Children's Story: The Blackbird

It’s dark. The little birds are sleeping. They have closed their little eyelids. When the morning comes and the sun touches their eyes, they awake. They move out from their little shelters and make noise. I wouldn’t call it singing. It sounds like they just reached puberty. Their big family is just like ours. They fight, they argue and they share food. They live in the hedge and in between the roof and the roof tiles. I watch them as they go. I watch them as they fly out of their little houses and fight. Picking out the bird seeds, they choose the right ones and leave the not so tasty bird seeds for the pigeons because pigeons eat everything. I left an open pot of peanut butter on the ground that I almost finished. It is a good solution because my knife is not flexible enough to finish the last bits. They can and they put their little beaks inside the jar and empty it. I didn’t know they would like peanut butter so much, so I handed them a full pot instead. If they go out, they don’t go far. All of them stay in a range of 100 meters from the house. If there is a cat from the neighborhood peeking in, I’m trying to scare it away. And if I’m not around they get help from an unexpected civilian. The blackbird. I never heard a bird make more noise. When the cat sneaked in on his toes and looked around for a bite to eat he thought he was infallible. He didn’t see the guard who was waiting for an intruder like him. As soon as the intruder found his way to the hedge the blackbird flew to a high branch on the young oak tree at the edge of the yard and started yelling, singing and screaming. He wasn’t exactly screaming but as far as birds have the ability, it sounded just like that. After 15 minutes went by the cat gave up and retreated scared of having his eardrums imploded. The black bird, proud of his achievement of protecting the garden, flew back to his partner, their children save in their nest. And the little birds laughed after having witnessed everything sitting in their little place below the roof tiles, happy with the residents of their little village and thankful for the giant who eats too much peanut butter.