Trilling Thrilling Teasing

Emily jumped out of bed, pulled open the window, and leaned outside.
‘Every time I’m here. How is it possible?’
The alarm of her arthritic car, sensitive to the merest of movements, had announced again
its decision to turn itself off and then on again. A two tone tu-tu. A rise and fall Emily
claimed she had started hearing in her sleep.
‘And it’s always in front of your house,’ she stated, her voice not free of accusation.

A week after Emily told me she was taking her love elsewhere, I was lying alone in bed when
I heard the sound. That unmistakable two tone signal filling me now with sudden hope. I
jumped out of bed, pulled open the window, and leaned outside. Emily’s car was nowhere to
be seen but the sound came again. And again. I looked up and saw a starling sitting on a
windowsill directly across from my own.
‘Tu-tu,’ the bird whistled in perfect imitation, ‘tu-tu.’
Was that laughter in its eyes?
Trilling, thrilling, teasing my broken heart.