'All That Was Left to Do' by Matthew Jakubowski

It became clear one summer that a starling in the neighborhood had apparently learned to mimic the sound of a small child screaming. Those who heard it thought the child might be four or five-years-old. Maybe she liked to scream as she played or watched TV or screamed at the dog or the squirrels or her parents, or maybe there was something larger and darker going on in her world. 

It was generally unsettling and made the neighbors wonder why this little person’s scream was reaching them over the backyard fences, echoing between the houses and into the overgrown brush and trash in the alley behind their homes. 

Over time, hearing this scream as they tried to enjoy sunny days in their backyards, people began to think of the silly bird’s scream as a feature of the alley, not one of their homes. The alley after all was frightful, especially at night, bristling with broken glass thorns drug needles rusty nails and scrap metal dumped there illegally. No one wondered if the wild neighborhood starling was upset about the filth in their alley and many more alleys across the city. No one surmised that for the starling all that was left to do was scream and scream and teach the children how to let their world know exactly how they felt about it, too.

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Matthew Jakubowski's short stories appear in Doric Literary, Scaffold, Gone Lawn, JAKE, Necessary Fiction, Milk Candy Review, and the Best Microfiction anthology. He lives in Philadelphia and is online at mattjakubowski.com