Chapter 9

"Whoa it’s like I woke up and I had tail feathers! Look at me! Look at me! Ra, Tamara! When is Apron Lady coming so we can see if we can all really fly up high to the top of the porcelain stuff!”

“I know I-yawn! They look so beautiful! And much fuller than mine. I don’t know what’s the matter with my feathers. But I’m getting pretty bummed out about it”

“Hey, Apron Lady and Rita Lady said you have to wait for the new wing feathers to grow in. Let’s measure them every day, okay?”

“But how?

“Oh. Good question. And we can’t go ask Mr. Head Spa because he was finally released which I am both happy and sad about.”

“Oh, don’t even talk to me about that! I am mad because I miss him. Just one day some lady picked him up and released him where she found him. Lucky! But Apron Lady misses him. She was acting all ‘oh that’s great’ but she was hurtin’ too. She was crying when she was moving the cages around. She’s like you Tamara.”

“Do you think so Ra? Well, so that’s one more way animals are like humans? Except I don’t cry the way she does, I just curl up in a ball and don’t feel good at all. She gets all wet in her eyes.”

“Maybe we just imagine it’s the same, but there’s no harm in that is there? The important thing we absolutely know is that we miss Mr. Head Spa and Apron Lady misses Mr. Head Spa but we are glad he got to go and be released.”

“What were you guys even talking about before? All this talk about Mr. Spa is making even me want to curl up into a ball and not feel very good.”

“Oh. Well, we decided we need to find a way to measure our feathers so we know if they are growing. Just the tail feathers and the wing feathers for now.”

“That’s a potentially good idea. Oh, hey did you see that sparrow Lee with the bald spots? He was talking to Florence who was talking to Cynthia who was talking to Grace about feeling all itchy in certain areas so he scratches and then the feathers don’t grow. And even though they are the feathers not on his wings or tail, he needs them in order to stay warm outside in the winter.”

“Oh yeah, Mr. Head Spa told me once about 'weather; one day and that there are non-hot days”

“We gotta get all of us sparrows together and make sure we all get feathered and flying like soon.”

“But if some of us don’t end up being able to fly, what is going to happen? I mean, it’s not like it’s so so bad here, but they aren’t going to kick us out anyway are they?”

“No way. We are way too cute to kick out! Especially me, of course.”

“Heehee. I hope so. But we want to FLY! We need some supplies. And we need one of those black metal things that opens up and does research when you jump on the buttons.”

“Yeah! We need a MacBook Pro.”

“No, Tamara. What we need is the Droid X."

"Ooooooooooooooh!" (chirp Tamara and Ion in unison)

"We get the ladies to hang it up just like they hang up the millet and we use our beaks to use the screen for research and to get apps to help us measure our feathers."

"Ooooooooooooooh!" (chirp Tamara and Ion in unison)

"AND....maybe we can use it to find Mr. Head Spa and call and talk to him."

"Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!!" (chirp Ra, Tamara, and Ion in unison).