The Story

This cage has always been my home. I can't complain, I love Jan. She takes care of me. She feeds me carrots because she knows they're my favourite. She talks to me all the time and tells me when she's sad. She even listens to me when I talk to her, though sometimes her replies don't make much sense.

But I always see other birds beyond the window, flying free, and I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be out there with the cool wind on my wings.

But then I think about my life here with Jan, and I know I'd be sad to leave her. So many people have left her, after all. Like she tells me all the time, I'm the only one she has left. It' s my special job to take care of her.



Monday

She didn't clip my wings today. I was chirping all day, trying to remind her, but she was too busy, I guess. She's had no time for me lately. She's always talking to that weird thing that makes the loud ringing noise before she puts it on her ear.

But I don't chirp while she talks to that thing because I think it makes her sad. Sometimes she even takes that little gold band on her finger off and that makes me sad too, but I'm not sure why. Sometimes I wish she could be a bird just like me so I could search in her feathers for bugs and then she'd chirp, "Thank you!" and we'd fly away together where there would be no mean loud things for her to put on her ear.

Sometimes I hear little voices coming out of that thing and I think it's the voice of her big hairy friend who lived with us for a while. He was mean to me. Sometimes he didn't even take the cover off my cage! I don't like to think about him.



Tuesday

She forgot to feed me this morning. I wonder what's gotten into her! I had a brief scare in the middle of the day when some big, sweaty, stinky humans came in our house and started taking things away in boxes. I think I saw her big hairy friend again but I don't like to see him so I put my head in my feathers and took a little nap.

I wish she were a bird so I could ask her, "What's wrong? Why are they taking all of our things away?" and she'd answer me instead of just nodding and ruffling the feathers on my head. Sometimes I just get so frustrated with her! But I still love her more than anything.



Wednesday

She had that thing on her ear again today and she was crying. She hasn't had the shiny band on for a while and sometimes I hope she'll put it in my cage so I can play with it but then I remember that it makes her cry and that makes me sad.

In the middle of the day she looked sad again and her eyes were shiny and wet so I chirped at her and she let me out of the cage. She hugged me close to her chest, which was scary because she was shaking and I didn't want her to crush me by accident, but also warm, so I snuggled up to her just as well. She smelled very nice, like earth and sky.

The ear-thing made that loud ringing noise again so she had to set me back in my cage. It wasn't very warm in there and it made me sad to see her cry again. My stomach was chirping at me so I chirped back at it to be quiet because I would feed it as soon as I could. Then I remembered she had forgotten to put food in my cage! I noticed that she had left my cage open so I chirped at her to say, "I'll be right back, I'm just going to get some food," and "Don't worry!"

And I flew, for the first time in so, so long, not because I wanted to leave her like her big mean hairy friend but only because I was a bit hungry.

The wind was not like I had imagined it to be. It was nothing like I had hoped. It was cold and harsh and yucky little flies got stuck in my pretty feathers. I couldn't find any of the little pellet food things that Jan feeds me so I had to try a bug. It was squishy and gross, not to mention that it took until sundown to catch.

I had lost sight of the window by the time the sun had begun to set so I ventured into a tree-hole that looked warm, only to find a grumpy old owl in there! Thankfully he let me stay for the night, but told me promptly that I had better be out by morning. The night was freezing and an annoying thing kept croaking.

More than anything, I wanted to go home to Jan.



Thursday

Flew all day. A big scary bird with a sharp beak chased me for a while but I hid and I think I lost him. I couldn't find the window. I missed Jan. I hoped she was okay and that she knew I would never, ever leave her on purpose.



Friday

A scary rat-looking thing woke me up. I had to fly away before it bit me. It also stole all of my yucky bugs that I had caught for breakfast! Oh well.



Saturday

I woke up completely out of hope. I spent all day hunting more yucky bugs and trying not to think about how lonely Jan would be without me. It was almost dark when I saw a familiar patch of orange. It was my house! And the window was open, even though it was almost dark! Jan never leaves the windows open at night! I was going to have a long talk with her, she even forgot my pellet food and a whole carrot out on the windowsill! Where was her silly brain?

I ate it all, what would she do without me to clean up after her?, and hopped into the room. It was familiar and warm, and it made me happy. I flew to my cage and accidentally knocked my bell on the floor. Oops.

The light came on somehow and she came out of her big cage at the other end of the house, rubbing her eyes. When she saw me, she ran towards me and hugged me to her chest. She started to cry, and I hugged her back as much as I could, being that she's so large and all. I chirped to ask her why she was sad, but then she started laughing and smiling and crying at the same time! I was confused, so I just snuggled up against her warm chest and chirped to assure her that I'd never leave her again.

Credits

Story by raw.
Profile by boogleloo
Art by Hauntra