The Enchanted Aviary: The Visionary Birds

The bird man from P_________ noted a spare, empty cage inside the old hermit's small loggia. An empty cage is a sure indication that a pet bird has died or has flown the coop. Anyone who cares for birds must know that birds turning renegades, especially clever ones, is not uncommon. It is wrong to get all upset when this happens, especially since the birds deserve to get what they work hard for. Whenever birds flew out of their cages inside the small loggia, they eventually came back or else contentedly resided in the trees on the compound, in particular the huge peepal tree round which a huge ficus was entwined. The hermit did not mind losing pet birds to Nature. It was fascinating to hear their joyful shrieks from behind the lush greenery of the trees, to which the birds inside the small loggia always responded. Such animated, trilling conversations usually occurred late in the afternoon, when it was not so hot. One of the compound tenants, Ifram, a migrant from Indonesia, even had a habit of purchasing the rest of the bird man's ware and releasing them afterward, and had already spent quite a fortune in doing so. As such, the compound trees, and, of course, the inseparable, twin peepal and ficus trees, became natural abodes to a huge variety of birds, including quite a few exotic ones.

When the bird man asked about the empty cage, the hermit said that it used to house a pair of yellow cockatiels given him by a female American officer who did a three-year Embassy assignment in Manila. She was now posted in Washington, DC. The female cockatiel passed away a year later, the male survived her by two years. It is always quite sad, the hermit added, because we know that birds can outlive men by more than a hundred years. The bird man agreed. He offered the hermit a pair of his baby parrots, aware that they had very long life expectancy.

The hermit was extremely pleased with the two new additions to the aviary. The parrots were highly sentient. They did not retreat to corners whenever their feed and water were being replenished. They were intelligent busybodies, exploring everything that was placed inside their cage. They looked everyone straight in the eye. While they squawked at strangers, they allowed people whom they were familiar with to touch them.

The residents of the compound eagerly awaited what kind of enchantment the parrots were capable of doing. One morning they all saw that the hermit had installed a clear crystal ball and three, reversible mirror mobiles inside their cage. The parrots spent most of the day grazing on the surface of the crystal ball and scrying on the surfaces of the mirrors. The mirrors that faced outward deflected negative energy from the hermitage. The ones facing inward were used by the birds to portend the future. The mirrors with pink and green frames were for outsiders. Those with green frames only were for the tenants on the compound. Those with red and blue frames were for the entire district of Cubao. By means of these mirrors the visionary birds alerted the hermit to what possibly lay in the future, and it was up to the hermit to interpret what they saw.

Individuals who came to consult the visionary birds were asked to write three possible outcomes on strips of paper, roll the strips, and place them on a special vessel inside the cage. The birds would then graze on the crystal ball, hop onto the floor of the cage, and pick up the right strip of paper with their beaks.