A Cardinal Memory

 

There once were three siblings: Hailey, Coby, and Lexxi, who all lived in a house with a beautiful oak tree in the backyard. In the tree lived a beautiful cardinal. Everyday, she sat proudly and elegantly in her nest, watching the children play. The cardinal loved the children so much. It warmed her heart seeing them with so much joy and happiness while they played.

As time went on and the seasons changed, the cardinal would molt her feathers. The feathers would fall from the nest and land gently on the ground where the children usually played. The three children knew the feathers would fall to the ground. So they would run out to collect any of the feathers they could find. Each child liked to use the feathers for his or her own imagination.

Hailey gathered the feathers to make beautiful pieces of art. She would then imagine herself as a world famous artist, traveling around the world and showing her cardinal creations at all of the most prestigious art galleries.

Coby took the feathers and would make a cloak to be worn only by a king. He would march around the backyard imagining that it was his kingdom and he was the rule. The cardinal feathers made Coby look like the most regal king in the land.

Lexxi would then take the feathers and make a beautiful dress out of them. She imagined that she was the world’s best dancer. She would twirl and spin around thinking of herself as the most mesmerizing dancer anyone had ever seen. With every move, the colors of the feathers would burst, making Lexxi feel marvelous.

One day while playing around the oak tree, Hailey, Coby, and Lexxi noticed a sound coming from the nest. It was a group of particularly high-pitched sounds. It was chirping! The cardinal had hatched beautiful little cardinal chicks! The three kids would come out everyday to see the little birdies grow. The chicks would peek their little beaks over the edge of the nest and chirp for food. They were the cutest things the children had ever seen.

Time went on and the baby cardinals started to grow. They started to get too big for the nest. One by one, each bird spread its wings and flew away. Except for one. The children decided to name the little bird, Spotty, because she had little orange spots on the feathers around her beak. Spotty was still too small to fly away from the nest. So the children would come out to the tree everyday cheering her on to give her the confidence to fly out of the nest.

Although the children knew it would be a sad day when she actually left, they knew it was better for her to finally spread her wings. There wasn’t going to be enough room for her and the mother Cardinal for long.

Hailey, Coby, and Lexxi came out one day to check on Spotty and they noticed that the mother Cardinal was gone. They waited and they waited, but she never returned. Worried about Spotty, the children made sure that she was taken care of.

Then, not before long, Spotty grew big enough and strong enough to leave the nest. The children no longer had their cardinal friends to play with. They grew sad knowing they no longer could look after Spotty.

A long time passed and the three children went on with their games. They still had all the beautiful feathers they collected from the mother Cardinal. But, all of a sudden, day by day, they noticed that someone was taking their feathers. At first, it was just a few feathers gone. Then, it was nearly half. Finally, the children had only one left. They set out to find who had been stealing their beloved feathers, or where they could have possibly disappeared.

Hailey blamed Coby that he took them all for his cloak. Coby blamed both Hailey and Lexxi that they took them to make their art and dresses. The children no longer were having fun and playing in their backyard.

After arguing about the feathers, the three children went off to different parts of the backyard to blow off some steam. Coby stormed off to the far point of the hill, Hailey went by the stream, and Lexxi rested under the tree.

Not before long, Coby and Hailey noticed that Lexxi was giggling. They both walked over to the tree wondering how she could be giggling when they were all so mad. When Hailey and Coby reached Lexxi, she was lying on her back looking up into the tree.

“What’s so funny?” barked Coby.

Lexxi pointed up and exclaimed, “Spotty! She came back to us!”

Hailey and Coby looked up and saw a beautiful nest made out of leaves, twigs, and of course, the mother Cardinal feathers. Out from the top of the nest sat fully grown beautiful Spotty. She still had the spots near her beak. The children smiled with tears in their eyes. Just then, they heard a sound coming from the nest. It was a particularly high-pitched sound… It was chirping!