Mother and the bird

I have never met anyone who had more presence of mind than my mother. If I had to pick one person to be at my side in an emergency, I’d pick her.

One scorching Sunday night, she was playing the piano for our church service. Building lacked air conditioning, so we had opened every possible door and window to catch whatever breeze might appear, including the big double doors at the main entrance.

While we were singing, a large black bird swooped in. It flew strafing runs over the congregation. We ducked and bobbed to escape the bird. The lady next to me was very afraid of birds. When the bird swooped right over our heads, she screamed and dove under the pew in front of us. She wasn't the only one taking shelter.

In spite of the commotion, Mother continued to play and the songleader tried to lead. After some minutes, the bird landed on the block at the bass end of the keyboard. Her left hand whipped out from the keyboard and grabbed the bird. She did not miss a note.

The bird was not amused and cawed loudly. It kept right on cawing and she kept right on playing. The songleader had stopped trying to lead singing. His mouth silently opened and closed right in time to the bird’s cries. He looked rather like a bird himself, like a baby bird opening its mouth for food.

While still continuing to play and hold on to the bird, Mother looked around for someone to take away the bird. Everyone was frozen. For a long moment, the only sounds were the bird’s cries and the piano.

Finally, a man came down the center aisle from the back of the church and took the bird. Mother continued playing, but no human uttered a sound. The only sounds were the bird, the piano and the man’s footsteps.

We heard it cry, “CAAAAW, CAAAAW, CAAAAW, CAAAAW, CAAAAW, CAA–”, then silence. Mother's rescuer had twisted off the bird's head.

He walked back into the church and sat down as if nothing had happened. She continued to play, but no one said a word for some time.

Then the entire congregation burst out laughing and cheering.

Even years later, people would retell the story. Most of them ended by saying, “Who else could catch a bird on the piano and not miss a note”