Sneaky Sparrows

You would never guess it, but sparrows can make for a terrifying encounter if you catch them off guard. At least I think they were sparrows. They were small and brown, and normally very cute, except for the day when they became terrifying. I remember clearly walking down the short flight of steps to the left of Moon Library. I was briskly walking toward Baker Laboratory, travelling just fast enough to look like a loser in a hurry to be an hour early for the nerd convention. On the right hand side of the landing between two short sets of stairs, there is a lovely congregation of young trees growing harmlessly behind a perfectly nice wooden bench. I often gaze in that direction when  there is no one walking towards me to smile at as they stare straight ahead, eyes glazed over, trudging along as if no one else in the world exists. As I passed the landing on this particular day, I heard a sudden WOOSH that sounded just like a giant wave crashing against a sandy beach. It was so loud, I almost took my own shoes off so I could knock my socks off. There must have been at least one-hundred tiny little birds minding their own business on the dirt surface before I came along. In perfect unison every single bird rushed to the safety of the young tree branches. They were probably terrified of my ridiculous speed walking, but they sure as hell scared the shit out of me. The best part is, these birds blend in so well to the ground cover and the trees, that even standing just a few feet away, they were barely visible. The one guy walking towards me up the stairs probably thought I was a schizophrenic nut case as I wheeled around in panic to analyze the explosion of sound.

Believe it or not, there are a bunch of
tiny brown birds littering the ground