Sunshine The Bird

Chapter 3: Pretty Bird

2010-03-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

Click here to read chapter 1
Click here to read chapter 2

Waves of sound ricocheted around the room and through the Brewer family household as Sunshine perched upon the headstock of John’s guitar. Sunshine studied the strings closely as they vibrated with increasing intensity as John strummed them. Sometimes the strings squeaked and buzzed like mice and bees, but mostly the tune was clear and strong as John played and sang along with the radio, "Good day sunshine...".

Sunshine danced in time with the music, her round and increasingly yellow head bobbing up and down. Her dance made John smile.

Stella was in the kitchen fixing a bowl of fruit salad and dancing her own dance to the music. It was a hot June day, and the farmer's market that morning was brimming with a caliber of fresh produce that few in the world are fortunate enough to enjoy. The peaches were the size of softballs, and they smelled like peach perfume. The strawberries were the size of small peaches and tasted like candy, and the blueberries could not have been from this world. Stella also chopped up a few veggies, particular green leafy ones, for Sunshine. As she cut, Stella sang along with the end of the Beatles' song before the radio announcer chimed in with the station's call numbers and a commercial for air mattresses.

"Hey Mom," John called from the next room, "did you hear the song that was just on?"

"Yes I did; what a great coincidence!” Stella wondered why she had never played that song for Sunshine before. “Did Sunshine like it?"

"Yeah, she was dancing and singing along. She or he is being so cute!"

John had taken to alternating pronouns when discussing Sunshine because nobody, not even the vet, was able to determine Sunshine's gender. Cass, however, insisted that Sunshine was a girl so everyone else in the family called her a she. The vet said that eventually the cere, the nostril-like area above the beak, would change color to blue for male or pink for female. Stella giggled to herself as she pondered how parakeets were like baby blankets in this way.

John’s stomach was growling as he placed the guitar back into its case, and Sunshine flew off into the kitchen to investigate. Landing on Stella’s shoulder, the bird let out a large chirp before peering down to the cutting board with anticipation.

Sunshine was now a full fledged member of the Brewer family with the freedom to fly wherever she pleased when out of the cage. Stella and Rob had "bird proofed" the house as best they could, and Sunshine seemed smarter than the average parakeet when it came to avoiding common dangers such as windows and mirrors. When Stella first began taking Sunshine out of the cage, she held Sunshine up to every window and mirror in the house so that she could see that they were indeed walls. Sunshine had no trouble understanding this phenomenon, and quickly became enchanted by windows and mirrors everywhere.

“If only human children were so easy to train,” Stella mused as she added the last bits of fruit into a colorful bowl. Sunshine, who was still sitting on Stella’s shoulder, whispered something into Stella's ear that sounded like "pretty bird."

"Did you just say pretty bird?" Stella asked in a tone so excited that Sunshine was startled and flew back into the living room.

"John, I think that Sunshine just said her first words!”

John, who had gone back into his room, came running back into the kitchen. Cass heard the commotion and looked up from where she was coloring pictures of puppies at the table.

"Say pretty bird," Stella told Sunshine as she held the budgie on her finger in front of her mouth. Sunshine gave Stella's lips a gentle peck and then repeated the phrase, "pretty bird" right back. All three humans jumped for joy.

The moments that followed were filled with every possible inflection of "pretty bird" that could be spoken from a beak: "Pretty BIRD, PRETTY bird, PreTY bird, pretty birD…". Sunshine was so proud.

Stella ran to get the video camera. Sunshine flew into the living room where the mirror was so that she too could watch the pretty bird speak. Sunshine reminded herself of Elmer.

When Stella returned to the living room, she began filming Sunshine at the mirror. Cass was mumbling something about wanting to play a game, and Stella told her that they would play one right after she was done filming. Sunshine’s talking was already old news to the six year old.

Right before clicking the camera's record button, Stella could have sworn that she saw Sunshine place her beak onto the mirror and make a kissing sound."

"Pretty bird, kiss kiss kiss, are you kissing the mirror?"

Sunshine again pressed her beak onto the mirror and made a loud smooching sound that was unmistakably a kiss.

"Yes you are kissing the mirror, how cute!"

Sunshine said "tweet" a few more times, and then jumped away from the mirror to proudly strut and squawk before returning to her gorgeous reflection.

"Are you so pretty that you have to kiss the mirror?" Stella asked.

