The Bird Under the Couch

By Syra with contributions from Xenia and Justin

We try to stay out of the house on Wednesdays when the housekeeper and her help comes to do the big clean.  I hope that we are making some fun summer memories.  Sophia planned on getting up early and taking Xenia and Justin out today but had a bad night.  I wondered when I called her on the third story and heard she hadn’t slept well if she had been woken up by my bird.  That darn noisy bird has cost me many a good night’s sleep.  It likes to sing a concerto just after midnight and won’t let up unless I go outside and shout at it to keep it down.  Either I’ve gotten used to it or it starts it song when I’m in a deep sleep because it hasn’t woken me up in a week.

I was working on some math lesson planning when the Magic Cleaning team came to the second floor, so I took the laptop and textbook and Justin and came downstairs.  Justin raced off to the left to reach the kitchen through the living room.  I passed to the right through the music room and found Xenia running to me through the kitchen.

She said, “Your bird’s in the house.”

I thought she was calling Justin a bird. 

“Where?” I asked.

I heard a distant bird tweet and growled grumpy thoughts towards the bird that lives in that tree outside between my bedroom and the dining room windows.

“Under the couch.”

“You’re joking with me.”

“No, go look for yourself.”

Justin got on the floor and looked under our huge bison leather couch.  He didn’t see it.  I decided to humor them and looked for myself.  Nothing.

“Look from the other side.” Xenia said.

I still didn’t believe her, but Justin and I walked around to the other side.

Justin said, “Oh, there it is!”

Xenia looked from behind the foot table in the center of the room and pointed down.  I got down on the ground once again and saw the little pile of feathers balled up under the sofa.  I got in closer, and the baby bird scooted out the back, flew across the dining room, and went under the built-in desk along the far wall.  It went back and forth as if lost and confused.

I took Justin’s soft blue throw blanket off his shoulders and gathered it around the bird.

Justin kept saying, “I want to look at it first.  I want to see it!”

Worried that it would fly farther into the house, I ignored his pleas.  Xenia opened the back door and held the screen door open for us.  It looked like the incident was over, but when I shook out the blanket, the bird dove back into the house.  Justin and Xenia laughed and shouted.  It headed for the big, brown sofa again.  This time Mike came out of his office and tipped the couch over so that I could catch it again.  The little bird flew to the bar at the kitchen and dodged us among the feet of the barstools.  I pulled one stool after another away while Justin and Xenia stood by to help keep the bird corralled.  As I moved the final stool away, Xenia squeezed in close and almost picked it up with her hands, but it danced out of her grasp.  Then I moved in and scooped it up in the blanket again.

“This time we’ll close the door before I let it go.” I said as we marched to the back door.

We went farther out onto the porch before I set the blanket down.  The poor little bird was so still it looked dead, but when we stepped back it hopped up again.  Justin stayed outside for a while to watch where the bird went next and followed it all the way across the porch and behind the huge plastic toy bin.  I knew it would like the dark and quiet corner and Xenia and I both told Justin to leave it alone and come back inside.

The kids loved their wildlife adventure and begged me to write it up for my blog.  So now you have the tale of the bird under the couch.

Justin felt very happy.  It was exciting to see a live bird flying around in the house.  At least it didn’t go into the bathroom!  He was glad the falcon we see flying over our yard didn’t get in.

Xenia thought it was so funny.  She was opening the back door before asking if she could go biking when if flew in tweeting madly.  It flew under the couch and when she told Mike, he said that it must be Mommy’s bird.  He went to go look with her and then went back to his office.

I wasn’t inspired to write the story at first.  They looked so disappointed when I said I didn’t intend on writing anything that I promised them a story if they helped me write it out.  In the end, I was happy to oblige them.  It feels good to know that they consider me and my stories the keepers of their memories.