Annabel

Once, high up on the ledge of a beautiful cathedral, lived a family of sparrows. There were a mother and five newly-hatched chicks. The chicks' names were Lenore, Edgar, Fay, Feather, and Annabel.

All of them looked forward to the day when they would be able to fly like Mama Bird. They saw how she nobly took to the skies and how swiftly and elegantly she could land on the ground to pick up a worm for them whenever they were
hungry.

In time, the chicks were ready for their first flight lessons. They danced around the nest in excitement, thinking of all the places they could go once they knew how to fly.

“It’s easy,” said Mama Bird as she instructed her young. “All you have to do is completely stretch your wings and flap them at regular intervals. If you just flap them randomly or too fast, you won’t fly. Just be gentle, regular, and smooth, and don’t give up if you fall. Now, who’s going first?”

All the chicks chirped nervously about leaving the nest for the first time. The girls all pointed their beaks to Edgar, who swallowed hard and hesitantly approached the edge of the nest.

“Show me how you’re going to flap,” said Mama gently. Edgar raised his wings and quickly flapped them. “No, slowly and gently.” Mama held one of Edgar’s wings in her beak and moved it correctly so he would know what a successful
flight would feel like. “Are you ready for takeoff?” she asked him.

“Erm . . . I . . . I guess so,” he muttered, and stepped on the edge of the nest.

“Get ready to flap,” said Mama. He began to flap his wings just before Mama gave him a soft push. Before he knew it, he was in the air.

“Ack!”

“Just flap. You can do it,” said Mama.

Edgar began to flap his wings the best he could and awkwardly flew from the wall. He landed on the ground a couple of feet from the base of the cathedral.

“Yay! You did it!” chirped all the chicks as they looked down at Edgar.

“Wow, I did!” said Edgar, surprised by his success.

Mama Bird taught each chick just as she had taught Edgar. Soon, four of the chicks were on the ground.

But Annabel, who was still in the nest, gazed down on her family. All of them were looking up at her, eager to see her succeed just as they had. She stepped onto the edge of the nest and spread her wings. Then she took off from the ledge and into the air.

She flapped with all she had, but she did so too fast. She tumbled down from the nest, just missing a stone on the ground. Her family all rushed over to her. “Poor baby!” said Mama Bird, and spread her wing over the crying Annabel. “Can you move your wings?”

Annabel moved her right wing open and closed, but she could not do so with her left. It was broken.

“How will she get back to our nest?” asked Lenore.

“How will any of us get back up?” asked Feather. “We don’t know how to fly up yet. We can only fly down from somewhere, and even at that we’re still rather shaky and need practice.”

“That’s the second part of the lesson,” said Mama, "but I don’t want to leave little Annabel all by herself.”

“What are we going to do?” asked Lenore.

“I will show you how to get back up, and I will try to recruit a bear or some other large animal who can pick her up and bring her back home to the nest.” She proceeded to show the other chicks how to fly up to the nest, and, after a lot of time and frustration, all four of the uninjured chicks were safely at home.

“Now, baby, don’t be afraid. I’ll find someone to help you, and you will heal,” said Mama Bird. She called up to the chicks, “I want you four to keep a close eye on Annabel until I get back.”

“Okay, Mama,” they answered.

Mama Bird gave Annabel a little peck on the cheek and flew away. She was gone until evening. As it got dark, Annabel began to shake, not only from the cold, but also out of fear that a cat would come and eat her. She began to cry again.

Then a little altar server came out of the cathedral to go home for the night. When he heard the weeping Annabel, he knelt down to see what was wrong.

He looked at Annabel and how she was holding her wing awkwardly. “Awwww,” he said and gently picked her up, cuddling her against his chest as he started to walk home.

“No! Don’t take her! Don’t take her!” cried the chicks, even though the altar server wouldn’t be able to understand them.

“Oh, that must be your family chirping up there,” said the altar server. “You probably want to stay with them. I wish I could do something for your wing. It doesn’t look like a splint would do much good, and I don’t know if any veterinarians are nearby.” He thought for a few moments more before concluding, “Since I can’t really help you, I’ll leave you in your nest so at least you can be with your family. You just better take it easy, little one.” He stood on a stone so he could reach the nest, placed Annabel in it, and left with a heavy heart.

Then Mama Bird arrived. “Mama, a young boy brought me back home!” said Annabel, happy for the first time all day.

“Oh my! I’m so glad,” said Mama Bird as she hugged Annabel. "Too bad he couldn’t fix your wing.”

“I know. Hopefully the bones can heal on their own?”

“We’ll just have to see,” said Mama Bird.

