Speaker 1: High excursionists, it's way back Wednesday on Into the Night Anthology,
a return to a story that left its mark. And
if you're a library member, don't forget. There's another story
waiting just for you. Be sure to check your email
if you haven't found your way there yet, listen all
the way to the end to find out how you
can become a story in my library. Welcome to Into
the Night. I'm Narri your guide on today's excursion down
a twisted path. Be careful not to get lost. Be
it dark or light, it's easy to lose your way.
Are you ready, then let's begin. When the cowbird sings,
the black velvet of night fell across the landscape, and
somewhere in the day a whipper will called mournfully for
a mate in the woods across from our neighborhood. The
cloudless sky revealed a dazzling show of brilliant stars, and
not even barking dogs broke the beauty of the late
hour with shrill yips. I remember it clearly. It was
the night my life and everyone else's changed forever. I
was thirteen when Miranda came to us. Mom and dad
had wanted more children, but after my brother, Kyle was born,
they had no luck getting pregnant. Finally they decided to
become foster parents. I was eager to have a sister,
so when I got the news that Miranda would move
in with us, I was thrilled. She was three and
just old enough for me to coddle and play dress
up with. She was a dream come true for all
of us for the first time since I was a
little girl. I held tea parties, built a dollhouse, and
helped name stuffed animals. We played school by lining the
bears and the other dolls up in neat Rows was
the teacher, and Miranda was always the star pupil. I
put her bouncy curls up with ribbons, used my allowance
money to buy her dresses, and did everything I could
to be the perfect big sister. I'd needed Miranda. We
had all needed Miranda. Even Kyle was happy to have
her with us. Sure, he grumbled for a while that
she wasn't a boy, but Miranda had an adventurous spirit,
and soon he was playing bucking Bronco with her and
teaching her how to fish at the local lake. He
gave up on having a brother for at least a
while and happily assumed the role of protective big brother.
At ten, he figured he was just the man for
the job. Mom and Dad held a lot of sway
in our community. Yes, they had admirable jobs, but they
had a natural charisma that attracted people to them as well.
If we bought a certain kind of car, people we
knew followed suit. When Mom desaid to grow a garden
and donate to the local food shelter, suddenly gardens sprang
up everywhere in our town. When they committed to becoming
foster parents, others decided that they too could provide homes
to needy children. Kyle and I were constantly in awe
of what our parents could accomplish. Dad was frequently asked
to run for mayor, which he gracefully declined, I'm no
politician and I don't want to start now. I'd rather
keep my feet planted in the grassroots of helping our neighbors.
I'm not much one for titles. Following our lead of
adopting Miranda, the Roberts family took in Lily and Lamar siblings.
Missus Roberts told Mom Grace, I've thought about it, and
now that our children have grown and moved away, Jack
and I have plenty of room to take in children
who need our help. Meg. That brings tears to my eyes.
Mom said, thank you for helping Philip, big need in
our community. The Haggars fostered Joel, the Kincaids took in
Tyler and Trinity. The list of foster homes grew and
grew until there were no longer children without homes. Starting
this trend was far more fulfilling to my parents than
the other ways our family brought about changes in our town.
Not long after Miranda arrived, we got even more good news. Kyle, Miranda,
and I were called into the living room one afternoon
for a family meeting. At first, we shot each other
worried glances. The last time we had a conference in
the living room, we discussed whether or not to be
a foster family. The time before that, though Dad's firm
was considering selling to a corporation that wanted to take
it over, and we were told we might have to
move to Cincinnati. Neither Kyle nor I were keen on upheaval.
We didn't want bad news this time, so we worried
each step of the way to the family meeting. We
were relieved to find Mom and Dad smiling when we
came downstairs from our rooms. As you know, we only
call these meetings when there's something big to talk over
as a family. Dad looked at each of us. Mom
squeezed his arm. Yeah, Dad, what's up. Kyle and I
leaned forward on the couch while Miranda played with her
doll kids. Mom and I are expecting another baby. Really.
We leapt from our seats and rushed to hug our parents.
