The Meadow Encounter

Illustration by Summer  Age:  8  Paris, TN

Summer the cardinal, Meagan the robin, and Skylar the blue jay were waiting in the big red maple tree for their friend Amelia the meadowlark.  The four friends were going to spend the day in Melody Meadow.  Amelia was running a little late.

            Summer looked across the meadow and saw Amelia heading for the tree.  “There she is!” she cried.  Then three large blackbirds flew in front of Amelia forcing her to land on the ground.  “Oh no!” cried Summer, “Rachel the raven and her two sidekicks, Betty and Beatrice the blackbird twins, have ambushed Amelia!”

            “What are we going to do!” Meagan exclaimed.  “We can’t let those bullies hurt Amelia.”

            Summer thought hard.  Then she noticed the large birdfeeder full of birdseeds in front of the maple tree.  “I have a plan,” she said.  “Do you see those birdseeds?  We’re going to use those birdseeds to distract Rachel and the twins to give Amelia a chance to get away.  Skylar, you will fly in from the right.  Meagan, you will fly in from the left, and I will fly in from behind.  We’ll drop as many seeds as we can carry on them all at once.  Hopefully that will give Amelia the chance to get by them.  Then we will all fly back to this tree as fast as we can.  Got it?”

            The three friends flew down to the birdfeeder and picked up as many birdseeds as they could hold.  Then they each took off in their assigned direction.  Skylar was the first to reach the bullies and made the first drop, but she flew right into Meagan who was coming from the other direction making her drop her seeds before she reached the bullies.  Skylar and Meagan became tangled up together and had to land on the ground close to Amelia.  Skylar’s birdseed drop had only made the bullies angry.  Now Rachel and the twins had all three of the friends surrounded.

            “That was a stupid thing to do, Skylar,” Rachel taunted.  “Now I’ll have to beat up all three of you.”

            Summer had seen Skylar’s and Meagan’s accident in time to pull up and fly to the nearest tree.  She needed a new plan.  If she could just distract Rachel long enough for one of her friends to get away, then the two of them might be able to find a way for the other two to get away as well.

            Then Rachel puffed up her chest and spread her wings to make herself look bigger.  The twins did the same.  They were preparing to peck the three friends.  Summer was out of time.  Desperately, she flew down toward Rachel’s head and hit Rachel with her feet.  Skylar had seen Summer coming and as soon as Rachel was distracted by the hit, Skylar flew up into Rachel’s face cawing as loud as she could.  This threw Rachel off balance and gave Skylar the opportunity to fly away.   Meanwhile, Summer had circled around and was diving at the twins giving Meagan and Amelia the opportunity to fly away as well. 

            When Summer realized that all three of her friends were free, she followed them as they all frantically flew toward the maple tree with Rachel and the twins hot on their trail.  As they neared the tree, they realized that many birds had flown from the tree in their direction.  However, they flew past the friends and chased Rachel and the twins away.

            When the friends reached the maple tree, they landed on the nearest branch exhausted from their adventure.  Amelia looked at her three friends and said, “That was the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me.  You guys are the greatest friends a girl could ever have.”

            Skylar looked at Summer and said, “That was so brave taking on Rachel like you did.”

            Summer replied, “I couldn’t let them peck you so I just attacked.  I am really glad the other birds came to our rescue.”

            “Me, too,” said the other three.  For the rest of the day they stayed close together and enjoyed their visit to Melody Meadow.