Damn! There’s that cat! Looking like he was trying to butt his way into the room. The boy pushed that mean ole cat off with his leg, closing the door. “That cat’s going to earn him some time outside, if he keeps that up,” the boy said. “That sounds like a great idea to me,” I chirped from the cage and flared my feathers. As he looked at me, I flew up to the perch by the shiny thing, peering at it, then hit it with my beak a few times. It made a soft tinkling sound which was pleasant to my ears. So I hit it some more while flaring my crest with excitement. The boy responded, “You must like music, Birdie? I’ll play some music for you.” He walked around to the other side of a rectangular object in the middle of his floor. He reached his hand at something against the wall and a voice started sounding from many places around the room.
My heart was beating to the sound of it, my feathers juddered from head to tail, while the voice was saying: We are the world, we are the children, we are the ones to make a brighter day, so let’s start giving. The boy was attempting to follow along. “NOW, that’s music there, Birdie!” He kept calling me Birdie, and I hoped he knew that wasn’t my name. I let it go for now; after all, I am a bird. The music continued on: Let us realize that a change can come, if we stand together as one. I swayed left to right as it ended. “Birdie, you just heard music.” Wow! It was amazing how I understood music along with this boy. The way he chirped, though, baffled me. I was taught, one chirp could mean many things. I could chirp, and depending on pitch, it could mean “hometree” or “predator.” Whereas the boy chirped a lot to say one thing. I preened my left breast feathers as those thoughts came to mind. Furthermore, it was every bird’s dream to understand people! Now it was my job to teach him to understand me.
But now was not the time. The boy pushed a button on the rectangular object and a new song started. The boy started moving his featherless wings to the beat as if he were trying to take flight but had never flown before. He hopped and preened and chirped along with the song. There was a clacking coming from beyond the window, it was faint but getting louder. It was Raven the Black, saying my name repeatedly. Damn, it just hit me, I was supposed to be going with Raven the Black to meet some chicks on a blind date. Raven had that name since hatched. If he was in a flock of ravens, you wouldn’t miss him. Raven was the blackest raven I knew and I knew a lot of ravens.
I whistle-clacked my location and what was going on. Moments later, there was a heavy fluttering at the window. Raven attempted to land but once he saw the boy doing the funky chicken, he flew to the fence. Raven peered at me with his crown splayed up, which meant “interesting,” and started clucking to the top of his lungs. His lungs were powerful. Raven clacked so hard, he almost made me start cawing.
Once Raven got a hold of himself, I filled him in on the details of how I ended up in a cage with a wild child in this house. Flexing black iridiscent feathers at me, Raven said, “You are one lucky bird.”
“How so?” I squawked while fluttering over to grasp the bars.
Like a lyrebird, Raven tirr-tirr-tirr’d to me how it’s every bird’s dream to have a human who understands and protects them. Not only that, but provides food, water and shelter to boot. After telling me all that, Raven took flight, clacking he was going to meet the chicks. That’s when I noticed the boy’s reflection in the window coming up behind me. I hopped down to the floor of the cage, peering at the boy and giving serious thought to what Raven had just told me. I puffed out my chest feathers, hopped from side to side, and ducked my head. To make sure the boy knew I was dancing, I spread my wings and flapped while holding back the urge to fly.
When the song ended, the boy looked at me and said, “Interesting.”
