Chapter 4

“Hey guys, I’ve been embarrassed to ask because I thought maybe I was supposed to know already, but… what are those things moving around in the cage behind us?”

“Who, those guys? You mean you don’t know? They are birds too Eon, different kinds of birds. Robins, a Blue Jay, and a Starling.”

“ I-yahn, you know they are birds if they have feathers – black ones, orange ones, blue ones – just, you know, feathers.”

“Wow, no kidding? Head Spa said something about a monk with green feathers, but I wasn’t sure if he was serious.”

“You mean the Monk Parrot. We learn a ton of stuff from Head Spa. And from Grace too, the other sparrow in his cage. She’s shy, but wicked smart. She can even translate some of what those other birds are saying!”

“Yeah, Ra and I were pretty much like you asking questions all the time when we first came here. “

“Well, they get to eat a lot of worms all the time. They are lucky. Then again, they don’t have any seeds, so…..hmmmm. There was that one gray …uh….’bird’ who made soooo much noise! I had no idea what she was saying all the time.”

“Oh that was Norma, she was cool. She would come over here and talk nonstop whenever she could escape from the cage. I have no idea what she was saying, but it was loud! She got to go get released out in some place with trees and water and grass.”

“Do you think that’s where we’ll be able to go? I don’t know what grass is, but it’s probably better than concrete, right?

“OH, way better.”

“Ra! You don’t even know what grass is yourself!”

“Head Spa said grass was green and soft like feathers except it’s not feathers. So I KNOW it’s better than concrete which is gray and hard, okay Tamara? Geez!”

“I-yahn, I’m sorry, even though he’s my best friend, sometimes I get mad because Ra acts like he knows everything. “

“You both know tons more than me, that’s for sure. But can we get back to these other birds next door? Can we try to talk to them?”

“Tamara, maybe you better answer that because I guess you’re sick of me knowing everything!”

“RA! Sigh…..we’ve been trying to learn each other’s languages for awhile, with Grace’s help. We can say things like ‘hello’ and ‘your poop is blue’ and ‘why don’t you eat seeds”.”

“Their poop is blue?!!! I think I’m going have to go curl up and take a nap in the corner – this is all very overwhelming.”

“It’s because they eat blueberries….ooops, maybe you wanted to answer that Tamara?”

“Oh RA! Just forget I ever said anything. I totally understand I-yahn. A nap is a good idea. I think I’ll take one too. Sweet dreams!”