A Bird Fell. I Kept Driving…
A big bird fell from the sky. Yes, you heard that right.
Now you might say,
“Well, it wasn’t a dinosaur or an elephant. Hardly headline material.”
Fair enough. Normally, a bird falling would sit comfortably in the “nature happens” folder.
But this didn’t quite unfold normally.
I was driving about 40 miles per hour in my 1999 Frontier pickup. Florida roads, the calm rhythm of an ordinary morning… And then this huge bird — and I mean huge — seemed to pick me specifically and descend from the sky.
And by “descend,” I don’t mean some poetic glide.
More like fate making a hard landing.
First it wobbled, wings thrashing at the air, hit the windshield, seemed for a second that it might recover. Just as I thought “okay, maybe we’re fine”
And then… nope. BOOM
It dropped into the truck bed.
Not a gentle “thud.”
A full, unapologetic thump.
Honestly, its weight arrived before its identity did.
And I kept driving. Because when a bird literally falls out of the sky onto your vehicle, your first instinct usually isn’t to pull over and reassess your life. It’s more:
“Well… that’s new. Now what exactly am I supposed to do with a bird?”
Is it dead? Did I somehow cause this? Is it some rare species I’ve never heard of? What if it’s the last surviving member of an endangered bird family and it chose my truck bed for its dramatic finale? The mind gets oddly creative under mild shock.
I check the rearview mirror. I can’t see it, but I can feel its presence. Like certain emotions… invisible, but definitely riding along. An unsolicited companion somehow now part of the journey.
Neither the bird nor I had planned that encounter that morning. Whatever exotic airspace it launched from, I doubt its flight plan included “injured passenger in a ’99 pickup.” And when I left home for my eye doctor appointment, I certainly didn’t expect a giant bird riding along.
Then my internal filing system kicked in. You know the one:
– What to do if a tire blows
– What to do if the engine overheats
– What to do if you run out of gas
But nowhere is there a tab labeled:
“Large bird drops into pickup truck bed in Florida.”
Most defining life moments in life never make it into the filing system. For a second I considered pulling over. But I didn’t. Sometimes you keep moving simply because you don’t know what else to do. Stopping demands explanations.
And then it hit me:
It was more than the bird that landed. It was also my astonishment. No wonder the truck suddenly felt heavier.
Imagine explaining to a teacher:
“Sorry we’re late — a bird fell into the truck bed.”
“Mm-hmm. Of course it did. Anything else?”
That’s what being caught off guard feels like.
Like when someone says something you never saw coming and your response shows up three seconds late. That little gap? Life often happens right there.
The bird just made it tangible.
Later that day I learned from the vet that the bird actually had a name.
But undeniably, its weight arrived before its name.
And maybe adulthood is exactly that: continuing at a reasonable speed with a fallen bird in the back. Not panicking. Not dramatizing. Just quietly thinking, “Alright. This too.”
Because honestly?
None of us are truly prepared.
We just act as if we are. Plans, calendars, strategies, well-intentioned assumptions… all useful. But sometimes life simply drops a very large bird into your truck bed.
The bird didn’t plan it.
The truck bed didn’t plan it.
Neither did I.
That’s how most coincidences work. Especially the ones you never tried to arrange.
Still, I learned something that day:
Uncertainty isn’t rare.
It just doesn’t usually arrive shaped like a bird.
Sometimes it’s a phone call.
Sometimes a look.
Sometimes silence.
But the feeling is the same:
Surprise.
Not knowing what to do.
Being caught unprepared.
And then life keeps moving. So do you.
Sometimes with something in the back you haven’t quite named yet.
Aysen Darcan
February 2026, Florida
