Today’s topic: Foreshadow.

Monday morning the sun shined bright – the first time in a week. My kids slept in, enjoying the first day of summer vacation. As I sat at the breakfast table, checking email and enjoying the silence with a cup of java, Slam! A thundering thud of two birds crashing into the window interrupted my quiet moment. I jumped to my feet, ran to the window, and found two robins scattered on the patio. I stood, looking out, hoping they would get up and fly away. But the one on the left didn’t move a feather. The right-hand bird, stayed down, but breathed hard.

I grabbed a kitchen towel and approached the injured birds on the patio. The bird with labored breathing looked up at me. I gently wrapped the towel around it and tried to help it up. Her legs supported her but she remained as still as if she had been stuffed by a taxidermist. I left her alone and observed from the window, feeling shaken and helpless.

I was encouraged when she began to swivel her head left and right, observing her surroundings. After about a half-hour, she hopped to the edge of the patio. Soon, she explored the garden in my back yard. I quietly returned to the patio, wrapped the unlucky, dead robin in the towel and placed him in the woods behind my house.

My children awakened, wanting breakfast, rides to see friends, and all of the ordinary summer-vacation kind of attention. I spent the day, enjoying their company and trying to forget about the little trauma that visited in the morning.

Late that afternoon, it happened. Just miles away from me, a Red Line Metrorail train crashed into a stationary train between Ft. Totten and Takoma stations. Nine people died, including one train operator, and more than 70 people were injured in the accident – an unprecedented tragedy here in the DC area. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

While the National Transportation Safety Board continues investigations to determine the cause of the crash, something nags me. If this were a fiction, instead of real life, the birds should have prepared me for the tragedy to follow later in the day. Like the fire and the mad dog foreshadowing the Tom Robinson’s trial and tragic death in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

In real life, nothing can prepare us for an unthinkable tragedy like the Red Line Metro crash. I’m not a believer of omens or signs. But, the events of earlier this week are crying out to me in literary-speak. If only this were fiction. Then, I could re-write a happy ending.

PHOTO credit: Firefighters and Emergency Services personnel work on the accident scene. (Hans Charles / The Washington Post)

For more information about the Red Line Tragedy, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2009/06/23/LI2009062301806.html?hpid=topnews