The bird was an ovenbird. A small creature—it had a white belly with black spots, pink feet, and golden-brown feathers. Now, what an ovenbird was doing there, I did not know. Those birds were not native to my area or to the city. And what was wrong with its wing? Why was it bent weirdly? My first guess was that a cat attacked it.
I met the bird’s deep brown eyes, and it returned my stare. Then, cupping my hands, I moved them toward it.
When I did that, the bird let out a round of frightened chirps.
Poor thing. It was in pain. What was it with me when it came to birds? Why was I so good around them? “It’s okay,” I told the animal. “I won’t hurt you.”
Nevertheless, just before I picked it up, Big Bertha ruined everything.
“Serena! What are you doing?”
“Big Bertha!” I shouted. Before I could shoo her away, the bird bit my finger. “Ow!” I yelled, pulling away. “What was that for?”
Chirping again, the bird rose to its little feet and ducked under a pile of leaves further back in the bush. It dragged its wing behind it.
I wasn’t mad. Oh no. I was absolutely furious!
Big Bertha called me again. “Serena, I need your help! Serena! Serena! Serena!”
“What?” I finally shouted, whirling around. “What’s so important that you had to disturb me?” However, the answer I got was the worst answer ever.
Big Bertha held her phone out to me and asked, “Can you help me request an Uber?”
***
Before I knew it, Big Bertha and I sat in the back of an Uber. I had my bag over my lap, and Big Bertha was messing with her nails. Her mop rested across her thighs.
I knew the Uber driver was staring at her. A short man with black hair, brown eyes, and glasses—he stared at the seven-foot-tall woman through his rearview mirror.
Yes, man, I know a huge woman is sitting in the car with us. I no longer wanted to go to the city. I wanted to find the ovenbird again. If it was injured, then I needed to help it. However, Big Bertha strangely refused to take me back to the house. Why? I already knew the answer. I was being put up for adoption. I was sure she was going to drop me off at the orphanage when we got to the city.
Although it was only 2019, the city was high-tech. It had moving walkways, robotic trash cans, and tall, glass buildings with numerous Maglev train tracks. Its name was Highland City. It was basically just a fancier version of New York City.
The Uber dropped Big Bertha and me off at the subway. I think Big Bertha scared the driver. The second she stepped out of the car, he punched the accelerator and hurried away from us. He almost caused an accident at an intersection—he moved so fast.
It wasn’t long until Big Bertha adjusted her collar and told me, “Well, Serena. Let’s go, shall we?”
I gulped. “Where are we going?” However, I said nothing more because Big Bertha again tossed me onto her shoulder. People stared as she carried me down the sidewalk. “I don’t want to be here!” I argued. “I want to go home! I have to see the ovenbird again!”
“Ovenbird? What are you talking about?” Big Bertha did not let me answer because she took me off her shoulder and set me down on the sidewalk.
A tall, friendly-looking man passed us and waved. “Hey!” he spoke in a kind voice.
Unfortunately, Big Bertha did not see that as a greeting.
Gasping, she leaped before me and bumped the man’s chest with the butt of her mop. “How dare you! You’re going to wipe this child off the face of this earth!” She pulled me behind her and almost knocked the man off the edge of the sidewalk.
I grabbed her meaty arm with both hands and yelled, “Big Bertha!” but Big Bertha kept threatening the man.
Before long, he turned on his heel and ran away from us.
Big Bertha called after him, “Yeah, and stay away!” With that, she set the butt of her mop down beside her and peered over her shoulder. “Are you okay, Serena Wena?”
“Am I okay?” I shoved Big Bertha away and kicked her mop out of her hand. “What did that man do to me? He was just saying hello!”
Big Bertha ignored me—“You know what?”— and turned toward a winery further down the sidewalk. “I think I am going to get a glass of wine.”
“A glass of wine?” I asked in an angry voice. “What is wrong with you?”
Again, Big Bertha ignored me. She turned on her heel and stepped into the winery, leaving me alone on the streets of Highland City.
