Birds Don't Cry

Birds Don't Cry
by tammie renea

         The tall, sturdy trees welcome her as a missed friend, while the scent of pine gently drifts around her on a mid-summer's breeze. Golden-brown pine needles blanket the earth beneath her feet. They prick her tender skin, so she stops now and then to pull them from her socks. Playing among the thick rows of pine trees is one of her favorite pastimes. She finds comfort in the quietness of this sacred place. The world is a wonder when you're seven. Here, the world is magical and the magic makes sense. In her other world, the magic isn't always so sensible.

         Daddy's magic drink, for instance. Daddy likes to drink something that has a strange smell and causes him to act in silly ways. It makes him want to "love" on everyone. In a way, she's glad when he's happier and wants to be with her, but she doesn't understand why drinking something special makes him love her more. It works just like the magic potion in the fairy-tale book Mommy reads to her. Mommy says fairy-tales are just for pretend, but this magic potion really does work. It makes Daddy think she's a good girl...even a wonderful girl. Mommy just stirs a couple of things together in a glass, and poof, Daddy becomes jolly and likes everyone again...for awhile anyway.

         Eventually, Daddy starts to get clumsy, so Mommy tries to keep him from hurting himself or someone else. He tries to repair things, or he decides it's time to cut the grass and gets reckless with the lawn mower. Mommy watches carefully and pleads with him to do other things, but the more she tries to stop him, the more determined he is to do whatever he wants. When Mommy gets too afraid of someone getting hurt, she tries even harder to stop him, and that's when the fighting usually starts. It can get really scary sometimes when they fight.

        While Daddy is drinking his magic potion, she often tries to sneak away and escape to her favorite pine tree. She knows the best one for climbing and gradually makes her way nearly to the top. Her fingers and hands become brown and sticky from the syrupy branches, but she doesn't mind. The limbs get smaller and smaller as she climbs higher and higher. From so high up, her house two acres away seems small and distant, making her feel almost invincible. She wonders if anyone can see her. She really just wants to be alone - sometimes to cry, sometimes to pray, and sometimes just to sit and wonder how much taller her tree would need to grow to let her climb up and touch that cottony, white cloud hanging just overhead. She notices three, tiny, blue eggs cradled in a nest on a branch of a nearby tree. Glancing around the dense pine forest, she wonders where the mommy bird has gone and hopes she'll come back before the babies decide to come out of their eggs. She has found many broken blue eggs on the ground beneath the trees before. With kind concern, she leans slightly toward the newfound nest and says, "Be careful, little eggs. Don't fall out. Stay and be born."

         Daddy drinks his magic potion quite a lot, so she returns to her favorite tree often. On one particular day, as she reaches the top of the tree and peers into the nest, she's elated to discover three naked baby birds. They made it! They've hatched! They don't have feathers yet, but their mommy soon returns to the nest, and her babies snuggle up under her own soft, brown feathers. The mommy bird has become impatient with visitors now and doesn't want them coming so close. The anxious new mother's gestures of disapproval persuade the startled girl to descend from the tree. Wanting the family of birds to be happy, she promises herself that she won't return for awhile. As she places her feet firmly on the ground once more, she looks up toward the nest where the new baby birds rest contentedly in their mother's care. She somberly turns to make her first slow strides back to her house, and with a deep, sorrowful sigh, she softly whispers, "Lucky little birds."