Blackbird

Aug 15, 2014:  The August 15th writing prompt involved the top ten Beatles songs.   I am making no profit from the partial use of this song, nor from the use of the characters from the Trixie Belden series.  And many thanks to Vivian and Chey for the editing help.  However, I played with the story after their edits, so any errors are and always will be my own.  Also thanks to the writers of NCIS from whom I borrowed the pivotal plot point.

♩♩♬♬♩  Blackbird singing in the dead of night

The small individual moved with sneaky grace and was dressed much like a black bear.  No,  a bear is too husky.  A leopard maybe?  No.  The black costume made her look like a small blackbird, from the the light-weight dark stocking cap covering her bouncy blond curls, to the black rock climbing slippers on her feet.

There. There is a chittering whistle.  Odd,  the only whistles usually heard in these parts are the sound of a bobwhite quail.  But bobwhites don’t whistle in the dead of night.  Well, not unless they are human and not unless someone is in trouble.
 

But again, this is a chittering whistle.  Less about calling for help, and more about saying, ‘I am here and I am okay.’

♩♩♬♬♩ Take these broken wings and learn to fly

Quietly and more surefooted than her almost twin would expect of the former yellow-daffodil, she climbed up the rain spout to the second floor balcony and peered in the open window.  Most blackbirds would wonder why the window was open.  But with the recent power outage working in her favor, she knew the window was open to gather as much sweet cool air into the apartment as was possible from the hot sultry night.

♩♩♬♬♩ All your life, You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Suddenly, lightning flashed, and the blackbird huddled against the coarse brick of the building and paused to count the seconds while she listened for the boom of thunder.  It would help to have an idea of how far away the storm was. That way, she could better gauge the amount of time that would be available to search the apartment before the tenant rushed in to close the window against the coming storm.

♩♩♬♬♩ Blackbird singing in the dead of night

An explosive boom of thunder filled the night. The blackbird whistled again to her compatriot, this time to warn of her impending entry to the apartment.  It was his job to keep the tenant occupied as long as possible.

♩♩♬♬♩ Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

The blackbird cautiously spilled over the windowsill and, using a thin beam from a pencil flashlight, she began her search for the treasure.  The electricity was off, so there was no point in checking the computer, but she knew that her prey was more inclined toward the old fashioned methods of pencil and paper.  She only hoped to find some remnant of evidence which would prove that her almost twin had a new occupation as ghost author of the Cosmo McNaught series for boys.

♩♩♬♬♩ All your life, You were only waiting for this moment to be free

She looked for almost twenty minutes and was beginning to panic that she would be discovered before her search was completed.  As she rummaged in the trash can for any scraps of paper, she realized that she was looking at a stream of used typewriter ribbon.  She remembered that she had seen several boxes of replacement spools in one of the desk drawers.  Her hand stilled on the black tape.  She had seen the manual typewriter, but had thought that it was little more than an old machine, sort of like a piece of bulky art.  But, if it was only an antique, why on earth would Mart have several boxes of new printwheels in the desk drawer and a used one in the trash?  She decided to take the used tape out of the trash and replace it with a fresh spool from the desk drawer.  If she worked carefully, she could make the new ribbon look like it had been used and thrown in the trash.  As she placed the spent cartridge and extra packaging in an evidence bag to take home to examine, she moved towards the window. 

♩♩♬♬♩ Black bird fly, Black bird fly,  Into the light of the dark black night

After climbing back onto the balcony, she released another chittering whistle as an all clear and slid down the gutter spout.  She considered the best way to leverage the evidence in her hands as she took off into the light of the dark black night.