A Chirpy Friend

• Carina Colgan, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

Every year for the long weekend in March, we go down to a little place hidden away between bushes and trees and yet, not far away from the ocean. Usually the weather is sunny and we spend hours playing in the bush and surfing in the sea.
But this year it was different. After arriving, we had the usual fight about who will get the biggest room , Mum wanting everyone to help unpacking while Dad was making himself comfortable on the rocking chair on the veranda. For the first time I was the lucky one ! This year I got to have the room up in the attic. Ellie and Grace had to share a room next to Mum and Dad’ s room.
The first night wasn’t as good as I expected. The attic was rather dusty and there was plenty of cobwebs. And where there are cobwebs - there are also spiders. And I don’t like spiders. In fact they freak me out. As much as I hate Dad’s snoring I felt rather lonely , and I would have preferred to sleep next to him than being surrounded by these hairy eight -legged creepy creatures. The next morning was awful , it was pouring with heavy rain so we had to stay inside.I was getting bored so I decided to snuggle up beneath my blanket and read my exciting book. After a few hours it stopped raining. Mum,Dad,Ellie and Grace went out for a walk and I stayed at the house. Just as they left, it started raining again but they were already too far out in the bush to come back. So I kept my book. The wind started howling and the rain got harder, but it didn’t bother me because I was stuck in my book. In fact I was so into my book, that it took me a while to hear a strange panicky chirpy sound.
“What could it be?” I thought. I was trying to concentrate on the words in my book. That chirping sound started to annoy me so I closed my book,crawled out of bed and went to investigate. The sound got louder and faster as I got closer to the front door. When I reached the front door and opened it, a strong wind blew into my face.There on the floor in front of me was a helpless, cute little baby bird. I pick it up carefully.”I will look after you” I whispered to it.Very softly I blew all the dust off its soft little feathers. I brought the bird inside and quickly made a little nest for it out of the things that were in the kitchen. Just then, my family came back, all wet and loud. “Shhh… “, I said. You’re scaring my little friend. Everyone thought that the baby bird was really cute and wanted to touch it. I felt like a real hero for rescuing this little bird. My family was so proud of me.