Jim Eggers
Appearances
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Well, she definitely has said those. But, I mean, she's not going to say the same thing every time she talks to me.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
No, because most of the time people aren't around me when I'm having a mood swing.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I don't care if anybody believes me or not. You know, it's not, I'm not here to prove anything to anybody. That's not the point. The point is, I know what she does. And that is that. No, come on, girl.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Sadie, what are you looking at, huh? She's got her eyes focused on me and trying to figure out what you're doing with the mic.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Most of the time I've been in costumes and so forth or wear masks. You know, like jumping out from behind dark corners and scaring people.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I have a bipolar disorder with psychotic tendencies. And what that pretty much is, is when I'm having a mood swing or whatnot, I can become extremely dangerous and violent.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
It feels like real strange and tingly. Might just be a few seconds before all of a sudden, boom, here you are like the Incredible Hulk.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And if you ask Jim, he'll tell you this all goes back to when he was seven. At the age of seven, I lost my kid brother in the Mississippi River. I saw him drown, and... You saw him drown? Yeah, I witnessed him drowning. We wandered away from home. We were not properly supervised by my parents. And I told my brother not to go over into the river because it was deep.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
He didn't listen to me, and then the currents dragged him down. I saw him bob up and down three times, and the third time he didn't come back up. And I was pleading with God, you know, crying. Please bring him back. I'm going to be in trouble. And when Jim's parents found out, they blamed him. You know, it was my fault my brother drowned. I should have been, you know, I should have saved him.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And then other times they told me that, you know, they wish it was me that died instead of my brother. And then when he was 16, Jim's mom threw him out of the house. She just said one day, get out, Jim?
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Was involved in covering this stuff up. Bailing out priests that have sexually assaulted children and so forth. And one day... He was watching the news and he saw Burke on there. Like on the 12 o'clock news. Talking about something. Can't remember what. And at that point, I snapped and picked up a phone, dialed the archdiocese, asked them to connect me to his office, which like idiots they did.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And when they did, I told them, you know, I ought to come down and kill you. I said, I may even do that Sunday. A couple hours later, Jim went out to run some errands. And when I head out the door, here were the police.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
There's a typical Sunday morning, and Jim's at church, and he runs into this couple. These people that own Variety Bird Shop in Valley Park. The husband stopped me and said, well, we know where you can get an African gray parrot, and they told me that she came with a cage. I said, why would they approach you? Well, I was putting $100 aside every month to pay for a baby African gray parrot.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And you have to understand that Jim is kind of an animal nut. He's had dogs.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I went over there, and she looked absolutely horrible because this kid didn't take care of her.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Bright red. And tail feathers. But when Jim first saw her, she didn't have any flight feathers in her left wing. Because she'd torn all of them out. Yeah, she was plucking her feathers. Which is this awful thing birds do when they get really stressed. And, I mean, she looked horrible. I almost wanted to say no after I saw her. But he knew he couldn't just leave her there.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
So he paid the kid, took her home, and gave her lots of loving and care. And within like three days, she bowed her head. That means she pretty much bonded with me. About like the third week I owned her, I was in another room on the telephone. And she's like, hey, Jim, do you want a beer? And it's like, I don't drink beer. She would say that to you?
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
She asked me if I wanted a beer, and then she'd tell me stuff like, will you get me a beer? You know, made me choke on my coffee. But a few weeks later, Sadie started imitating Jim. Yeah. She'll impersonate a little chuckle that I do. It's like, yeah, yeah. It's even better than Elmo could laugh.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Several weeks after I had her, something kind of wonderful happened. I came home and I was like in a really bad mood and I knew I had to do something. One of those moments when Jim could just feel he was about to lose control. I was trying to talk myself into calming down. What would that sound like?
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I was talking to myself and telling myself, calm down, you'll be okay, everything's fine, you know, it's not so bad. And then she started repeating it.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Just like Jim was saying. Word for word. I was like, wow, and it's like, that gives me an ideal. Jim started rewarding Sadie every time she said something that might help calm him down. Like, you know. You'll be okay. Treat. Everything's fine, it's not as bad as you think. Treat. Shut up. Treat. I don't want to hear it. Treat. I love you, Jim, and you'll make a kissing sound. Treat, treat.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I mean, everywhere. Where would you go with her? I've taken her into churches. I've taken her aboard the public buses. Take her to the gym, yes. I've even taken her into a couple of casinos through here.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I mean, Jim thinks maybe she can like feel a change in the way he's moving. You know, I have like body tremors when I'm starting to really get furious. Maybe Sadie can pick up on those tremors. And Jim says this just kept happening. She does it all the time. And, you know, it makes you stop to think.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
If I would go off on a person or something like that, you know, I wouldn't have any remorse or anything. But, I mean... It's just a little innocent animal. But seemed to know him in this really intimate way.