My Blue Heron

Many years ago, when I first moved to the Midwest

I had the good fortune to live on a small lake.  I can't

recommend this highly enough ~ there was no need 

for television or other forms of entertainment.  Any

time of the day or night, something was happening 

on the lake, ducks, deer, muskrats and  my favorite,

The Great Blue Heron.  I had seen Blue Herons before

but I never had the chance to study them closely, day

after day.  The herons were an elusive bird, nothing 

like the friendly mallard ducks that adopted me as

their Mom and would try to walk into my house with

me.  We would get together with our neighbors and

marvel at the beauty and grace of the Blue Herons.

They had a 6 foot wingspan and looked almost pre-

historic in flight.

My brother had a friend named Mickey.  Mickey was a 

Midwestern boy who moved to New York and worked

in films and on Broadway.  Most people knew him as

Michael but his family called him Mickey and so did we.

Mickey was always scouring the weekend flea markets

for treasures and giving away food and clothing to the

homeless people in his neighborhood.  He was a quiet

guy, he was more the observer than the life of the party.

I remember at one of my brother's parties in his NYC

co-op, I kept seeing Mickey every time I turned around.

He was observing a strange thing that was happening

with me that night.  My brother's co-op is a railroad flat, 

it takes up half of a floor of a building running from front

to back, it is a long series of rooms, much like a train car.

So this night, every time I looked down the length of the

apartment I kept seeing a guy staring at me with rather

confused and pleading eyes, I had no idea who he was.

At one point someone introduced me  and said my 

name, this guy heard and came up to me and said,

 "Ellen, I knew it was you, why are you ignoring me?"

I had NO IDEA WHO HE WAS!  He was sure I was

his ex-girlfriend (who he evidently still had a thing

for) and he was baffled as to why I  (she) would not 

even acknowledge him.  I told him I had no idea who

he was and it was as if I had punched the stuffing out

of him.  He thought I was playing some sort of game

with him and it was hurting him.  Somewhere on Long

Island I have a twin and her name is Ellen.  I explained

that this was my brother's apartment and I didn't live 

on Long Island.  I don't think I ever totally convinced 

this poor guy.  And there was Mickey, enjoying the 

whole thing.

One day, I got a call from my brother with sad news,

Mickey had passed away.  After I got off the phone, I

sat in the one of the wicker chairs by my front window,

I looked outside and there was the Blue Heron.  Not by 

the water, but at my window,  This had NEVER happened

before.  He looked right into my house, right into my eyes

and I said, "Mickey, is that you?"  I truly had the feeling that

this bird somehow had Mickey's spirit in him, watching over

us, observing.  And every time I saw a Heron, I'd say, there's

Mickey.

After this we started noticing a strange happening ~ every

time we were leaving for a trip, whether it was midnight,

5am or anytime during the day, either as we were walking 

out of our house or soon after leaving we would see a Blue

Heron fly through the sky.  And I also say, we will have a

good, safe trip because Mickey is watching over us.

On Wednesday of this week I was starting out on a road

trip to Ohio and what do I see, a Blue Heron flying right 

over my car.  The next day I was in an antique store and

all the way in the back on the floor, resting against a piece

of furniture was a plastic baggie with 3 tiles in it.  One of the 

tiles is the one shown above ~ a Blue Heron.  Of course, I

had to get this!  When I took it up to pay, the guy who 

worked there said he planned to buy the tiles because the

person who put them in their booth had no idea of what

they had and priced them sooo low.  I told him I beat him

to it, what I didn't tell him is that though I realized I found

a score price wise, really what I wanted was to have Mickey

in my house.