So our neighbor died. It was sad but she was very old and so not entirely unexpected.

I came home to find a fire truck with lights a-twirling, an ambulance, and a police car on the curb in front of our house.

My first thought was, “Please let those be for Susan,” which is probably a terrible thing to admit, but when there are a shitload of EMS in front of my house, turns out all my charitable values go right out the window.

PS, if I should ever die (HAHA that’ll never happen, which is the surprise twist non-ending for this blog) I should only hope your first reaction to that news is the unique relief I felt at hearing about hers.

It took quite a long time for all the various support to clear up, and at first I assumed Susan had maybe fallen and broken a hip, which would account for the measured pace of the EMS people lingering about.

Later that day, I went out again and when I returned, there was a woman a bit older than me, holding a shoe box, standing on my lawn crying. She had followed a baby bird crawling across the road (??? her report but WTF crawling?) , and she could neither get the baby bird back into my tree nor find it’s original nest.

“What should we do?” she asked, I guess assuming since the bird was now on my lawn (but had not originated there) we were equal partners in communal bird responsibility.

We have Brewers Black Birds in our trees and sadly it happens a lot that baby birds end up on the ground. It never ends well. Even if you put them back in the nest, they seem quite determined to fall back out again.

My husband refers to them as “cat snacks”.

I did not mention that to the weeping woman.

“Well….” I drew out. “You could call animal services, but I don’t think they’ll come for a bird rescue.” True. Wild animals gotta do what wild animals do seems to be the unofficial motto. Or rather, taxpayer funds don’t cover bird nannies.

“But… well, we could put it in this box,” she said.

She put the bird in the box and put the lid on the box, and put the box under the tree.

I guess a moment later must’ve realized the bird parents, looking for their wayward worm grubber would not have the dexterity to open a box and look inside.

She opened the box. The half-feathered bird looked at us.

“You could take the bird home if you wanted.” I was still wondering how I was even in this conversation and who this woman was and why she was crying on my lawn.

She hesitated like a teen boy who has just discovered his girlfriend is pregnant. Like. She wanted to do something, but also? Not ready for that level of responsibility. She looked at me like she was really hoping I would take care of this on my own, thanks.

Not prepared to be the teen pregnant girlfriend in this stranger’s scenario, forced to make tough decisions to let the other person off easy, I changed topics with an abrupt, “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“I live here,” she said.

“I live here,” I said.

“No next door, I mean.” Which was also wrong, because that was where Susan lived, alone. At that point, I was still on the working theory she must’ve had a bad fall and had been taken to the hospital.  Then the bird woman said, “Susan died, I’m her daughter.”

Which then explained the tears and the weirdness. I told her I was vaccinated and asked if she wanted a hug, and she said yes.

She then went on to tell a strange story about how they had come to visit Susan, and she had been feeling fine but sitting on the floor going through old photographs. The woman’s husband made a remark like, “Should you be on the floor?” (weird) and Susan seemed to brush him off, saying she liked to stay limber. So they left her on the floor (OK) and when they came back a few hours later, she was dead (WHAT?!) (And why the seemingly inconsequential detail about the floor?)

Anyway, they were going to move into the house. The live in Nevada but really like this area. SAME DAY AS SHE DIED. THEY ARE MOVING IN.

So now we have new neighbors.

On ROOM WITH A VIEW to GIRL ON A TRAIN, how likely is it they killed Susan?

PS: I also don’t know what she did with the bird.

*This is my all time favorite blog title ever.