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“Can I keep it Daddy?”
Eleven-year-old Elizabeth Moore looked up at her dad with eyes as turquoise as the Puerto Ricon ocean
right next to their home. They’d just started a hike through the tropical forest on the East of the island,
and they already were surrounded by insects, birds, lizards, and other animals that he didn’t know the
names of. He looked down at her eleven-year-old daughter. In public, she always acted well and maturely,
and At home she was well-mannered, but at home, she often acted like she was 5.
“Please?” She said, looking up with wide eyes.
Her dad, whose name was Jess Moore, looked down. She was holding a bird. Jess dug into his bag for his
bird identification book.
“Yeah, okay. One second.” He said to Elizabeth, who he called Lizzie. “Ah, there we go. This is a…
Summer Tanager.”
“Ooh,” Lizzie said and looked carefully at the red bird in her cupped hands. “How can you tell?”
“It has a big head, and a thick blunt-tipped bill, and it is red all over.” He responded.
“Are you sure? It looks like a cardinal.”
“No, it isn’t. Cardinals have black feathers on their face, almost like a beard.” She giggled. “Also,
Cardinals aren’t as long, and their beaks are bigger in width.”
“Can we take it home?” Lizzie asked. “You can do your research on it.”
“I already have researched Tanagers.”
“But can I keep it as a pet?”
Jess thought for a moment. A bird was a lot to take care of, but Lizzie’s happiness was the most important
thing to him.
“Okay. But you have to take care of it.” He said.
“Yeah, sure.” She said and put the bird in one of the small containers they used to hold birds for research.
Jess worked for a “bird archive company”. Basically, that meant he would record the different species of
birds on his computer, which would be sent to be made into a national archive. He and 5 other guys were
assigned to Puerto Rico, and they went around recording the species. Right now, he was going with
Lizzie. The other 5 people were back in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, using the information Jess
recorded in Puerto Rico and formatting it into the archives. The reason Jess was the one on the island was
that he already had to go anyways. Jess’s mom and dad were living in Puerto Rico, and Jess could work in
their house. That meant the company wouldn’t have to pay for housing. He was staying for 6 months,
with Lizzie’s grandparents, and working from home. The company had only a few offices around the
United States, and their headquarters was in Winston-Salem, where Jess was from. His wife had filed a
divorce, and moved to the UK, leaving Lizzie with him. But anyways, they finished the hike and took a
taxi to their house all the way across San Juan. Jess watched outside the window as green, blue, black,
green, and red houses whizzed by, and then the towering hotels and skyscrapers of downtown San Juan.
Their grandparents' house was right in front of the beach. It was on stilts and was painted dark blue. The
doors, window frames, and roof were painted in cream white. Jess thought it was very beautiful. His
grandparents had quite a bit of money. They had been the director of the entire Caribbean bird archives.
Jess dreamed of becoming that. He was the collector of Puerto Rico, not even the director of the island.
The house was 2 stories and had 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It had a living room, a big kitchen, a
dining room, and a large study. The study was peaceful, had a nice warm light for the night, a few
bookshelves, a huge desk in the middle of the room, and had a full-length window to the ocean that
literally covered the entire wall. Jess loved it, and he used it when he was working. The taxi stopped right
in front of the house, and they both got out.
“Where should I put Creole?” Lizzie
“Creole?” Jess asked.
“That’s what I named the bird.”
Jess put the key in the key slot and turned it. Instantly, the warm smell of Achiote, Sofrito, and Sazon
filled the air. Lizzie ran upstairs to put Creole into Jess’s study cage. Jess walked to the kitchen where
Grandma was cooking with spices from the garden.
“Hola Jess! Como Estas?”
“It’s good, I didn’t find any new birds, but Lizzie is keeping a Tanager as a pet,” Jess responded.
“They can be pesky ones those Tanagers. You know, back when I first came here after retiring, I
remember taking care of a hurt Tanager.”
“Really?” Jess asked. “Tell me more Abuelita.”
“Well, I was on a hike, just like you, when I found an injured Tanager. I quickly took it back to our house,
where I took care of it. I let it stay in the cage, and I’d give it plenty of food and water. But when I opened
the cage once, he just flew out! He pooped all over the house before flying out of the open window. It
took days to clean up!”
“Nice story,” Jess said and peered into the bowl. “What are you making?”
“Empanadillas, Lizzie’s favorite!” She said, stirring the pot. “What are you up to now?”
“‘I’ve got to go inspect an archive on the computer.”
“Okay. Just come down for Lunch.”
Jess said yes, and walked upstairs. Lizzie has put Creole into a cage, next to her bed. She was watching it.
“Can you put the birds feed in, Daddy?” Even though Lizzie had said she would take care of it, Jess did.
After all, Lizzie’s happiness was the most important to him.
Jess went into the study and opened the laptop. As it rebooted, he watched the waves crashing against the
beach, and people swimming in the ocean, and children chasing each other up and down the beach.
