I stand between the half-opened front door at my grandma's house, looking out at the grayish day.
There is bad weather coming and proof of this is the eerie sound of the wind that hangs above
the heavy thick clouds that have dimmed the day. After the radio announcer warns of the bad weather
getting closer, I hear my mother's voice calling out to me in a concerned and annoying way.
She has been asking me to shut the door closed and get inside for the last half hour.
However, I continue to ignore her plea and wonder if I should start bringing into the house my
grandmother's birds that are in the cages hanging on the porch wall. I turn and see her "perico" that is
looking up at the sky from his big heavy metal cage that sits on the ground. All her birds had become
quiet and motionless. All they do is look up into the dark sky.
The sound of the wind increases by the minute but it cannot be felt. It hasn't made its way down
and for some reason remains above the clouds. Minutes earlier the eerie sound of the day had been
interrupted, just momentously, by the painful cries of our neighbors across the street.
Their cry was that of pain, not the physical kind but the emotional one. "Oh no Carlos!",
then, just as those painful cries started, they suddenly stopped leaving again just the eerie sound of the
day. Carlos was a good guy but had been missing for days and everyone had been concerned for his
wellbeing and whereabouts. Have they heard anything from him? I wondered.
"Laura, get inside now!", my mother ordered me but I remained firm at the half-opened door to see
when the bad weather would arrive. I felt uneasy, scared, actually more like terrified of what was to
come. I knew it in my heart that there would be destruction and perhaps death once the bad weather hit
us but for some stubborn reason, I wanted to wait till the last minute to shut the door closed and go
inside where I would be safe. I kept looking at my grandma's birds and perico with concern but I do not
want to move and bring them inside the house, at least not yet. I was in a daze and my head kept
thinking a thousand thoughts per minute. My thoughts were for Carlos, for the birds, for our safety, for
the door still open, but most of all for the eerie weather that now was even closer.
The sound of the wind had become louder and a light breeze could now be felt, increasing by the
second. I decided that finally, it was time to bring my grandma's birds inside the house when suddenly
a monstrous gust of wind hit, sending all the cages flying through the air and getting my body that was
half out of the house trapped with the door. The wind was blowing against it but for some reason, the
door didn't fly open but instead shut on my fragile body. I was trapped between the door and the door
frame and not daring to look outside, I managed to turn my head and look inside the house where
everything seemed to be peaceful. However, I was listening to the devastating weather outside and I was
terrified. The wind was unbelievably strong and I couldn't pull myself free from the door. The wind kept
pressing the door on me and I couldn't even move an inch. Its strength had paralyzed me completely....
strangely, I felt no pain, just fear.
Still looking inside, I searched with my eyes for my mother who I saw standing quietly looking at me
in the distance and I wondered why she hadn't done anything to help me. "Mami, please help me!", I
called out to her, but mami remained motionless and with a blank expression on her face. What is she
thinking? I wondered, is she at least concerned for my well-being or just afraid of the bad weather
outside? I couldn't tell by the look on her face. It was as if I was looking at a mannequin from a store.
I then realized that I was on my own. I continued to try to open the door at least just enough to pull
myself inside the safety of the house but with no success. It was as if my chest and back have been
glued to a ton of bricks. However, I continued to fight and not give up when suddenly the bad weather
stopped, freeing me from my trap. I looked up into the sky and realized that the day was still gray and
the eerie sound of the wind had moved again to the top of the dark black clouds. Then I realized that it
was not over. The bad weather had just moved up and was waiting there to make its comeback soon
again. What we had was just a warning, a small one compared to what the real storm had in plan. I
know now that I did not have much time to go inside the safety of my home, but before going in and
closing the door, I took a quick glance all around me and realized all the destruction the minutes of bad
weather had on our neighborhood. I searched for my grandmother's birds but they were nowhere in
sight. I did however start to see neighbors coming out of their homes with terrified expressions on their
faces as they looked around. They were all silent but I knew that they also knew like me that what had
just happened had been just a little preview of what was returning to us at any minute.
The eerie sound of the day had marked its territory on us but waited above the black thick clouds
watching us, haunting us, waiting to finally make its grand move on us. "Carlos!"
And then... I woke up.
This was my dream from last night. Someone, a female perhaps, screamed out this name with a lot of
pain. In reality, I do not know any Carlos in real life or in Second Life. However, this name, for some
reason, was an important part of my dream just like the door, the eerie wind, and my grandma's birds.
As a child, I grew up with my maternal grandmother in Mexico. She had many cages filled with all
these beautiful birds that would fill the air with their singing. We would hang these cages on nails on the
porch's wall in the front of the house lining them up in two rows. "El perico", my grandma's parrot, was
in a big heavy metal cage on the ground. I remember that everyone was afraid of him. He would take a
bite at you if you would get too close to his cage. But I remember helping my grandma feed him every
day. My grandma was the only person el perico wouldn't bite. So when I had to feed him, I would grab a
handful of mixed seeds and from a distance throw them into his cage. My grandma and her parrot had
been together for many years and shared a very special bond. When my grandma passed away, her
perico refused to eat or make a sound... shortly after her death, he died.
I also remember that when we would get wind storms, my grandma and I would run outside and bring
all the bird cages inside, filling up one of the two small rooms we lived in. These wind storms were fun
for all the neighborhood kids. They were strong enough to create little twisters in the air that would pick
up dirt and dry, loose weeds from the ground. We loved to chase them around, running after them while
screaming excitedly at the top of our lungs. Many times these twisters would turn on us and we would
be the ones getting chased by them, that was considered even cooler. Whoever got to get chased was
considered lucky.
I do not know if my dream is a warning of what may lay ahead or just my daily struggles manifesting
themselves through my unconsciousness. Whatever it is, the sound of the eerie sound of the day in my
dream... if I close my eyes... I can still hear it.
