Two Green Birds by Geraldo Valério

Author:Geraldo Valério [Valério, Geraldo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Published: 2023-04-11T16:23:10+00:00

4

A Bag

of Seeds

In the morning, I helped my mother bake an orange cake for Dona Rosa. When my mother took it out of the oven, she poured orange juice over the warm cake, and she let me sprinkle sugar on top of it. She said that if someone sent you a plate or a basket with a gift, you should give them a treat to thank them.

My mother baked a little cake for Grandma, too.

“Take the basket to Dona Rosa as soon as you get to your grandmother’s. Tell her that I am very grateful for all the vegetables she sent me.”

At Grandma’s, I ran straight to the backyard. But when I came close to the cage, the parakeets were trembling.

I walked back to the house. Grandma was in the kitchen.

“Have they eaten?” I asked Grandma.

“Not a thing,” she said. “This morning I went to Rosa’s to thank her for the cornmeal. I told her that I didn’t know what to do to make the birds eat. She suggested that I go to the pet store. They sell birds there, and Rosa said they will certainly know what to do. I was just waiting for you to arrive.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Let’s go now. I’ll take Dona Rosa’s basket to her when I get back. The sooner we find the food for the birds the better.”

Before we left, Grandma made me drink some water.

“The sun is very hot today,” she said. “I will bring my umbrella.”

We left the house, closing the front gate behind us. I held onto Grandma’s arm and our feet walked side by side on the dusty sidewalk. Grandma wore her flat black shoes, and I wore my green flip-flops.

We walked together under the shade of her umbrella with our faces hidden from the sun.

•

The pet store looked like a cage you could walk into. There were birds everywhere. The whole place was filled with piping, chirping and cackling. It smelled of dust and feathers.

In the middle of the store were some large cages with black ducks and long-necked white geese. There were chickens and roosters, too. Some were white, some orange, some brown. The black turkeys were huge, and their necks had dangly red skin that looked like warts.

The Guinea fowls were the most amazing. Their feathers were dark gray and covered with white dots. Their faces were white and had some red lumps sticking out from their cheeks. Their heads had a bump that looked like a helmet.

There were cages filled with yellow canaries. There were white and gray finches. More cages were crowded with doves and pigeons.

Then I heard the loudest clatter behind me. When I turned around, I saw a very large cage filled with parakeets.

These parakeets were a bit different from the ones Grandma and I had. They were smaller.

Some of them had green feathers. Some were yellow. The blue ones had black speckles all over their wings and tails. Some were very white.

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