Chapter 2

When I went to the garage to get my baseball equipment, so I could take a break from unpacking and practice pitching, my mind went back to what Morgan wrote the day before. It's not that she wrote something I didn't like, but more like something I didn't understand. It probably would've made more sense, had she elaborated. Morgan seemed like she had something important she wanted to tell me, but didn't write, and I had a feeling it had something to do with the falcon I saw.

As I picked up my mitt and my baseball, something told me to duck. Without any hesitation, I listened to my instinct immediately, and I was glad I listened. Just as I ducked, something flew over my head, right where I was standing. Thinking that someone threw it at me through the open door, I spun around, clenching my baseball as if to throw it and looked across the street to see who or what could've caused it, but saw no one anywhere near me.

After I thought about it, I realized that whatever came towards me could've been controlling itself, like a bird, or some other small animal, so I reluctantly decided to check on it. Making my way over to where it fell, I quickly and quietly walked towards my bat and put on my glove, just in case I needed them, because whatever it was could attack me. All I could think it could be was a bird or something like that, but I was way off. "What even… What is this?" I asked no one in particular.

Obviously, my reaction indicates that I was shocked, but who can blame me? I doubt anyone in my position would've expected to see a small, wooden disk, which looked as though it was made from plywood, with a symbol that looked like a dove and olive branch. Then I saw the falcon through the open garage door and looked down at the disk. When I looked back up for the falcon, it was coming towards me, but stopped a few feet short. It seemed as though it was drawn to the disk and took it from me. As I watched, the falcon dropped it so that it was face-down on the garage floor, displaying a name.

"Jordan, I presume? Are you Morgan's pet? Could you deliver a note to her for me?" I asked Jordan as she landed by me. She flew up into the air, as I watched in amazement and confusion, then continued throughout the garage.

Jordan flew through columns of empty boxes (which we previously decided to store in the garage), to a corner of the garage, where my father's architecture tools were set up. She managed to grab a pencil in her beak, fly right over me, drop the pencil, and return to where she was a few seconds earlier, as if nothing had even happened.

"Well alrighty then! Looks like you knew exactly what to do. Morgan must've trained you well. You wouldn't happen to have seen my…" I trailed off as my notebook landed right in front of me. "Thanks, Jordan. You're really on top of things today, aren't you?" I asked as I began to write.

First off, I have some questions about your note from yesterday. But before I ask them, is Jordan your falcon? She flew to me, right after a weird looking disk nearly hit me. Maybe you've seen it before? It's a piece of wood, almost like plywood. Jordan seemed drawn to it, and it had her name engraved on it, so I figured that you might know what it is. It has a dove and an olive branch on it. Like in the Bible. I'll try to send it with her. Anyways, about your note… What did you mean? After you left, I read it almost immediately, and I didn't understand what you were saying, no matter how many times I read it.

My mind drifted back to what Morgan wrote, as I reached for the note in my back pocket. Hey. I'm assuming that you're probably going to be confused as to what I'm talking about, and wonder how I know so much about this. I can't really explain how, but I might be able to eventually. Just not right now. It's too early. If you're reading this, that means you already know who I am, even if you don't know what I'm like. That'll change soon.

But we can't start just yet. This was written sorta quickly, because I didn't know that our new neighbor would be able to do what you can. You probably won't know what I mean by that, and if you don't know, then don't worry about it. If you do know what I'm talking about, then we can get started this weekend, if you're able to. (If you don't know what I mean, this is probably really confusing, which is why I said not to worry, so you wouldn't get confused.) Just try not to let your instincts control you. All I can say is be careful, and you'll be fine. So, this weekend, then?

Putting the note back into my pocket, I kept thinking about some of the things she said. "It's too early? What does that mean? What does any of this mean? Too early for what? Why's it too early? What does she mean by 'what I can do?' How does she know what I can do? Why don't I know? And why can't I let my instincts control me?" As I was saying this out loud, I was also writing it. If there's something I need to know, I'm going to find out whether you tell me or not, or I have to let my instincts take control. It's up to you how this ends up. I didn't know what else to put, so I just wrote "We'll see how things go some time. Maybe this weekend. Will you tell me what's going on then?"

After I finished the note, I folded it with care, wrote Morgan Lee on the front in bold letters, and turned to Jordan, right as I remembered the disk.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot the disk. Make sure you don't lose this, okay Jordan? This disk may not mean anything significant, but I'd still like Morgan to take a look at it."

As I turned to grab the disk, I noticed that it wasn't where I had left it. Somehow, Jordan must have picked up the disk without me noticing, because she made a disgruntled noise, as if something was preventing her from opening her beak, and when I looked at her, she had the disk.

"Well alrighty then. Remind me to keep a close eye on you if Morgan ever asks me to take care of you. Not that you could, because, well, you can't speak. You move really quickly, even for a falcon. Thank you for getting that for me, though. Next time, could you get the disk before I try to get it, so I don't do that for nothing again?"

