The Enchanted Aviary: The Little-Boy Shrike Goes To A Foster Home

And so it was that, one fine morning, the Department of Social Wingfare sent two social wingers to The Eavian to bundle up the little-boy shrike and deliver it to the hermitage. The little-girl shrike watched from a corner of the ward, her tiny heart beating with anxiety, saying prayers of thanksgiving and sending many good wishes toward her baby brother as he was taken from his nest. She wept silently, knowing that, with all the trillions of shrikes in this world, she might never see her brother again. Or, worse, that even should they meet, he would no longer know who she was.

After seeing the little-boy shrike to the enchanted aviary inside the small loggia, the nurse returned to the ward. She suggested that the little-girl shrike be transferred to the hospice, beneath the water tank of the hermitage. For, indeed, the empty nest that the little-boy shrike had left behind was a sad, lonely sight that only crushed the little-girl shrike's heart whenever she passed the corridor and saw it. The little-girl shrike was only too glad to be transferred. She could not bear to see the empty nest and remember the most painful memories of their ruined family: their father's departure, their mother's insanity and abuse, and the physical beatings from their mother that her baby brother endured.

Things were more pleasant at the hospice, at any rate. The orphan birds there were fond of playing bird-board games such as chirp checkers, chirp chess, downy dominoes, Cuckoo Clue-Do, Loonopoly, and the like. The nurse promised the little-girl shrike that the priest and priestess would try to persuade the old hermit to adopt her as well, after a passage of six months. The little-girl shrike smiled and slept in peace with a glimmer of hope, though having known, early on in life, that most promises never become reality.

At the aviary, the hermit placed the little-boy shrike under the care of the attentive Divinatory Birds, who agreed among themselves that it would be such fun to have a baby bird to care for. The sparrows taught the little-boy shrike everything they ever knew about divination, and then introduced the little-boy shrike to the other inhabitants of the small loggia.

The Dreamer Birds held a particular fondness for the little-boy shrike, and requested that he be present during their weekly lunches. The shrike, of course, would not eat striped sunflower seeds and mixed bird seeds, and so the house lizards made sure that they always had a dish of millet for him. The days and the nights passed, and very soon the sparrows took the little-boy shrike on flying lessons round the compound. When he was strong enough to fly alone and on his own, the female Dreamer Bird asked him to be her special courier for her notes to her beloved eye-ring, who lived on an upper unit of the condominium building behind the compound.