I saw the mallard shortly before sunup, seated in the middle of the road. His feathers were scattered across the asphalt like a duster caught in a fan. Yet the mallard seemed unfazed by whatever had befallen him—a mid-flight run-in with a windshield, no doubt, or the grill of some monstrous truck.

It was 5:00 A.M.; the sun was just a figment in the sky. I paused before approaching, hoping my presence might spook him into retreating to the safety of the shoulder. It did not. In fact, he seemed so disinterested in my presence that I convinced myself that he was simply resting his wings before the long flight home. A car crawled toward us in the predawn dark. I waved it past, mouthing the word “Mallard!” Then another car came (“Mallard!”), and another (“Mallard!”).

When I returned an hour later, I found him half-flattened a few feet from where he’d last lain. His head was twisted toward me. His death was either brutal or merciful. There was no blood on his feathers or on his feet. If he’d suffered, he’d done so silently.

I leaned low and studied him like an anatomy lesson. The animal in him was now gone. He was a shadow. A still life. A speedbump. The busted parts were all on his insides.

The following morning, when I returned, I discovered that all evidence of him was now gone. Some Samaritan better than me had scooped and disposed of his body.

What I’m about to tell you now will sound like a lie. How on that second morning, on that same stretch of road, a second mallard appeared exactly like the first. The creature crossed the sky like a birthright. I was stunned, and then sickened, by the symmetry.

What are we to make of a world that does not flinch or remember? A world where one bird flies where another bird flew—oblivious to everything except for the taste of the wind.

BJ Hollars is the author of several books, most recently Dinosaur Dreams: A Father and Daughter In Search of America's Prehistoric Past, Wisconsin for Kennedy: The Primary That Launched a President and Changed The Course of History, among others (and many other endeavors). Learn more about Hollars' work online at www.bjhollars.com.