Sunshine said, "Pretty bird" again before making goofy faces and sounds into the mirror. She was enjoying herself immensely. Stella could not help but wonder if Sunshine understood the meaning of "pretty bird." It certainly appeared as though she did, but Stella did wonder if she was simply projecting her human experience onto the bird in the way that Faith Harper seemed to do with Elmer.

While Sunshine was pondering herself in the mirror Stella uploaded the video of "Pretty Bird" onto NewTube. Surely the world would melt when they watched Sunshine kiss herself and say "pretty bird" into the mirror.

Stella also updated Sunshine's blog with the good news of the bird's first words. The blog already had at least a dozen faithful readers who were eagerly awaiting the next adorable photo that Stella would post. “Wait until they see this video,” Stella whispered through an excited smile.

The next day, Stella made a video of Sunshine dancing to music. The day after that the video was of Sunshine singing next to a tiny rubber duck in the bath tub. Stella believed that she was spreading smiles around the world, and thus happiness and love. In a way, Stella reckoned she was making magic.

“Magic can be defined as illusion,” Stella began after swallowing a bite of grilled salmon at the dinner table that evening, “but the word can also refer to the art of creating change through the use of will.”

“If I had a penny for every definition of magic I’ve heard, “ Rob laughed, “then I do believe I’d be rich enough to make just about anything happen.”

“Hence, Whichcraft!” Stella added with excitement. She was always looking for a way to sneak in the title of the book she was writing.

John rolled his eyes, but nobody noticed. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to his mother go on about her book. Also, Mike would be arriving any minute to pick him up. They had plans to throw popcorn at a horror movie.

"I have a magic wand with sparkles on it," Cassy added as she looked up from her rubber ducks.

Once again there were ducks at the table, only this time it was “Hippie Duck,” “Doctor Duck,“ and “Roboduck.” Sunshine sat on top of the back of a chair and watched the ducks speak to one another in their secret language which Cass called “BeeTee.”

“Bebebebebe,” Roboduck said as he wiggled in Cass’s hand toward Sunshine.

"What is Roboduck saying?" Stella asked.

"He's saying that Sunshine is a very pretty bird," Cassy smiled.

Chapter 2: The Flash

2010-01-12T01:50:00.000-08:00

Click here to read chapter 1

After a day of rest for the bird, Stella began the taming process. She started by placing her hand on the cage's door as she spoke to Sunshine in her sweetest voice for as long as she could. The next day Stella held a sprig of millet in the doorway while she touched upon all the random topics she could think of. The millet was like magic, the chatter soothing, and soon Sunshine was eating out of Stella's hand.

By day seven Sunshine was no longer afraid of the giant blobs of flesh, and was eating out of the hands of everyone in the family. The bird could finally relax, and began to feel at home inside of the cage.

"I'm going to try taking Sunshine out of the cage tomorrow," Stella stated as she passed the green beans to Rob at the dinner table, "I'll make sure to cover the mirror first, though."

Stella had read about a budgie who, after being lured out of its cage for the first time, crashed head first into a wall mirror and broke its neck.

"But Mommy," Cass defended her pet, "Sunshine is too smart to fly into a mirror."

"Birds aren't smart," John argued with his little sister, "especially not parakeets." Cass crinkled up her nose, folded her arms, and loudly turned away from her brother.

"That's enough Cass," Rob intervened, "John is entitled to his opinion and you are entitled to debate it with words, not by throwing things. Now pick up that toy from the floor and then turn around to finish dinner."

"Mommy," Cass continued after following her father's orders, "please tell John about the budgie who could talk."

"Well," Stella began after sipping her last drop of water from a wide clear glass, " did you know that a budgie named Puck holds the world record for having the largest vocabulary of any bird?"

"But birds don't understand the words that they say, right?" John asked even though he knew that the answer was no.

"I don't know,” Stella admitted to her son, “but I’m beginning to suspect that at some level they might."

Earlier that day, Stella had watched a video on the Internet in which an African Gray parrot named Alex displayed what appeared to be an amazing array of intelligent behavior. Stella watched astounded as Alex differentiated between and counted various objects whose names he could speak clearly and use creatively. Alex, a thirty year research subject whose name was an acronym for Avian Learning EXperiment, began to seem like a truly sentient being to Stella. After seeing the video, Stella did not doubt the reports that Alex had the intelligence of a five-year-old child at the time of his untimely death. Alex's last words to his human were, "I love you."

“Maybe it just depends on the bird,” Stella added.

