Part 1: Life


HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson




Chapter 1: Day One












Three rays of sunshine beamed through the window blinds of an otherwise darkened living room, and bright dusty particles danced with these last bits of sun before landing out of sight. Outside, a crow noticed how all the houses in the neighborhood looked like the box he had recently been able to poke his beak into. Inside the box was good food, and he was hoping to find more that day.

In the darkest corner of the living room, across from the window and adjacent to a wall covered with a small child's artwork, sat a partially covered bird cage in which a hunched over parakeet sunk within itself to avoid its strange new surroundings. This bird knew nothing about hope.

"Hello little bird," a somewhat soothing voice flowed from the lips of a wide-eyed woman perched on the edge of a chair next to the cage, "and welcome to our home.”

The bird was too scared to blink.

“I'm sorry to have pulled you away from your friends at the pet shop, but I really believe that you will have a good life here with us." The woman continued to smile.

"I read that budgies are soothed by high-pitched voices, like baby talk, so I’m going to talk like this for a while, OK? Perhaps I'll even speak gibberish when I run out of thoughts. Would you like that little birdie? Do you speak gibberish? Lets see, what shall we talk about? Blrrby blarrby bloggy birdy? Pretty bird? Polly wanna cracker?"

The bird stared back at the woman for a moment, and then looked down again.

"Maybe I should introduce myself. I am Estelle Persephone Brewer, but you can call me Stella. I live in this house with my husband Rob and our children, John and Cassandra. John is a big ’ol teenager who makes a lot of noise with his guitar, but he is a gentle soul who I know you will love very much. And Cassy is a sweetie pie. She is six years old and has been wanting a pet ever since she could say the word. I think that you and she will become best friends. Cass loves birds. Today is her birthday, and I know that you will be her favorite gift of all."

A particularly loud ring from the kitchen telephone interrupted Stella and startled the bird into a frenzy of flutters against the sides of the cage. Stella was even worried for a moment. The answering machine did its job, and soon the room was filled with the voice of a telemarketer attempting to sell newspaper subscriptions. Stella wondered if newspaper would make a good cage lining.

"I'm so sorry about that loud scary phone, sweetie bird. Are you alright? Phones are a part of the human world. You are a part of this world, too. You are a domesticated bird after all."

The bird was still panting heavily from the previous commotion.

"What does domesticated mean, you ask? Good question! Well, domestication is the word used to describe the process of intentionally changing a plant or an animal by way of selective breeding. In your case, you were bred for your beautiful plumage. You look much different from your wild ancestors. Budgies in the wild are green and yellow, yet here you are a bluish green with yellowish white and hmmm...what color are you anyway?"

Stella leaned toward the cage to look more closely at the bird. In the store, its feathers appeared bluish green in color, but in the darkened living room they were pale blue. The head feathers also seemed to change color with the light. Stella felt a little bad about thinking of the bird as an it, but she had no way of telling the gender. The cere had yet to change.

"Are you a boy or a girl?" Stella asked. She was secretly hoping for a boy because male budgies are known to be better talkers.

The bird did seem to relax a little as Stella spoke, so perhaps what she had read was right. Or maybe it was the wild birds singing in the back yard that helped make the caged one feel more at home.

"Do you hear those birds outside? Those are wild birds. You are not a wild bird. Hey now, don't give me that look!"

The bird continued to give Stella that look.

"Listen, you are a domesticated budgie. A so-called parakeet. Your ancestors lived in Australia. They were bright green to match the trees with yellow to blend with the grass. When blue mutations occurred in the wild, those blue birds would get eaten up by predators because blue does not camouflage one against leaves and grass. They say, you know, that budgerigar is an Aboriginal word that means 'good to eat'."

Stella took a moment to consider how someone would go about eating a budgerigar, and she wondered if people really ate these birds. One would have to eat quite a few budgies to make a meal. Stella noticed that the bird was tensing up again so she went back to talking.

"One day, after humans began breeding your wild ancestors, the blue mutation was discovered and people immediately began wanting to make more blue budgies. Selective breeding followed, and soon there were more blue budgies on Earth than ever before. These blue budgies were and are, of course, helpless in nature but extremely strong in terms of budgie sales. So now here you stand, a sweet little mutant on a scary perch in a strange home. Oh, don‘t look so glum. I'm sorry. "

Stella puckered her lips to make a loud kissing sound.

"Oh, you like it when I make a kissing sound? Kiss kiss kiss. Awww, you're just a little baby. We won't hurt you. We'll love you and feed you and watch you fly around this house. We'll have so much fun together, pretty birdie, and I won't let any predator eat you."

