About seven hundred miles southwest of the hot battle taking place in Pennsylvania it is also sweltering on this Thursday the 2nd of July on the Scarburg farm in Alabama. Mattie Ann and Elizabeth, Sergeant Steven’s two youngest daughters are playing under the large tulip poplar at the edge of the yard. They are startled by a shrill, screaming, kee-eeeee-arr sound from a large bird circling over their heads. Looking up they see nothing, the bird flew behind the branches of the tree where they are sitting. As both girls, scared and trembling, run to the safety of the house, Lizzie drops her corn shuck doll to the ground.
“Mama! Mama, there is some kind of big bird screeching at us out yonder in the yard,” she says slamming the screen door behind her. “What is it Mama?”
“Hush child, hush don’t tell me! I don’t want to hear you say the word!”
“What? Say what word Mama?”
“Hawk! That... that was a red-tailed hawk!”
“But Mama, it acted like it was screaming at me and Elizabeth!”
“It probably was Mattie Ann. Sit down baby, and I will explain. Old Granny Scarburg was living with us right before she died. It was then she told me the tale of the hawks.”
Mattie Ann sat at the kitchen table, wide-eyed as she listens to her mother tell Granny Scarburg’s story of the hawk.
“Granny was a full-blood Cherokee Indian, named Running Doe. She got the story from her mother I suppose. Granny wanted to make sure she had passed it on before she died.”
“Passed on what Mama?”
“She said the hawk is a messenger from God or as Granny said the Great Spirit. She said He sends warning to us through the spirit of the red-tail hawk. The hawk is His messenger! Hawks warn of tragedy or foretell of death. Dreaming about a hawk can be regarded as a warning of danger too.”
“Mama, what did the hawk say that me and Lizzie saw?”
“No baby girl, they don’t say anything. Once you hear the hawk’s shrieking it is a warning that something bad is going to happen. You must watch carefully to see which direction the hawk flies. Danger or death will lie in that direction.”
“What was my hawk’s warning?”
“Baby girl, I don’t know. Go back and watch. If he is trying to talk to you he will come back. Watch which way he flies as he leaves, the direction will provide you the answer.”
Later while playing Mattie Ann is startled again by the shrill cry: kee-eeeee-arr. She looks skyward - her hawk has returned! Around and around the beautiful, red-tailed bird soars screeching its mournful cry, Lizzie is scared and starts to cry. Mattie Ann stands watching, mesmerized by the flapping of the hawk’s wings and the hypnotic sound it continuously emits; finally, it flies off and does not return.
She runs back into the house.
“Mama! Mama, it flew off. What does that mean?”
“Which way? Which way did it fly?”
“North! North Mama, it flew off toward the north.”
Malinda grabs the tail of her beautifully embroidered apron her mother had given her when she married Robert, places it to her eyes as the tears begin to flow.
“Mama! What’s the matter, why are you crying? What did the hawk mean?”
“North, my baby north is the direction of your father and the boys.”