. There he called out Hogan. Hogan laughed and derisively offered him a glass of milk. Billy stood his ground and something in Billy’s eyes told Hogan the kid was serious. Hogan downed his whisky, slapped the bar-top with his palm and swaggered out into the sun, a cold confident smirk on his face. There they stood, Billy with a 45 tucked in his belt and Hogan with his in a holster slung low on his hip.
As the crowd gathers to watch another spectacle, the mob of blackbirds start flying from the trees to the lake and back. Their flight path signals to predators, “This is our home, keep away.” Below the birds, standing on the dirt in front of the casino, no one in the crowd is visibly seen to support Billy. Just as Billy and Hogan reach for their revolvers, a blackbird flies low and right across Hogan’s line of sight. They both shoot, Hogan first, but his bullet grazes Billy’s left shoulder. Hogan has a quizzical look on his face as he goes down on his knees. The 45 dangles loose from his hand as he crumbles face first into the dirt.
Slowly, one by one, the crowd gathers around Billy to lend their support and tend to his shoulder. The blackbirds make one last pass over the casino then fly high across the lake and away into the clouds.
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