OYM Day 49: Sure Enough
There are a few times in my life where things have happened that I just cannot explain. A part of me wonders if some of them ever happened at all, but in none of these instances were I asleep or even close to it. It’s stories like these that make me wonder if we have free will or if the events of our lives are plotted out ahead of time, patiently awaiting our arrival.
I must have been 5 or 6 at the time. I was cutting through a neighbors yard to go see if a friend wanted to play. She had a big deck in her backyard and a bunch of plush Pound Puppies and we would play puppy community until the sun set. I was just descending down the hill to her backyard when I saw it: it was a bird, but the size of a turkey or a little smaller. It was shiny, the feathers weren’t feathers at all, but almost like long iridescent sequins. It was sitting between 2 bushes and pecking about. I froze. It was close enough so I could marvel at the autumn jewel tones of its body, but not close enough to see the details of its eyes or feet. I crouched down a bit, although I was in the middle of a clearing and very easy to see, and took a few hurried steps forward. My friend had to see this! How was I going to get her attention? I didn’t want to scare it off. Maybe I could run around the side of her house to the front door, ring the bell, and peer at it from her back window? No. That would take too long. Maybe I could catch it. On second thought, no way. And just like that, it darted across the lawn and took off into the sky. I know I was young at the time and kids have wild imaginations, but I will admit I have googled iridescent birds on a few occasions in my adult life.
I met Michael Jackson and I knew I was going to, even though there was no way of knowing for sure. But I knew. He was coming to the city of Gary, Indiana, about an hour from my home town, to accept a key at their new baseball stadium. The Gary Rail Cats! Heard of em? Probably not.
I convinced a school friend to play hooky for the day and we skipped class, hopped into my shitty Firebird, and drove to Gary. I was a sophomore. The traffic was bad due to rain and we made it to the bleachers of the stadium about an hour late. Good thing it’s Michael fucking Jackson and he is so famous he shows up 4 hours late to everything. He hadn’t arrived yet so we had a good hour to sit in the bleachers, shivering in the rain. A janitor in a plastic poncho walks by, pushing a trash can, and magically just leans over the railing and asks if me and my friend want wrist bands to go into one of the private skyboxes so we could get warm and dry off. And sure enough, that skybox was right next to Michael Jackson’s. And sure enough, when Michael finally arrived and walked down the hall to his skybox, there were hundreds of people crammed into the hallway just waiting to see him. And sure enough, out of all the people (young and old), he decided to stop and meet me (I was not young enough/his type, ya comedians). He introduced himself and I was like “yes, duh.” I grabbed my friend and we were pulled into his security team and they ushered us into a stairwell. He told us to stay with his security guard, Steve, and be ready to rush the field. The field doors opened and his team started running across the field to a big stage. I held my hands friend tight and ran, but we lost Steve. A hundred fans broke through the barriers and ran towards the stage. We noticed anyone without a stage pass hanging around their neck was getting tackled and escorted outside (remember how insane MJ fans were?!).With that, we ran out of the stadium entirely. I had taken a few pictures with him using my disposable camera.
And sure enough, sure e-fucking-nough, the lady at Walgreens ruined the film. The only person to corroborate this story is an old pal from High School. Meghan- can you please back me up?
Anyways guys, any idea what kind of bird that was?!
