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| Purple martin |
Spring's Promise
Since Dad’s accident, Mom was at the hospital all the time.
Instead of pizza Friday night, Maya
and Pearl had
to eat whatever the neighbors had kindly delivered.
It had only been a week, but
nothing was the same.
“I want to go outside,” Pearl complained.
“Grandma promised. But she fell asleep.”
Maya forced a smile. “C’mon,” she
said. She couldn’t make Dad better. She couldn’t cook dinner. But she could
play with Pearl.
She flipped her collar up against
the wind.
“Look!” Pearl pointed to a nest on the ground.
“It probably came down in the
wind,” Maya said. “Don’t worry. It’s from last year. Most birds haven’t come
north yet.”
She walked toward the metal pole in
the middle of the yard. The bottom half of the pole to their purple martin
houses. Purple martins were Dad’s favorite birds. He even talked back to them,
imitating their joyful gargling sound. She helped him clean the houses each winter.
“We’ll put the houses back up on
Saturday,” Dad had said last weekend. “To be ready for the scouts.”
Then the truck rear-ended Dad’s
van.
What would happen if a scout
came, and the house wasn’t up?
Dad would be sad. Their yard would
be quiet. And buggy. Purple martins ate a lot of mosquitoes. Maya thought of
Dad again.
He wanted the houses up.
Maya could barely lift the houses. Another
pole attached to the underside. She couldn’t balance it over her head to slip
it onto the pole in the ground.
“Let’s go!” she told Pearl.
“I don’t want to go in,” Pearl groused.
Maya took Pearl’s hand and went next door.
Mr. Landers answered her knock.
“What can I do for you?”
Maya explained the problem.
Before Mom came home, Mr. Landers
had the house up.
“You shouldn’t have,” Mom said.
“Everyone has done so much already.”
“Just glad to hear Don is doing
better,” Mr. Landers said.
“Look!” Maya pointed to a lone bird
circling overhead. “It’s a scout!” And she smiled for the first time in a week.
Maya knew Spring was here at last.
THE END
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I'm betting there will be a lot of stories to check out this week. Stop by Susanna's blog to read the others if you get a chance.
