CRUMBS [a short novella]

Chapter 3: wonderbread

Poor Parker the pigeon.

All he wanted was a regular Friday in the park, and now he got not one, but two whacks in the face. This time, Parker was lying on the ground for twice as long as he was before. In Parker's case, taking a walk in the park was never quite "a walk in the park".

Maybe he needed to consider vacationing. But, as a bird who hasn't flown more than a couple feet in the past few years, he wasn't too keen on taking public transportation as a method of getting the hell out of the city. Public transport is littered with newspaper holding citizens, don't you know?

Still in a daze, Parker fluttered his eyes with an expectation of seeing his assailant. Of course, no one in sight, he scoffed. These pesky humans were made to run, Parker thought to himself (with little realization that streets get dangerous when you are made to fly).

While there was nothing in sight, Parker's ears were suddenly filled with a song. It began softly, but soon enough the trill became louder and louder. A distinctive but beautifully high pitched "zee zizizi zee zzeet".

"Hello!" Parker shouted, trying to remind the world that he was still here. He meant it as a statement rather than a question, but being incapable of seeing past his belly, he had no clue where noise was coming from. "zee zee zee zizizi zzeeeeeeeeeeeeet!" the song persisted.

Certainly this wasn't a human noise, Parker thought to himself. He knew very well the rhythmic "blah blah blahs", "shoo shoo shoo" or better yet "Like ewww, oh my gawd get away!" sounds. But it wasn't a pigeon either. Pigeon calls are whispering purrs.

THIS was a songbird.

Although Parker and the sidewalk were getting very well acquainted today, the pavement was quite a boring friend to have. So for the second time in the day Parker prepared to get back on his feet. One wing over the other, a twitch of the claw, a flick of the leg, then he dug his claw into the ground and propped himself up after he rolled up onto his wonderfully round Wonderbread tummy.

"Whaoo hello there!" Parker immediately gasped. And there it was. It was indeed a bird. A little bird to be exact. Just a few inches high, and with the tiniest of wings. He's never seen anything like her. Light bounced off of her bluish green back and yellow stripped tummy. The streaks across her wings made the little bird look edgier, but the look on her face suggested otherwise.

"zizizi zzeeeeeeeeeeeeet!" She was looking up desperately at Parker, disheveled and scared.

"Are you ok?" Parker asked, knowing now that it was not the rain, a newspaper, or the platinum blond that cornered 5th that hit him the second time, it was this little bird who fell from the sky.

She lifted her wing with its feathers all ruffled in a bunch. This bird was grounded, and that wing was in no condition to fly again today.

"We need to get away from The Humans" she shrieked, "...and fast!". Something was up with this little bird, and there was more to her than meets the eye. She made being on the street sound like a space invaders game against aliens. Maybe she didn't realize that in this city, she was the alien. No offence.

I've got an odd feeling that this little bird is hiding something, Parker thought. Parker would just have to find out what it was.

But with no time to lose, the little bird started running as fast as her little legs could go. Parker rolled his eyes at the little bird who ran around like she was a chicken with its head cut off. He whistled to get her attention and told her to follow him. So she did, and Parker took her to the best hideout he knew: behind Mozzarelli's Pizza Shop by the Flatiron building on East 23rd Street.

There it was. Parker and the little bird, on a hideout from the humans Parker strolls with every day. But whether or not he understood this little alien bird, today he found his new friend.

She just didn't know it yet.