When we still have a long way to go, not
until the end of October or the first of November,
but we wanted to let you know right away. We
saw the doctor today, so it's official. Miranda blinked her
big blue eyes at us as we celebrated. We'd waited
for so long, and now we would have two little
ones to love. I hope this one's a boy. Kyle
crossed his fingers and whooped with joy. I secretly hoped
for another girl. Well, we'll be happy with either. We
just want a healthy baby. Mom patted her stomach that
before now I hadn't noticed was growing. During the next
few months, every time we went shopping, we came home
with something for the new baby. The upstairs bedroom at
the end of the hallway was converted into a nursery
and new items were stored there for safe keeping. Kyle
and I were thrilled. Miranda was not so thrilled. We'd
ask her, aren't you excited about Mamma's new baby. She'd
bat her blue eyes and say I thought I was
the baby. No amount of explaining to her how much
fun being a big sister would be made a difference.
Mom just sighed Lydia, you weren't thrilled about Kyle coming
along either. Miranda will come around. We just need to
give her extra attention. She's in the foster care system
for a reason. Life has been hard on her. After that,
Kyle and I did our best to dote on Miranda.
If she felt secure, she'd accept the baby easier. We
played with her more, brought special treats home for her,
and did all we could to make her feel loved.
We even asked her for suggestions on what to get
for the baby, thinking if she felt included she would
accept her new role as big sister. She'd still bat
her blue eyes and say I thought I was the baby.
We resigned ourselves to having to deal with sibling rivalry
when the time came for the baby to arrive. In
the meantime, life continued, School ended, and we went on
our family vacation to see our grandparents, who lived in
the country. It was wonderful to be out of the
noise and traffic of the city. We didn't live in downtown,
but our suburban life wasn't the same as living on
a farm like they did. Every day after we arrived, Grandpa,
Kyle and I took walks along the nature trails, where
he would explain what the different plants and animals were
that we met along our way. He just knew all
about them. See this little guy, he's a painted box turtle.
He won't bite you, so you can pick him up.
As we ood an awed over his decorated shell, Kyle
turned him upside down to look at his butt. What
you doing there, Kyle? Grandpa's eyes twinkled. Hot. Do you
know it's a boy? I don't see anything down there,
Grandpa chuckled. That's not how you tell. It's easy. Boys
have red or orange eyes and girls have brown eyes. See.
Sure enough, our new companion had bright orange eyes. Grandpa
pointed out the birds we encountered, that's a writ That
one's a chickadee. That one over there is an oriole.
We heard a raucous song above us. What's that one,
I asked, Oh, that's a cowbird. I hate those things.
Grandpa had never said he hated any animal, not even snakes.
We looked up at a bird that didn't seem harmful.
Its song wasn't very pretty, but it hardly seemed like
a menace. Why don't you like them? It seems okay? Well,
cowbirds are what are known as parasitic nesters. They wait
for another bird to build a nest, and then the
cowbird lays an egg in it, so another bird has
to raise its baby. Usually it's bigger than the hostbirds
babies and eats most of the food when they're growing up.
That doesn't sound fair at all, Kyle glared up at
the chirping bird. It's worse than that. They will toss
out one of the hostbird's eggs so that their chick
has more food later on. Why don't the other birds
just throw the cowbird egg out? I was quickly hating
the annoying bird myself. Those cowbirds are smart. They watch
to see what others birds do. If they throw the
foreign eggs out, the cowbird will destroy the entire nest
in revenge. What a terrible creature. Now you know why
I hate it. But kids, let's go this way. There's
a nice little pond I want to show you. There's
usually some wild ducks and egrets that hang out around there.
We put the cowbird behind us and went off on
our adventure. Every day Grandpa had some sort of fun
nature experience for us to go on. It's a shame
you kids don't live in the country. There's a whole
lot more to the world than city life, he'd tell us.
We knew he was right. We had fun with Grandma too.
She was funny and young at heart, and she took
us on trips around the area to see the sights.