Finally, the computer started. Jess looked through it, changing small details every so often, and looking at
his notes to see if it was true. Jess was in the middle of changing a big problem when Lizzie came in and
said, “Creole’s cage is becoming dirty.” Jess got up and cleaned the cage. Now he had to check the
archive quickly. Cleaning a cage is a lot harder than he would’ve thought. Jess rushed and found out he
missed a mistake. All because of that bird. He thought. The next day, he came downstairs for pancakes
and coffee, but Lizzie said, “Can you give breakfast to Creole?” to Jess. He sighed but remembered how
important Lizzie’s happiness was, so he said “Okay.” and went upstairs. It takes a long time to feed a bird,
and he had to mix all of the ingredients. By the time he was finished, everyone else had already eaten
breakfast, leaving Jess to sip on his coffee alone. I can’t take care of this bird. Someone else has too.
Grandma was busy enough, taking care of Grandpa, who had Alzheimer’s. It wasn’t that bad though, and
he was normal most of the time. Except for sometimes when he forgot a small thing, but they’d just
remind him and it would be good. Grandma was originally from Puerto Rico and moved to
Winston-Salem where she met Grandpa. He was from Mobile, Alabama, and he had a strong southern
accent. So Jess had a weird mix. Jess was raised in Charlotte, but they moved to Winston-Salem because
of the job. Then they both got their Caribbean job, so they lived in Havana for a long time. They retired,
and they decided to go to San Juan, while Jess went to Winston-Salem.
“Jess!” Grandma yelled from the other side of the house. “I’m going out to get Paprika! I’ll be back
soon!”
“Okay!” he yelled back. He finished drinking and went upstairs to see his messages and what the people
back in Winston-Salem wanted him to do. Today, he got to use the drone. It was painted space green and
had the company's logo, a document with a bird carrying it. It had 4 arms with powerful propellers and a
grabber-arms. There was an HD camera attached to it and a small net. The company had adapted a normal
drone, which originally had a small pellet shooter. The only reason the drone would use that mechanism
was to shoot down something, but they’d never really need too. They used the drone to fly close to birds
and inspect them. The special thing about this drone was that it was extremely silent, and wouldn’t scare
away the birds. Lizzie loved to launch it into the air and watch Jess fly it with birds above the ocean and
island.
“Hey, Lizzie!” Jess called. “Today’s drone day!”
She ran down the hall. “Yes! Can we launch from my room or something?”
Jess knew it would be dangerous to have it fly through the window, but he said “Sure.”
They both took it into the room, where Creole was in her cage, happily watching them. Jess placed the
drone on the bed, but then he remembered to get his bird identification book. He walked to the study and
picked up the dictionary weight book. He walked across the house to the bedroom.
And found his drone smashed to pieces.
Lizzie was trying to catch Creole, who had come out of the cage. He was flying around the room, pooping
everywhere and pecking at the frayed remains of the drone. Lizzie had taken him out of the cage, even
though Jess had told her strictly not to. The cage had fallen to the floor. Lizzie finally caught hold of it,
but nearly squeezed it. Then she noticed Jess standing at the doorway. Jess didn’t know what to say.
Maybe I should forgive her. After all, she needs to stay happy. But then Jess realized something. Maybe
I'm being too nice. He thought. Life isn’t all about happiness.
“I’m sorry,” Lizzie said. “I shouldn’t have released him.”
“It’s okay, but you have to promise you won’t do it again. And I’m not going to let things slide next time.
What I say is for your own good.”
“Okay.” She said. “I’ll clean it up.”
Usually, Jess would say that she was a kid, and it was okay, but this time he said, “Okay. We’ll do it
together.”
So they both cleaned up all of the things, threw the destroyed drone away, and washed the bird poop off.
Jess had to go report the drone, and a few days later, he got another one. Then, Lizzie and Jess launched it
on the beach. Creole was in the bedroom, but Lizzie took care of her completely. They put the drone on
top of the sandcastle Lizzie had made, and it blew sand everywhere. They flew the drone into the clouds,
following birds around the island, and looking at where they went. Then Jess landed it perfectly on
Lizzie’s sandcastle. As they walked back to the house, it was Lizzie who went upstairs to clean the cage.
2 months later...
“I know it’s sad, but he probably wants to be out in the wild,” Jess said to Lizzie.
“But he liked it with me!” She exclaimed as they were in the taxi to the forest.
“Imagine if you were in a cage instead of with your family and friends,” Jess said. “That wouldn’t be very
fun, right?”
“I guess so,” Lizzie mumbled. “I want Creole to be happy.”
“Exactly.”
They arrived at the outer edge of the forest and went inside. All of the sounds of the city disappeared, and
they were surrounded by a floor of leaves, the maple color of tree trunks, and the lush green of the leaves
on the trees and bushes. All they could hear were the sounds of animals.
“Well, here we are,” Jess said. “Just open the cage, and let him free.”
Lizzie put the cage on the ground. “Love you Creole,” she said, and then opened the cage. The Tanager
flew out but looked back at them both. Lizzie waved at him. Then it turned around and flew off into the
Puerto Ricon sky.
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2 comments
What an interesting story! Great job Ayaan!
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Thanks for reading! I'm happy you enjoyed my story! :)
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