Stella had lived with budgies for most of her childhood, and she often felt that the bird brain sparked with more intelligence than she knew how to reach. Later, when she studied psychology in college, she learned how to leave her gut emotions regarding animal intelligence behind. Now she found herself wishing that more parrot intelligence research would been conducted so that she could ease the cognitive dissonance she was experiencing from John's question.

"I would agree that birds do have some level of understanding," Rob stated.

Cass began to drift away from the conversation, preferring to play with a few of her rubber ducks instead. She had a huge collection of ducks, each with it's own costume, personality, and name. At the table that night was “Teacher Duck“ holding an apple, “Fire-Fighter Duck wearing an appropriate uniform, and the haloed “Angel Duck.” “Witchduck,” the first and favorite duck of all, watched the scene from the baker’s rack. A

After dinner, Stella sang "Hello Sunshine" as she entered the living room and sat down next to the cage. "Look at you hopping over to the perch closest to me. We're friends now, we are, and I've got some yummy endive for you."

While Stella was reaching into the cage to place a sprig of curly endive into the food dish, Sunshine hopped upon her wrist to begin nibbling on the leaves.

"Pardon me if I repeat words words words here because training a kissy kissy budgie bird budgie bird will do that to you,” Stella exhaled in a flow of baby breath.

“And what a sweet, smart and amazing little tweet lives with us now! Each day you are a little more trusting. I'm so happy that you now feel comfortable enough to sing and play and sit on my arm. Such excellent progress for a ten week old."

While Stella was rambling sentences off the top of her head, Sunshine appeared to be actively listening. The bird even had begun to softly tweet and make the crackling beak noises that some people compare to a kitten's purr. It made sense to Stella that keeping up her own chatter would help put Sunshine at ease. Budgies are flock animals, and when the flock grows silent there is usually an ominous reason.

"Thank goodness for the Internet! It is helping me to learn so much about budgies, and I was even able to locate the name of a good avian veterinarian. Did you like that vet who you met yesterday? I thought that she was very nice. I'm glad that she told me that too much spinach is not good for budgies because you like spinach so much that I would have fed it to you all day.”

Sunshine continued to nibble on the pale green leaves of the endive that Stella held in her hand until all that was left was an empty branch of lettuce. Stella then changed positions because her arm was falling asleep.

"Speaking of the Internet,” Stella smiled, “I started a blog called Sunshine The Bird last night, and I think that now would be a good time for me to take your first picture."

Stella slowly pulled her arm out of Sunshine's house-shaped cage before reaching across the sofa to pick up a camera. Sunshine hopped from perch to perch in anticipation of what interesting thing would be presented next. Maybe the box that the human was reaching for contained a yummy new treat.

Sunshine did not expect the bright splash of light that stunned her and left her momentarily blind. Was this death? No, the human was still there, and so was the cage, the bigger cage, and the bird songs from outside.

"Look at the pretty bird," Stella ordered as she turned the camera around to show the digital image to Sunshine. Sunshine wondered if the box in Stella's hand was related to the mirror in the cage. Obviously it did not contain a treat.

The flash reminded Sunshine of when she first emerged from the nesting box. This was when the world felt right. She still remembered her parents. Her mother, a beautiful blue and yellow hen with a cooing voice, regurgitated the yummiest home cooking in the world. Her father was a funny yet strong cock whose colors were very much like what Sunshine had seen in the mirror and in that gray box that created the crazy bright flash of light.

Sunshine remembered the snugly warm days spent in the nest, and then the feeling of free as she fledged into the aviary where she met her first flock. Plp and Chk were Sunshine's favorite playmates, and the three baby birds would climb up the bars of the aviary so high that the birds down below looked like seeds. It was scary to soar to the other side on new wings, but soon Sunshine and her friends were expert flyiers. Such carefree days those were, and Sunshine still pined for them.

One carefree day, when Sunshine was a couple of months old, a large blob of a featherless creature walked into the aviary with what appeared to be a smaller aviary and a net. The flock flew around in hysterics, and Sunshine did not know why. The elders knew that soon they would be missing many of their friends. The blob seemed intent upon catching only the youngest birds, so Sunshine had no chance of being spared. As she was carried away in the smaller aviary along with all of her young friends, Sunshine watched helplessly as her parents, screaming and pacing, disappeared. Sunshine would never see them again.