The budgie tilted its head to one side and narrowed its eyes as though she or he might be contemplating.

"Are you understanding me?"

"Peep," said the bird, coincidentally.

"Are you as smart as you are pretty? You are such a pretty pretty bird. For you to be a wild bird, you would have to find a land with trees the color of mood rings to match your wings. What a magical and beautiful land that would be, and how well you would camouflage there my little friend."

Two round black eyes began to stare deeply into the brown eyes of the woman sitting outside the cage. The bird then cocked its head to the other side.

"You really do seem to be listening to me now. How cute your little head is when you tilt it like that. I would give you a big hug and kiss right now if I could, but for now I'm going to let you be. Look around your new cage. Check out your toys, maybe nibble on that millet spray, and I'll be back later to continue this ever so interesting conversation. OK?"

The bird did not reply.

"Right, then." Stella slowly stood up from her place next to the cage. The bird needed time to adjust, and Stella had a party to prepare for. Cass had turned six years old that day, and soon the house would be filled with children to help celebrate. Stella decided right then and there to make the living room off limits to the children, and she chastised herself for giving in to the whim to buy a bird on this particularly busy and noisy day.

The plan was to wait until the weekend to take Cass to the pet store to pick out a parakeet, but when Stella visited the pet store earlier to buy the cage she fell in love with one spunky little budgie. Of all the birds in the store’s glass aviary, this one stood out as special. The expression on its little face, Stella thought, was not unlike that of a child enjoying a carefree summer day on the playground surrounded by friends.

In the pet shop, Stella watched as the special budgie played tag with his cage-mates and she laughed when it fluffed out its blue green chest with what seemed to be playful pride after winning a mock budgie brawl. Stella fell in love when she noticed the special budgie preen the feathers of the bird who had lost the game.

"I might as well buy a parakeet today since I'm going to be buying one anyway," Stella said to herself at the store, "Tomorrow this special bird might be gone."

The store clerk had a difficult time catching the blue green wonder bird, and he tried to talk Stella into taking home a different budgie, but Stella insisted that he keep trying. Finally the right bird was caught and placed into a cardboard box with holes punched into the sides. Stella had already picked out a cage and all of the accessories and food that was recommended. All that was left to do was pay the store for their service and take the budgie home.

Stella had had parakeets when she was a kid so she thought she knew what she was doing. All a parakeet needs, she thought, is: a nice safe cage, good food, gravel, clean water, a cuttlefish bone, toys, perches of varying widths, some loving attention, and treats such as millet. Birds love millet, Stella remembered. But as she stood in her living room looking at the sullen little bird who was unceremoniously yanked out of its flock, she had second thoughts about knowing what she was doing.

The party was scheduled to begin in less than two hours, so it was time to blow up balloons and work on the snacks. Stella would make a quick phone call to Daddy first.

Daddy, whose real name was Rob, was walking Cass home from the playground. It was a gorgeous spring day, and the wild birds were singing in secret codes. Cass flapped her arms and called back to the birds in her own high-pitched voice. She knew that she would be getting a bird soon, and continued to tweet and sing and flap so loud that the cellphone’s ring was almost entirely obscured.

"Hello, sweetie," Rob answered. He knew it was Stella calling by the “Beautiful Dreamer” ring tone he had chosen for her calls.

"Hello, Love. Listen, I think that it would be a good idea to bring Cass in through the back door so that she does not spook the bird. She can be pretty loud when she comes home.”

"What about all the kids coming to the party?" Rob asked rationally.

"I don't know...," Stella admitted.

"I'll bring Cass in through the back door. I'll see you in 10 minutes. I love you."

"Thanks, I love you too."

Just then, Stella had a brilliant idea. Why not have the party outside? Clearly it was a beautiful day, and the kids could be as wild and crazy as they pleased outdoors. Stella immediately felt relieved and began taking the decorations to the patio table. She would set out the snacks after the first guest arrived.

Rob and Cass came in through the back door and, as soon as the six year old was able to shake off her outward excitement, they were slowly escorted into the living room to meet the new family member.

Cass tried to remain calm. Like a delicate fluttering fairy setting down upon a twig, she lit upon the sofa’s arm rest next to the cage. Her relatively tiny yet giant fingers pulled a ringlet of bronze colored hair off of her glowing face so that she could see her pet better. A magical smile then emerged from the fairy’s lips as she whispered the words, "Her name is Sunshine."

"Sunshine is a beautiful name," agreed Cass' parents.

Sunshine's suddenly bright yellow forehead seemed to agreed too.

Chapter 2