Thanks!The Sparrow's Song
Little Pi stares at the window, every day. She watches the other birds fly, swoop, and chirp as much as they can. Some play in the neighbor’s water fountain, some pick at the fresh ground for food. Others sit on rooftops and tree branches, cawing while the gentle breeze shake them at their feet. But the birds are not the only ones who are having their fill. Tiny humans are running around, they smile and laugh.
Pi does not have the same world like the others. When she looks away from the window, she is reminded of the metal cage around her. She sits on her swing and does not sing. How can she sing when there is nothing to sing, she thinks to herself.
The house is dark and at times can be as dark as the shadows. The only light that comes in is the small opening from the curtain in front of her. At times she sees faces at her cage but most of the time she is alone. She yearns to be outside like everyone else.
Pi has only one friend who keeps her company in the afternoon. His name is Buttons. Buttons has a daily routine of walking around her cage and jumping on the small chair by the window. He twitches his left furry orange ear to say, “Hello”. When he sees that I have noticed him, he then follows with, “how are you today?”
I sigh.“I’m itching to get out of here.”
“You know we’ve tried to pick at your latch.”
“But maybe we can try again?”, I asked, feeling hopeful. Buttons licked his paw to groom himself and looks at me.
“Yes. I guess we could try again.”, he purred. His tail twitched as he moved closer to the cage. I hopped down from my swing and stood by the metal door. Buttons began to use his fangs to try to move the latch, but it kept rising up then falling back into place. I tried to use one of my feathers but it was too small for the latch. We paused to think and it felt like eternity. What should we do?
“BUTTONS! GET AWAY!” Shouted an unexpected voice. We both jumped and shook in fear of the angry tone. Buttons immediately took off, mumbling a “sorry”. A tall shadow moved across the room and I was met with a giant face. I felt myself tremble and my heart felt like it was going to burst! The face relaxed and walked away. Buttons did not come back.
I took a deep breath and soothed my feathers. I picked at the seeds in my feeder, thinking about what to do next. I jumped back onto my swing. I looked at the window and sighed. Some day I thought. I looked away and slowly began to close my eyes but as I began to close them I noticed something. My eyes connected with the metal door again. Something is different.
I hopped down and waddled my way closer to get a better look. What’s different? I searched and searched..and..AH HA!
The latch! It’s unlocked! My feathers fluffed in happiness. I stopped for a moment to look around, seeing if there was anyone there. Moving away from the door I walked around the cage and spotted Buttons cleaning his food dish.
“Buttons!”, I called. He looked up immediately, slightly frightened it was the humans again but I quickly said, “No, no, it’s me!” His body relaxes and trots towards me. As he jumps on the chair, he asks, “What’s going on little one?”
“Look!” I said as I pointed with my feather tips towards the latch on the door. Buttons takes a closer look and meowed in joy.
“Well, would you look at that!” I could feel a “how” coming up. Yes, how could it have happened? Suddenly it dawned on me.
“It must have happened when you jumped at the sound of that scary voice!” Buttons nodded, his tail twitching. I could tell he was in heavy thought.
“Ok, so now we need a plan to get you out.”, He said.
“Yes and it has to be today, otherwise the humans might notice and put it back!”, I said, shivering at the thought. “I can’t stay here another day.”, I added.
The energy in the air grew stronger as we looked around for ideas. Buttons suddenly pounced the floor, “I have an idea!”
I looked at him, waiting intently as he spoke his thoughts.
“Here’s what going to happen: I’m going to scratch at the front door and meow. The humans will see that I want to go outside. When they open the door, you must quickly push your cage door open. In the meantime, I will take my sweet time getting out the front door so that you can fly out!”
I jumped with joy, “That’s a splendid idea, Buttons!”
“I just have one thing to ask, Pi.”, Buttons paused, “Can you try to open your cage door?” I thought for a moment, it shouldn’t be that hard, although I am small.
I took a deep breath, puffed my body, and gave a small push to the cage door. The door made a small “creak” noise and opened.
Buttons nodded and said, “With a little bit of a harder push, my plan should work fine!” I chirped with joy and waited for the plan to go in motion. Button nudged the cage door closed with his head and jumped down to the floor. He walked over to the front door, sat there, and began meowing.
It took awhile but eventually we heard footsteps.
“Ok Buttons, you want to go out?”, the female human asked. Buttons added a purr-meow. The human cooed at Buttons and fell for the act. Sure enough, the human began to unlock the front door and opened it nice and wide. Buttons looked at her and rubbed her leg. That must be my cue!
I took some step backs, took a deep breath, and just let myself run. I charged against the door and it sprung open! Creeeeak! I opened my wings and flapped as hard as I could! Oh no! I’m starting to fall! I flap even harder, pushing myself back up into the air.
I wasn’t going to make it because the human looked my way and started to shriek. But Buttons suddenly jumped on the human! She was startled and let out a loud, “YEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWW!” Buttons must have really clawed her! I used all my energy to swoop forward and managed to squeeze pass the door and to the outside world.
I can hear the human shouting but it didn’t stop me. I turned my head around and I could see Buttons at the window, waving his tail good-bye. I waved my wing and focused back on my destiny. I am free. I am finally free!
The sun was shining brightly and the wind was comforting. The trees danced and the air was fresh.
Pi flew as far as she could. She did not care where she would go but she sang as loud as she could for the world to hear her song. This is her freedom and now she has something to sing about.
