What Is THAT?

• Lara Murray, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

Hi, my name is Carl Cocky, Carl for short. My family and I are all Black Cockatoos. My family, Mum, Dad, my sister Crissy and I all love green berries. One day we found some different green berries. Let me tell you the story.

We were flying around looking for more green berries when Dad saw some in a garden we had never been to before. Crissy and I flew ahead to get to the berries first. As always, Crissy was up for a challenge.
‘I’ll get to the berries first!’ she squawked back to me. I replied,
‘You got that wrong; I’ll get the berries first!’

Soon we were noisily feasting on the delicious clumps of green berries in the new tree.

Out of a nearby house came a girl with a shiny thing. She slowly began walking toward us. We eyed her carefully, but kept eating. When she was pretty close, she held up the shiny thing toward us. After pushing some thing on the shiny thing, there was a bright FLASH! Dad leaped from the tree and began flying away. Mum, Crissy and I followed him.

While we were flying home, I asked Dad,
‘What was that shiny thing, Dad?’
‘I don’t want to know,’ was the scared reply.

The next day, we went back for more berries and the same thing happened: We squawked to each other as we ate the green berries, and the girl came with her shiny thing. She made it flash at us and we flew away from it.

At home, Mum sighed.
‘Those green berries are so yummy.’
‘Shame we can’t eat them in peace.’ Crissy said.
‘Peace.’ I whispered
‘That’s it!’ I shouted, jumping up.
‘What’s it?’ asked Mum.
‘We were too noisy! The noise tells the girl that we are there. We need to be quieter!’ I concluded triumphantly.
‘I s’pose we can only try it said Dad, doubtfully.

So the next day we flew silently into the green berry tree and began eating. We all kept an eye on the door of the house but it did not open. No girl and shiny thing appeared. No bright flash. We kept eating until we were full.

On the way home, I said to Dad,
‘It worked!’
‘I s’pose so, Carl, I s’pose so, although I am almost too heavy to fly!’ was the reply.