The Vulture

The Vulture is a plastic kite Louis Creed buys on a whim in mid-February 1984, during the depths of a Maine winter, and flies with his son Gage on March 24, 1984—the last day Louis will later identify as a truly happy one. The kite's soaring flight and its shadow, which tracks across the field as Louis sprints to save his son, become a symbol of the fragile joy that precedes Gage's death and a haunting image of the moment Louis fails to catch him.

Appearance and Purchase

The Vulture is a large plastic kite, its wings spanning roughly five feet, with a small head atop a scrawny, pinkly naked neck and bulging, bloodshot eyes. Louis buys it on a whim in mid-February 1984, while on his way home from the university, along with five hundred feet of kite twine. He stores it in the garage closet, still in its store bag with the sales slip stapled to it, and does not fly it until the following month.

The Kite-Flying Day

On March 24, 1984, a Saturday, Louis is home minding Gage while Rachel and Ellie go grocery shopping with Jud Crandall. After Gage wakes from his nap scratchy and out of sorts, Louis remembers the kite and suggests they go out. He retrieves the Vulture from the garage closet, unfurls it, and slips the sticks into the pockets at the back. Gage, seeing the kite, yells "Birt! Birt, Daddy! Got a birt!" Louis takes the kite and twine to Mrs. Vinton's field behind their house and gets it into the blowy late-March sky on his first attempt, although he has not flown a kite since he was twelve. The kite soars high, its plastic wings spread taut against the steady current of air, and Louis, laughing and excited, pays out twine so fast it grows hot and brands thin fire across his palm. He yells to Gage, "Look at that Vulture, Gage! She's goin to beat shit!" and Gage echoes "Beat-shit!" with high, joyous laughter. Louis winds the string twice around Gage's hand, and Gage, amazed at the strong tug and pull, flies the kite himself. They stand together in the middle of the field, Gage's hand in Louis's, looking up at the Vulture. Louis feels himself shrink until he is within Gage's tiny house, looking out at a world where the field is nearly as big as the Bonneville Salt Flats and the kite soars miles above. He puts his arm around Gage's shoulders, kisses his cheek, and says, "I love you, Gage." Gage, who has less than two months to live, laughs shrilly and joyously, crying "Kite flyne! Kite flyne, Daddy!"

The Shadow and the Accident

The Vulture's shadow, tracking across the white late-winter grass of Mrs. Vinton's field, returns as a haunting image in Louis's mind after Gage's death. When Louis races to catch Gage as he runs toward Route 15, he sees his own shadow tracking along the grass below him in the lowest periphery of his vision and thinks of the kite, the Vulture, printing its shadow all the way across the field. The memory of the kite's shadow merges with the moment he almost catches Gage—his fingers brush the back of Gage's jacket but cannot hold—and becomes a symbol of the joy that preceded the tragedy and the failure that followed.

The Kite as a Symbol of Lost Joy

After Gage's death, the Vulture kite remains stored in the garage closet, a relic of the last truly happy day. Louis's mind replays the accident over and over, and in the mind-movie the conclusion is different: he is quicker, and all that happens is that Gage gets a spanking. The kite, with its bulging bloodshot eyes and its soaring flight, becomes a symbol of the fragile, soaring joy that preceded Gage's death—a joy that, like the kite, was briefly held and then lost. The Vulture's shadow, tracking across the field, becomes a haunting image of the moment Louis almost caught his son but could not, and of the happiness that was there and then gone.