The Sound of Her Wings

I was buying breakfast at a breakfast stand near my school around 7:55am and I noticed that things were especially quiet. I took note of my surroundings and I was wondering if there might be a sudden change of weather.

At about 8:00am I was walking to class, taking the main front entrance of Bo-Ai building. As I was walking into the entrance of the building I suddenly hear pigeons fly out violently above and a mille-second later a tremendous crash.

At the same time, I sprinted ahead under the cover of the building entrance, afraid that the pigeons were going to attack me or that something might fall on me. I turned around to see what had happened. I expected to see large construction materials that had fallen from the roof. The sound of the crash was really tremendous.

Instead, I hear a scream, which seemed faint to me, and I see a girl’s body lying on the ground about 10 feet in front of the steps near where I had been. She was not moving.

The scream came from two Taiwanese girls who were standing about 30 feet across from me at an angle. They were busy calling the police on their cell phones. I thought about how at the scene of an accident the more people there are the more unlikely that an individual will call the police.

But here I was at a REAL scene and I ran inside the entrance and looked for any help.

I saw two elderly janitors (an Oba-san: elderly lady and a Oji-san: elderly man) taking out the trash and I told them, “有人跳樓, 有人跳樓” (Someone has jumped off the building, someone has jumped of the building).

An elderly lady asked me which building and I told her, “Right here.” She looked in front and let out an eek of surprise and ran to the nearby office and told them.

I stood there as a student ran past me as if fleeing a war zone.

I looked at the girl lying on the ground and there was blood coming out of her mouth, nose, and ears and it coalesced as a pool around her head. The elderly janitor man next to me also made note of that, “Look at the blood.”

I stared at the body and thought of taking a picture but then decided against it. One must have respect for the dead.

I continued to stare and take in the scene. In the last issue of Sandman “The Tempest” (which I just finished two days ago), William Shakespeare says how even when his son passed away, something in him smiled for now he could write of true sorrow and make audiences cry as well. I felt a bit a cold-hearted for thinking this.

It is about 8:10am and a female officer has made her way to the scene. She is keeping people away from the body. I felt that I had looked on long enough and went to class.

During class a lady came in to ask our teacher if all of the students have arrived. My teacher said, “All except one.”

“Is that student a girl?”

“No, it’s a guy.”

During class I couldn’t concentrate that much and the breakfast that I bought didn’t look that appetizing anymore. I then had a crazy thought, what if the girl was pushed or that there was some foul play involved?

During our ten minute break, I went to the rooftop of our building. There were no cops there and I took a look around the area. At the ledge that she jumped from there were a pair of glasses and a set of keys. There was no note that I could see. Seeing her personal affects really made me wonder what the girl was thinking about as she took off her glasses and took out her keys.

I went to tell the police that were at the scene downstairs, they said that they already checked the roof and would check again.

Thinking about the incident I can’t help but recall Sandman #8 “The Sound of Her Wings”. In this issue, Dream, depressed after obtaining his goal, follows her sister Death on her rounds as she sends various people on their way. Each time she does that, there is a great sound of beating wings.

This morning, I literally heard those wings.

At the end of “The Sound of Her Wings”, Death has cheered Dream up and he joyously throws some dream sand into the air. At the time, I thought that it was a bit cheesy but I think I understand why he was happy then. Taking a quote from Gaiman, “What would you think of life if Death was your older sister?” Or how I would think of it, “What would you think of life if Death could visit you at any moment?”

What I’m really glad about is that I wasn’t under the girl when she fell and I’m thankful for that.

The Entrance: