Dear Mother

Dear Mother

Spread across with green grass and few scattered dry leaves, our garden decorated the front of our porch. But a garden without any plants or climbers!! That was just unacceptable. So, after a long argument with dad, I had a bird bath set up for our garden.

Every day, after school, I would sit and wait by the window, in hope of seeing a few birds. None was seen until now. I stepped out to search the skies. What is it with this city? Where did they send all the birds to? I went over to the bird bath and, saw that the bowl was almost empty. Mum had told the birds hadn't come to drink water, so where did all the water go? There was only one answer.

“Mummmmmmmmmmmmm!!!” I ran inside to find Mum.

“Mum. Someone’s stealing water from our bird bath”

“What?”

“There. In our garden”, I said. She still looked confused. I pulled her to the garden and showed her.

“I had filled it, this morning. And now see, the water’s almost over”.

Mum smiled. She knelt down and asked, “You think someone stole water from our garden?” I nodded.

“I was home all day. So how can someone steal anything? ”

“Maybe the thief is invisible. Or… he’s a magician. He can make the water invisible and make it float in air”. Mum lowered her head to hide her smile. Well, what better theory would you expect from a 5 year old?

Next day, I waited on the porch. I’m going to catch that thief no matter what. One hour… 3 hours… half a day passed, nobody showed up. I started to feel lazy. Why don’t these thieves show up when you are awake? How come they are always so cunning?

Tired, I was about to give up, when a bird flew by and sat on the bird bath. It drank few “beakfulls” of water. After few seconds, another tiny bird flew and sat next to the first bird. It followed the actions of its mother. I ran to say “Hello”, but they took off.

Every day I would wait for the birds and they would loyally come and drink water. But they never gave me a chance to say, “Hello”, how rude!!

One evening, I was playing outside the gate, while my Mum cleaned the garden close by. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a ball hopping. I turned and saw that it was the baby bird that drank water from our garden. It was struggling to cross the road. It looked like it was hurt. The vehicles slowed, careful not to kill the bird. I stood up to pick the bird. At the same time, the mother swooped down, and pulled her baby. She had barely left the ground, when she was hit by a truck. The mother fell down, her legs pointing skywards. The baby bird was thrown into the air. It landed in front of me. I ran and picked up the bird.

Mum saw me standing near the road and came running to pull me to safety. But I stood transfixed.

“Didn't I tell you, not to go near the traffic?”

I looked at the dead mother bird.

“What happened?” Mum asked. I couldn't answer.

She saw the bird in my hand, then saw its dead mother. She understood. She knelt down and hugged me.

“The mother… died”, I choked.

She held me tighter, and said, “That’s what all mother’s do. Protect their children”.

If so, who will protect the bird now?