Friendly Feathered Professor

This is one of my breakthrough short stories that I wrote a month or two into the first hard lockdown. A central theme for much of my work started while writing this short story. The building blocks were created the year before in a piece I wrote as an assignment for my studies, but my lecturer didn't like it at all. I enjoyed it though, and I'll probably rewrite that story at a later stage as I lost it somehow.

Summary of the story

The narrator (me), struggles to find meaning for his depressed life while sitting on his balcony. Every morning he sprinkle seeds on a overhanging birdfeeder and out of boredom, watch them eat. While struggling to retain his sanity, he speaks with the birds that comes and goes as the day continues, as well as with the neighbor's dog. He sees patterns in their behavior and notice that birds are incredibly simple, beacons of carefree happiness and wishes his troubles would fade away like theirs. He needs to make lifestyle changes though. The birds share their food freely, respect nature and in an orderly fashion, exist happily without knowing what the future holds.

My state of mind while writing this story

During the initial part of the hard COVID-19 lockdown, everyone was unsure how to deal with their new reality. We didn't experience anything like that before. The media showed statistics of millions dying every day, but nobody knows much about the virus. We all believed that it might be the end of the world and that we could die soon.

In 2019, I studied a creative writing course as I've wanted to become a writer for many years. My plan was to start a Sports Website while writing for any media I could get my hands on. I was willingly retrenched from my dead end job that murdered my soul for many years. Whether my business would financially sustain me was uncertain, and with the lock down, I certainly wouldn't accomplish what I intended to do. I didn't get any freelance writing jobs on multiple platforms, and I was depressed, but wouldn't show it.

I love working with wood, only one of many avenues I use to express my creativity, and built a bird feeder. While looking at how they flocked to the feeder every day, I noticed behavioral patterns and tried to make sense of them. You'll notice that I'm not a bird expert, but a yellow bird returned each year to build nests above the feeder. We will never know whether it's the same yellow bird, but I named him Peter. I came up with the name while speaking with him, not expecting an answer, but imagined that he wouldn't have minded the name I gave him.

While we were comfortable in our second floor apartment, we aren't allowed to have pets. We longed for a dog, especially like the Golden Retriever circling the neighbor's yard. The side of our balcony overlooks his yard, and we enjoyed greeting one another, although, this is what I understood from his excited expression and wagging tail when he approached the fence when we see each other. I never asked the owner what her name was, so I fashioned one after lovable German Shepard who sadly died from cancer at our previous residence.

I found comfort in the happiness and cheerful behavior in the birds and the pets, and tried to find a reason for why they seem so happy in such depressing times.

Irony

Humans tend to care for pets by putting them in cages, imagining that they provide a better live than fighting for survival in the wild. Our homes became our cages, but the lockdown now confines us to our self made cages, and we're not doing well mentally. We're social creatures and want to interact with one another. We want to be free like birds.

The lesson

We think we're very clever to store things we need in abundance. We worry about our future and whether we'll have enough to survive until the day we die. We're so involved in gathering that we neglect one another, our health and forget to enjoy life. Just being alive, nothing else.

Birds don't know where their next meal will come from, but they'll share happily what they have. They don't have pockets to carry anything, so they be fine with whatever is available at their travelling destination. We overcomplicated our lives, and mentally suffer the consequences by worrying about maintaining or improving our standing.

Insight of original story

In the original story, our neighbor is a Rasta. He cleans his marihuana by throwing his pips in the garden, and consequently, the dog eats it and gets high. Peter sometimes join him and forget that they aren't supposed to speak to humans. The narrator has a history of having mental health challenges and after speaking to the animal, his wife books him a room at an asylum.

The psychiatrist don't believe him that animals talk by using telepathy, and refuse that the narrator might actually be sane. Normal people don't talk to animals and believe an actual conversation took occurred.

One time, before going in for lunch, the narrator sits outside in a courtyard and Peter visits him after finding him, using a network of pets to track him down. Peter gets mad at the doctor and arrange the city's birds from all breeds to fly in a squadron type fashion to poop on the doctor's car, nearly burring it. The doctor is shocked and questions his own sanity when in a parking lot filled with cars, his is the only one covered while the others are clean. Admitting the obvious statement means his thoughts aren't normal and fears that he'll become a patient in the hospital he runs. Getting cast from society because of his reality.

I believe that by opening our minds to the possibility of this being the truth, one can have fun imagining similar stories. They definitely open themselves for plenty humor.

After going through this journey again, I believe that I should make sure the original story finds its way into the sequel of this book. Just for fun. What do you think?

If you like to read the story, you are welcome to buy the book from our store page. It is available in eBook format at Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, as well as in a Print on demand paperback format at Amazon Paperback. In South Africa, I recommend buying from Takealot.