Our summer went by way too fast, and we all
cried when we said goodbye. Back home, we continued our
plans for the new baby. Nine months might seem like
a long time, especially when you're a child, but before
we knew it, it was only a matter of weeks
before the baby's arrival. In the meantime, we learned Mom
was having a girl. Her name was Adeline or Addie
for short. Instead of a joyous birth, however, we were
confronted with tragedy. A month before she was due, Mom
slipped on the stairs. We rushed her to the hospital,
but there was nothing the doctors could do. The trauma
was too great. We almost lost Mom too, and the
doctors said not to count on her ever having a
baby again. We were devastated. In a tragic twist of fate,
three other couples we knew also miscarried. Within weeks of
the death of little Addie. Our whole town was grief stricken.
Miranda was too young to really grasp what happened. Am
I still the baby? She asked? You are? I said,
as tears streamed down my face. She hugged me tight
and said, it's o kay Lydia, I'm here and I
love you. We lived in perpetual grief for months. The
nearly complete nursery at the end of the hall reminded
us of the loss we had sustained. Then, almost unbelievably,
Mom and Dad told us they were pregnant once again.
We waited until we were past the first try. Master.
We didn't want to get your hopes up too soon.
Kyle and I swarmed Mom and Dad with hugs, and
we embraced as silent tears fell down our cheeks. It
was a miracle. By now, I had begun the start
of my sophomore year in high school. I was busy
with band and cheer, and I became the typical teenager
on the go. My best friend, Emmy and I were inseparable,
and I spent many nights at her house. It's not
that I didn't love my family. I just took them
for granted and bonded with my friends. Late one night,
I returned home. The stars blazed and the night was thick.
As I walked up the driveway, something seemed off, too quiet,
too still, not just at my house, but in the
entire neighborhood. I pulled my key out and opened the door.
Blood slickened the tile, and a strange glow came from
the upstairs. Mom, Dad, Kyle, I'm home. What's going on?
Utter silence. My legs felt weighted as I forced myself
to climb to the second story. I can't forget it
for as long as I live, for however long that is,
I won't get those images out of my mind, hovering
over the bodies of my family was Miranda. Only she
wasn't the sweet little girl that I knew. Her eyes
glowed and she had an other worldly strangeness to her voice. Miranda,
what happened.
Speaker 2: Here, you foolish girl? Lydia Bennett.
Speaker 1: She'd never called me by my whole name before. All
you stupid humans had to do was not take our
place in the nest with another baby.
Speaker 2: My people were content for now having you raised us.
Speaker 1: Miranda, what are you talking about? My voice shook and
my heart pounded. Their dripping knife in her hand made
it clear she had killed my family.
Speaker 2: This is happening across the city. You people were so
eager to help out the children who made it homes.
You never stopped to ask where we came from. It's
from there.
Speaker 1: She tossed open the curtains and pointed at the sky. No,
none of this makes sense. How could you do this?
Your mother didn't sleep on the stairs. I pushed her
With you and Kyle already here. I couldn't risk my
resources being used for another baby.
Speaker 2: I thought I solved the problem, but your stupid parents
insisted on having another child. I had no choice but
to destroy the whole nest. Trembling, I ran down the
stairs and out into the street. Flashing lights in the
sky above me revealed a fleet of saucers flying above
the town. I ran as quickly as I could to
the woods, at once panicked but still trying to understand
what happened to my world.
Speaker 1: Just then it all made sense. I heard the unmistakable
song of a cowbird in the trees above me. Thank
you for joining me for this episode of the Into
the Night Anthology podcast. Written by Caroline Giamanco, narrated by Nari,
Theme music by Nico Rodriguez. All other original music, sound
design and editing by Ohmenhawk Studios. You can find our
links in the show notes. Into the Night is on
your favorite podcatcher, so make sure to like, subscribe and
leave a five star review to help other excursionists to
join us. I'll see you next time, and remember, whether
in the shadows or in the daylight, all twisted paths
lead you into the night. Into the Night Anthology is
a creative, typo entertainment production you've been listening to way
back Wednesday from Into the Night Anthology Library members already
have a second story waiting, and you can join them
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the blue join the Library button. I'll see you there.