As I tried to put the note with the disk, Jordan flipped the disk into the air, took the note in her talons, and caught the disk in her beak in one smooth motion, then flew into the air.

Since there was nothing else that I wanted to send with Jordan, I sent her on to Morgan, and hoped that she'd read the note, and help me out with the disk. Suddenly, as if someone had told me, I remembered that I had my baseball bat right next to me, and that my mitt was still in the box. After I picked up my glove, I grabbed a baseball and headed outside to practice. Soon after I got to the back, after pitching my third strike in a row, I remembered what Morgan said, before I let go another strike.

For the rest of practice, I pondered over what she might've meant. After about an hour and a half of practicing, something landed right next to the vines and branches I bent and twisted into a batter's box right before I let go of the baseball. Immediately, I lost my momentum, and the ball went into one of the weaker spots on the box and it fell apart, the baseball rolling away.

"Of all the branches I could've hit, I just had to hit the one that was holding everything together, didn't I? Still not bad luck, just an unfortunate event. At least it was only one, and not a series of them."

When I started to walk over to the tangle of branches that used to be the batter's box, a shadow passed over my head, heading for relatively the same area that I was. Somewhat breaking into a sprint, I took off towards the mess of twigs. Even though I was running at full speed, it seemed as though everything happened so slowly. For a split second, the shadow stopped and started dropping quickly, which meant that it was near, if not right above, the object. Immediately, I ran at a full sprint, and barely got to the disk before Jordan did. Well, not exactly… Jordan was behind me when I got to the pile, but she got to the disk first. Just as she dropped the disk in front of me, I noticed that she had something in her talons.

She seemed like she was eager about something, and I realized that the thing that was in her talons was a piece of paper. Two of them, actually. One with writing, and one blank one. Almost as if she knew what I was thinking, Jordan flew above me, and dropped the paper in my hands. When I looked at the front of the paper, I saw that it said Jacob Graves, in the same handwriting as the first note Morgan wrote.

Realizing that she probably read my letter, and that she probably responded to my questions, I didn't hesitate, and immediately started unfolding the letter, being careful to not rip the paper, and even somehow managed to keep it intact. Even though I was sure that Morgan would end up telling me not to do something completely and utterly stupid, and I was honestly half expecting a long letter explaining something, all she responded with was, "Okay, fine. We'll meet this weekend, and I'll tell you then. Is that okay?"

I figured that I had won, but then I noticed that there was smaller writing at the bottom, which read, "Don't do anything stupid, Jacob. I know you were probably expecting that, which is why I wrote it smaller at the bottom. Hopefully you see this. Just be sure to make sure that no one is with you, and we'll be able to start later this week, if that's okay."

"How did I know she was going to say that?" I asked Jordan, among several other questions, even though I knew she couldn't answer me.

No matter what I thought of, no matter how many questions I asked, no matter how long I thought about it, I simply could not figure out what she meant, or why she tried to keep me from finding out what she was talking about. This weekend seems like it's soon enough, I wrote back. Although, I do have a few questions about, well, everything. Why does this seem so important to you, yet I have to wait to figure this out, whatever "this" is? How come you're being so vague? Since when do people use falcons to communicate? Wouldn't texting be easier? Just in case you want to text me about this, so it's faster, I'll write my number.

Since I had nothing else to say to Morgan, I wrote my number at the bottom of the paper, gave the note to Jordan, and was about to go back to pitching, when I remembered that the batter's box was down. Any desire I had to pitch was now gone, and I picked up the baseball, switched it out with a soccer ball, and started to work on my agility. After about an hour or two, my mother came outside to where I was, and said that she needed my help with something. She didn't specify, but I knew better than to argue, so I went inside.

Now that I was done practicing, I started to think more about what Morgan said, and ended up getting distracted while helping my mother, and it didn't exactly go too well… "Jacob, watch out!" My mother's warning didn't have time to register as the ceiling fan we were hanging started to come down. Expecting the worst, I stayed on the ladder and shut my eyes after seeing my mother do the same. Seconds went by, and still nothing. Looking down after I opened my eyes, I saw that the fan was under the ladder and I was unscathed.

Neither I nor my mother knew what had just happened, and her eyes were still closed. Realizing that my mother hadn't seen the fan fall, I climbed down the ladder, then climbed back up, once I had picked up the fan. Calling out my mother's name, I showed her that I had the fan in my hand and nothing was broken as she shook her head and started to laugh to herself.

"I don't know why I was worried. There's a reason you're goalie, and I should've known that your quick reflexes would save you again. Shouting to let you know what was happening was just instinct, you know?"

Although I knew what she meant, I didn't respond, because I had no idea what had just happened. After we finished setting up the ceiling fan, I walked to my room, and kept thinking about what had happened. Morgan might be able to help, I thought. But even if she does know, what did I do?