The winged phantom in Florida

The northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is known for its mimicking ability, as reflected by the meaning of its scientific name, 'many-tongued mimic.' The northern mockingbird has gray to brown upper feathers and a paler belly.

Its tail and wings have white patches which are visible in flight. The northern mockingbird is an omnivore. It eats both insects and fruits. It is often found in open areas and forest edges but forages in grassy land. The northern mockingbird is the state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas in the United States.

The Florida scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is one of the species of scrub jay native to North America. It is the only species of bird endemic to the U.S. state of Florida and one of only 15 species endemic to the continental United States.

The mocking bird can imitate several sounds such as that of other birds and also of cats, frogs, and even that of ringing bells and creaking doors. However, the Scrub Jay is not fooled!

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Anne heaved out her heavy suitcase from the car’s trunk with a grimace. The cab driver, who had refused to help her, stood scowling a little away, giving her angry glares every few seconds.

Anne started down the deserted road alone, dragging the suitcase behind her, not even glancing in the cab driver’s direction.

“Hey, lady! You promised me an extra ten bucks!” called the cab driver from behind. “Whatever for?” Anne asked, annoyed. “You were supposed to drop me at the address I gave you. And now I have to walk atleast a kilometer all on my own to reach the place!”

“That place’s haunted, I tell ya! Can’t go any farther than this! Y’want me to end up dead?” the driver shouted.
Anne ignored him and kept walking. The cab driver hollered for a while longer, but didn’t dare to follow Anne. Ten minutes later, he drove off, muttering and cursing.

The roads were empty, and there wasn’t a single soul around. It was autumn, and the way was carpeted with ochre yellow and pale red leaves that had been shed by the trees on the wayside. On any other occasion, Anne would have appreciated how beautiful it looked.

But the lack of human presence coupled with the cab driver’s ominous warning gave her a spooky feel. A long walk later, Anne finally stopped at the gates of an old, crumbling mansion, clouded from view by the overgrown garden. The place seemed dark, cold and eerie, in stark contrast to Florida’s sunny weather disposition.

The lock on the gates had rusted, and when she gave a strong pull, it came off in her hands. The large gates swung open with a loud creaking sound, and Anne suddenly found herself wishing that she hadn’t come to Florida at all.

She had had no plans of coming, until her maternal grandparents’ lawyer called her to inform that their vast estate in Florida had been bequeathed to her. Her parents were dead, and life had come to a standstill at London. Tired of being depressed, she had decided to make a new start in Florida.

But the lonely mansion made her feel gloomier than ever before. Her grandparents had passed away long ago, and the lawyer had only waited for her to come of age to hand over the responsibility. Looking at the eerie, almost dilapidated building in front of her, Anne wondered what she would do with it on her own.

Yet, there was no looking back. As she fumbled for the keys to open the main door, something hit her on her shoulder. Anne turned around to find a guava at her foot. How had it come there? She scanned the garden. There was no one in sight.

As she bent down to pick it up, another guava hit her head. “Ouch!” she cried. The guavas had been definitely thrown by someone, concluded Anne.

“Who is that? Come on out!” she called loudly, but no answer came. Anne felt a chill run down her spine. Was the place really haunted like the cab driver had said? Without wasting any more time, Anne quickly got into the house and closed the door.

Anne took in the sights of her new house with wonder. It was beautifully built, with high chandeliers hung across the hall and stately doors and wood paneling. It was dusty, and seemed to need a lot of repairs, but Anne didn’t mind. She spent the entire day exploring the mansion and cleaning up the place. By the end of it, she was convinced that there was no ghost in her beloved mansion.

Just as she was going to bed that night, Anne heard a cat mewing. “Meow! Meow!” Anne got up and started to look around. “Drat it! Where did the cat come from?” she grumbled, looking under her bed and in the neighbouring rooms.

“I’m sure there was no cat here this morning, and the windows were closed”, she thought, as she hunted the rooms. But there was no cat!

The mewing stopped. Finally, tired out, she sank down into her bed. But then came a new sound!
“Ribbik! Ribbik!”

“A toad?” a puzzled Anne got up once again and started her feverish search, but found nothing. “I’m going to sleep now. I don’t care if there are hundreds of cats and toads roaming in this house!” muttered an angry Anne.

But next began the creaking of doors and strange whispers. Anne couldn’t figure out which doors were being creaked open or shut. She moved from room to room, but could only hear the sounds. A bit frightened, Anne ran back to her room. She covered herself with the blanket, trying to shut out all the strange eerie sounds. A long time later, she fell asleep.

Sunlight was already streaming in through her windows when she woke up. The house had lost the weird atmosphere of the night, and instead looked warm and welcoming. Anne put her hand out to pick up the silver earrings she had laid by her bedside the previous night. But to her surprise, they were gone!

Anne frowned. “Now I know who’s behind all this mischief”, she thought. “It’s a thief, no doubt! And he doesn’t want me here!”

Anne hurriedly got dressed, hoping to file a complaint at the police station the same morning. She started making pancakes on the stove by the kitchen window, all her night’s fear gone. But when she turned her back, two pancakes went missing from the tray!

Anne made a last pancake and hid herself from view. She could see a brown hand rise up just outside the window to pick up the last pancake. Quick as lightning, she caught it. “Who are you?” she demanded to the 13-year old brown boy who had appeared in front of her.

“You’re the thief here, aren’t you? Trying to scare me away by pretending to be a ghost, eh? Didn’t you steal my silver earrings?” The boy began to cry. “I’m Alvarez. I live nearby”, he moaned, his wrist painfully twisted by Anne’s strong grip. “But I haven’t stolen anything. I was hungry and I took the pancakes!”

“Liar!” she shouted. But just then both heard a commotion upstairs. Shrieks and screeches sounded. Taking the boy with her, Anne rushed upstairs. There, in the room beside hers, they found two birds, one attacking the other viciously.

The victim was shrieking, almost like a human, while the attacker was larger. Alvarez moved forward and shooed them both away. “Well, here are your tormentors”, he said. “Your ghost and your thief.”

“What do you mean?” asked Anne. “The little brown bird is a mocking bird. It can imitate several sounds, including that of cats and humans. And the Scrub Jay, is attracted to silver stuff.” He looked around for the Jay’s nest. “There, look!”, he pointed. And sure enough, there were the earrings in the nest!

Anne was relieved and sorry at the same time. She had accused Alvarez wrongly. “Can you be my helper here? I’ll pay you, and of course, give you food!” Alvarez nodded happily. He had found a home too.

By: Sneha Verghese

(A research scholar in Journalism at Osmania University, Hyderabad. Also a post-graduate in biotechnology, she loves teaching and writing stories for kids to explain scientific concepts.)