Annabel would not be able to fly, at least not for now. With time, all the other chicks flew so gracefully! They could soon fly anywhere they wanted to go, whenever it suited them, while Annabel was stuck in the nest. She sat there, miserably comparing her situation to that of her siblings. Why was she the one with the broken wing? Why couldn’t she be a normal bird, flying about and ruling over the skies like they did?Every day she sat in the nest, surveying the land by the cathedral as a spectator in life, rather than a participant. How she longed to go out and fly, like all the other young birds. She saw them chasing each other and having fun, and she wished she could do that as well. But there she sat, with nothing to do.

Or so she thought. One thing she could do was sing. She could sing and feel more like a normal bird. At first she only sang simple songs -- ones that she heard all the other chicks singing. But gradually, she sang longer, more complex songs. She even began to make up her own songs.

One day a rabbit was hopping by the cathedral when she heard Annabel singing. “Hey,” she called up to Annabel, “that’s a pretty song. Where did you learn it?”

“I made it up myself,” she said with a smile.

“You made up that song?” said the rabbit with wide eyes. “Wow! You’re very talented. I think the other animals should hear you sing.”

“Really? Thanks!” said Annabel, beaming.

A couple days later, all the other animals gathered beneath the ledge for Annabel’s first concert. Even her family was there, sitting behind her. Annabel began to chirp nervously, lacking confidence in herself despite all the positive feedback.

“It’s okay. We know you can do this,” said Mama Bird. “Now, show them what you’ve got.” She smiled at Annabel and pecked her on the cheek out of affection.

Annabel took her place on the edge of the nest and looked at all the animals beneath her. There were rabbits, foxes, bears, mice, squirrels, raccoons, deer, and others as well. What if I mess up? What if they don’t like me? thought Annabel.

There was only one way to find out if her fears were justified. She took a deep breath and began to sing.

All the animals, including her family, listened in a trance. She had the prettiest voice of all the birds in the neighborhood. After her song, all of the animals applauded wildly. “Encore! Encore!” they cried.

Wow, they really like me, thought Annabel. She continued to sing, to the delight of the audience.

About a week later she heard of a contest. It was a singing contest hosted by two squirrels, and the prize was a year’s supply of birdseed. All the birds in the neighborhood were invited to participate. “Oooh, I want to enter that!” said Annabel to Mama Bird.

“Annabel, I hate to disappoint you, but how are you going to get back and forth to that contest? You know you can’t get down from the nest very well.”

“I’m sure someone can help me -- the bears can reach up here and get me, or maybe I could catch a ride with a very tall deer…”

“Yes, but it’s not a good idea to rely too much on others for support.”

“But sometimes you need that support, Mama. All the animals are there to help each other so when someone like me has a problem, it can be fixed.”

“I suppose you’re right,” said Mama. “You can go. I’ll get a bear to come for you.”

“Whoohoo!” Annabel took a small leap in the air out of pure giddiness.

The morning of the contest, the bear friend arrived at the cathedral to give Annabel a ride. When they got there, there were dozens of birds, all practicing for the competition. There was a tree stump that served as a stage, but Annabel knew she couldn’t fly up to it. So, when it was her turn, the bear picked her up and set her on top of it.

“Hello, I’m Annabel, and I would like to share one of my very own songs with you,” she said to the crowd.

The judges, a dog, a rabbit, and a mouse, all muttered to each other. “She’s going to sing her own song? No one in this contest has ever done that. Will it match up to the well-established songs the other birds will sing?”

Annabel once again took a deep breath and began to sing to the amazement of the crowd.

“Wow, this girl’s got talent,” said the rabbit to the mouse.

“I agree,” replied the mouse.

After Annabel finished singing, all the animals applauded very loudly. The bear then came up to the stage and took her back down to the ground.

The other contestants sung well-known bird songs, and they had pretty voices, but none compared to Annabel. The judges climbed up onto the stage. “It is my pleasure to announce the winner of the fourteenth annual singing contest -- Annabel the Sparrow.”

Everyone cheered so loudly that the parishioners from the church came out after the service to see what was going on. But by that time, the animals had all gone.

That night the family gathered around Annabel. “Wow, Annabel, I’m very proud of you. You have a severe disability, but you have not given up. You've become very accomplished despite your handicap -- more so than any able-bodied bird in the neighborhood,” said Mama Bird. “You are an inspiration to all of us.”

“Awww, you’re just saying that because you’re my mama.”

“It’s true,” said Edgar. "You are now the most honored bird in the family, and we don’t expect that to change anytime soon. We love you.”

“I love all of you, too.” With that, the family cuddled close together to get some sleep.