It’s official. Big Bertha was the worst bodyguard ever. I waited for a full hour, but she did not leave the winery. That told me she was probably drinking herself stupid.
Since I was underage, I couldn’t go into the winery, so I sat on a bench beside a homeless, old man.
He stared at me, and I stared back.
“`Sup?” I asked, giving him a quick flick of my wrist.
“What is a beautiful, young girl like you doing roaming the streets in the middle of the night?” the man asked. He hugged his cardboard blanket to his chest and continued to stare into my soul. However, he didn’t make me uncomfortable. I felt fine around him. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
When I answered his question, I noticed there was a touch of sadness in my voice. “I’m an orphan.”
That was when I saw him—the boy. A random boy appeared from out of nowhere. He stood in an alleyway between two buildings. Like the old man, he stared at me.
I couldn’t see him very well, but I knew he was young.
The boy held his left arm behind his back. He did not move his right arm a lot. I wondered why.
Something about the boy intrigued me. Was it his long, brown locks, his perfectly tan skin, or his blueberry blue eyes? Whatever it was, I felt a connection with him. It was like the connection I felt with the ovenbird.
He looked like he was waiting for me. Did he want me to follow him?
Beside me, the old man chuckled. “Ah, young love. The boy is waiting for you, lass.”
Young love? What was he talking about? I was only twelve years old.
I tried to shoo the boy away, but he refused to move.
He continued to stand and stare at me. He almost looked like a robot. Finally, he lifted his left hand and waved for me to follow him.
“Go to him,” said the man. “Don’t be shy. He’s just a boy.”
“But who is he?” I asked.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, eh?” said the man.
True. If I followed the boy, would I learn why I had a weird connection with him, as I did with the ovenbird? I had to know. Before I got sent off to the orphanage, I might as well have one last adventure. Most likely, Big Bertha would drink herself to sleep, so technically, I had the whole night to do whatever I wanted. That was the first time I was outside without a bodyguard, so I had to make it count.
With that in mind, I rose off the bench and headed toward the stranger in the city.
He ran through the alleyways, me following him. We passed a few dumpsters and some gangs playing Poker. They did not look at us. Strange, because I thought it was obvious that two random kids just appeared from out of nowhere.
The boy continued to run. He slid under a gate and appeared on the other side in the shadows.
I had no idea how he slid under the gate, so I merely climbed it and landed in a puddle of mud on the other side.
When he saw me coming, the boy took off again.
That time, we ran by a hippie playing the drums. Like what happened with the gangs, he acted as if he did not see us in his practice zone, even when the boy accidentally crashed into one of his cymbals and knocked it off its rack.
The hippie banged his drumstick on the concrete ground.
The entire time the boy took me on the weird journey, I noticed he rarely moved his right arm. Was he injured? Was that why he sought me out? I had no idea. All I knew was that something very weird was happening.
The stranger took me to Highland City’s Harbor. We stood in a park that overlooked it.
The stranger stopped beside a mermaid statue. He ducked behind it when he saw me coming.
However, it was the strangest thing. When I circled the fountain, I did not see the boy. It was like he disappeared in midair. I ran around the fountain four more times. Sure enough, the boy just disappeared. Then I saw him.
He had appeared back on the park’s walkway and sprinted toward the Highland City Marina.
“Hey, wait!” I yelled, but the boy did not stop. I lost him in a crowd. Like the gangs and hippie before, they acted as if they did not see me.
When I finally pushed my way past them, I was at the Marina. However, once again, the boy was nowhere to be seen.
Many questions swarmed through my brain as I tried to figure out just who the heck he was. That was when I heard two small chirps.
When I turned my head toward the direction of the chirping, there was the ovenbird.
It stood on its tiptoes on a railing behind the Marina, holding its left wing out to its side. With one last chirp, the bird unhooked its claws and dropped.
ns216.73.217.22da2
and then Add to home screen.