BIRD-DOG

January 19th, 2010

Bird-dog
\’berd-‘dog\ v 1: to watch closely 2: to seek out : follow or detect *

As a child, one of my favorite movies of all time was Harriet the Spy. I loved the way she would just delve right into a “case,” make it her own and write her thoughts and feelings about it. I wanted to write like her, I wanted people to compliment me on my detective skills. I, in short wanted to be Harriet, (or Michelle Trachtenberg playing Harriet).
Next door lived a young man, he was probably my age now and he lived in the lower level apartment with his girlfriend while his mother, (the landlady) lived upstairs. I did not learn his name right away (this would remain until one night when an act occurred that my poor ears would never forget), but when I did, he had an entirely different persona, he became an actual person to me, incapable of not being followed.
I became a bird-dog, obsessed with following him with my eyes, hand scribbling furiously in my notebook. I never got too close, because I had seen and heard his nasty temper, specifically with his girlfriend and I knew I didn’t want him turning on me. My status was perfect as it was, incognito with a notebook and a pen, peering ever so inconspicuously through the hedges.

* letter “e” is upside down creating sound of “uh”