In the pet shop, Sunshine was comforted by the fact that she was still surrounded by many of her friends, and new ones as well. The eldest hen in the shop, a dark green and yellow witch of a bird who, Sunshine later learned, had left and returned to the pet shop 3 times , refused to speak to her new flock mates except to repeat the following words: "Beware the humans." Sunshine remembered not wanting to know what a human was, but she was inclined to believe that it might have something to do with the big blob from before.

During Sunshine’s second day at the pet shop, one of the suspected humans caught Sunshine's brother with a net, stuffed him into a small box, and hauled him away. Where had he gone? The following day, the same fate fell upon Plp and Chk. Sunshine desperately wanted to find out what was going on from the elder hen, but she was unwilling to share any information other than her one mantra about humans.

Day after day, Sunshine watched in horror as friend after friend was captured and taken away to the unknown. Several times the net came after Sunshine, but she had managed to evade it. Perhaps she would always be able to avoid capture and live forever in the pet shop.

Eventually a new batch of birds was added to the giant pet shop cage, and Sunshine was glad to have more birds to play with. One small new albino baby was especially frightened, and Sunshine cuddled up close to him and preened them both. At first he was too scared to talk, but Sunshine was finally able to coax a few words out of him. "I want my mommy," he spoke in Bird Talk.

Sunshine was finally able to persuade the little albino into a round of play, and soon a group of other birds joined the game. All of the budgies were enjoying a game of chase so exciting that they momentary forgot where they were and what dangers might be lurking. When the net appeared, Sunshine was caught off guard but was able to escape once again.

The featherless creatures outside of the cage made extra sounds, and then the net chased after Sunshine again. This time it was relentless. No matter where Sunshine ducked, there the net was. Finally, tired and with nowhere to hide, the wonder budgie surrendered limp into the mass of green mesh. Sunshine was sure, and even a bit relieved, that her short life was over.

Sunshine did not die, however, and the humans who took her out of the box and into the cage did not eat her. The first day, as she sat hunched over in the darkness, Sunshine wondered if she was being saved for a later meal. Then, after realizing that the new humans were probably not going to eat her, Sunshine began to fret less about an impending doom and more about loneliness.

Sunshine desperately missed being part of a flock. She had nobody to preen the top of her head and, more important, nobody to snuggle close with. The new cage did have a mirror so she could pretend that she had a friend, but it really was not the same.

The blobs, or humans, seemed to, like birds, care for one another. The biggest one regurgitated into the mouth of the second biggest one quite often, in fact, and the smallest one was cuddled by the biggest ones. And then there was the third biggest one who sang beautiful songs using an instrument with what looked like cage bars running down the length of it. He sang with his mouth in tones much deeper than what Sunshine was used to, but which she found quite pleasing regardless.

Would it be possible for these humans to be Sunshine's new flock? Sunshine doubted it, and criticized herself for even thinking such a thing. But then the second biggest one began talking again, and Sunshine had to admit that she found the human chatter not only agreeable but almost understandable.

"I want to show you a website that I found about a very special budgie named Elmer," Stella said to Sunshine as she placed her laptop computer in a position where the bird could see, "Elmer is a talking budgie. Maybe you can learn from him."

The computer screen, which also reminded Sunshine of the gray flash-making box from before, was suddenly filled with the image of a light blue and white budgie with an odd stripe pattern on his head. Sunshine had never before seen a budgie with such markings, and she was intrigued even before Elmer began to speak.

"My tongue will be the teacher of you and yours people," said Elmer the budgie, "behold the power of the budgie, pretty bird pretty bird, as seen on TV and on the radio heard from above, lover of millet and god and toys of pretty bird pretty bird."

Elmer was the most well-known budgie on the Internet at the time. He spoke with a thick budgie accent, soft and at a rapid pace, and some people believed that he used words in context. Often, he would quote The Bible.

In the space above Elmer and his chattering beak, words scrolled by like a karaoke machine. Elmer's owner, a woman named Faith Harper, had transcribed Elmer's ramblings into what she believed the English words were. Many of Elmer's videos greatly relied on these typed words to get Elmer's message across, but often the words he spoke were clear.

"Shall we watch another video of Elmer?" Stella asked the question but did not wait for Sunshine to reply.

In the next video Elmer was sitting on top of his cage, and Sunshine was impressed by that alone. Elmer went on to say that, "Kisses are love. I love. Elmer loves the pretty bird in you...pretty bird kiss kiss pretty pretty pretty bird!"

"You are such a pretty bird," Stella repeated to Sunshine.

Sunshine then felt like singing about tweets, and so she did.

Chapter 3

2010-01-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

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