She knew the feather was an omen. But what kind of omen?
She drove the logging roads for the company. Checking the berms, the culverts to make sure they were in compliance. She drove a Dodge Ram with high clearance and four wheel drive. She carried a side arm and had CB communication with the office, but for all that it wasn't much of a job to be eighteen, female and alone.
She saw a lot that made her wish she had a camera. The dark colored jack rabbits of the high country, mule deer and elk and once a mother bear with twin cubs crossing in front of her. Once a mountain lion with a face so beautiful staring straight at her so she couldn't get a breath in.
When the eagle feather dropped out of the sky and stuck in her wind shield wiper all she could think was Forrest Gump. Then she saw the eagle flying ahead of her down the road. She felt like she was following it until they reached a hair pin and the bird soared out into the hazy space over a canyon. She followed the road on a more prosaic course.
She didn't keep the feather. Her job was to see the law was observed so she let the feather lie by the side of the road.
When she heard the father of her unborn child had drowned, she wondered if the eagle had been warning her and she didn't get the message. When her child was born retarded was that the secret the eagle knew? When her mother accidentally shot her dad when they were elk hunting did the eagle know that was going to happen? But why would an eagle care?
``The eagle is something else,'' her friend said.
``Like what?'' she asked. Her friend shrugged.
``Is an eagle bad luck?''
``I never heard that.'' He was smoking marijuana. ``The eagle was telling you to soar fearlessly,'' he suggested.
``I think that eagle was just taking a run at the updraught and its feather fell off,'' she answered.
But still she would sometimes have visions of the eagle's drifting flight and be glad she had that memory.