Camouflage is a strange thing. It is designed to confuse the eye and conceal something by breaking outlines or giving something the appearance of another thing. This is why I was very surprised to see a vulture lift off out of the ground, fly overhead and settle to the ground in a field by a curb. All without flapping its wings once. I was further amazed by the sight of a small bird, about the size of a robin fly off the vultures shoulder and away into the woods that surrounded the field. Had that small bird lifted the whole thing over the fence to where it sat now?
Curiosity is also a strange thing. It is one of the things that separate man from animal - not that animals aren't curious, but it seems to me they don't have the same degree of curiosity, or that they don't have the same level of ability to use what they discover. I suppose a third possibility is that the most curious of the animals die when investigating something dangerous. Anyhow, curiosity drove me to take a closer look at this vulture.
As I got nearer, I noticed its face wasn't quite right. Instead of a beak, there was something that looked more like a nose. Instead of a small face, the cheeks were quite round, and sagged into the neck. In the place of feathers, there was a body with the texture of an old wood post, sinking into the ground without feet. In all it looked more like a child's sketch of a vulture - enough to fool a person from a distance, but not good enough to escape closer examination. Although the eyes were open, they didn't move at all, as if totally absorbed into the impersonation.
I decided to leave the creature alone. Generally I am not someone who disturbs something for the sake of curiosity, usually I just figure out what is under the camouflage even if I cannot see exact what it is. But this was not the strangest thing that happened to me on the course of my walk. Seeing through the disguise of the one creature seemed to have opened my eyes to identify others like it.
I turned the corner of the street and found myself in a shaded avenue. The houses were set back a little way from the road, and the mature trees overhung the pathway, bringing a gloomy aspect to the scene. As I looked around in the shadows I noticed a tall white figure, with a round face similar to the vulture I had seen earlier. I suppose in another lifetime I may have mistaken her for a birch tree, or a beam of light standing against the side of a house.
I went and stood at the front of the garden she was in. I suppose because I had noticed her as an individual, rather than as something trying to hid, I was a little less hesitant about disturbing her. I say 'her' because there was something in the aspect an shape of the pale white body that suggested to me a female. Of course, I still don't know the truth of that statement, but it was a powerful enough suggestion that I am still using it in my descriptions of her.
Another strange thing about humans is their desire to name. Columbus was interested in finding out the name of the islands he had discovered. He wanted to give them his own names. In the scriptures one of the first things God does with the man he created is to see what he names the creatures God made. There must be something very primitive about this desire, because as I looked at this creature, I wondered about her name.
And then it came to me - I don't know if it was some kind of telepathy, or just an inspiration of my own making. She was named after the road that she lived on, which in turn was named after a Ukrainian city. Donipodzerhyuz? Donitskprious? The shading of the road sign made it impossible to make out. I decided that I would call her Donny, or is it Donni for a girl? Donni.
As I came to the awareness of her name, I noticed two other pale, thin creatures standing by her, also looking at me. There was a sense of loneliness, of disconnection with the world, in their general aspect. Were they the last of their kind, living out their lives in a super camouflaged way? Was I the only person to have ever noticed them? Or did they live all around us, on every street and corner, unseen because of the hurried life we live in the constant glow of an iphone? I continued my walk wondering about the things I had seen.
Dreams are strange things.
