The Cover for Sport

3/15/2012

Betty..

I love it ! How do you do it ?

Love Joe

Sport
The Red-Bellied Parrot

Old Agnes struggled to open her front door. She pushed with all her might. With a huff and a final push, the door stood open. A cloud of golden oak pollen flew into the air and drifted down upon her head and all around her. Old Agnes smiled her odd smile. She knew that there was no more sure sign of Spring than oak pollen piled upon your door step or on the top of your head.
Ten little grand-field mice formed a line behind her. The sun had just peeped over the horizon as she dusted herself off and hurried the grand-mice down the path to meet Tillith and Herminie, who each had a goodly number of their own grand mice with them. Tillith and Herminie were two of the best friends any field mouse in Wooffer’s Woods could have. They were all on their way to the rose garden for an early morning play among the flowers beside the porch.

“Have you heard?” blurted Herminie.

“Heard what?” said Old Agnes.

“Someone or something is living on Wooffer’s screened- in porch. Wooffer’s mom brought in a big cage with a blanket over it and left it on the porch late last night.” exclaimed Herminie.

The three grandmother field mice hurried the children down the path toward the flower garden.
If only they could have a look at what or who was caged in Wooffer’s porch! How exciting it would be! But field mice are small and not any one of the three could see a thing except the cage.
The grand-mice began to sing a song that Wooffer, the little dog who lived in the house, had taught them.
“If you’re happy and you know it
Wag your tails!
If you’re happy and you know it
If you’re happy and you know it
Wag your tails!”
They all squealed with glee and wagged their tails as fast as they could as they ran around the rose bushes.

News travels fast in the Woods and by the time the sun was over the tops of the trees every one had heard that Wooffer had gone to visit his brother, Pogo and they all had heard about the cage on the porch and tried to have a peek.

Wooffer’s mom came out and removed the blanket that was covering the cage and there, sitting on a small swing, was a bird that no one in the Woods had ever seen before. The feathers on his back were a green that glimmered and his belly was ablaze with bright red and orange feathers.

Wooffer’s mom said, “Good morning, Sport! You are such a pretty bird.” and went out to the garden to pick some fresh greens for Sport’s breakfast.

Sport said not a word but blinked his bright red eyes and looked out the screen of the porch into the Woods and up into the tree branches. Who should be looking back, but Mr. A. A. Corn and Sir Doodah. The two squirrels were the first of the animals of Wooffer’s Woods to get a good look at the guest on the porch. Sport stared at the two squirrels and the two squirrels stared right back at the strange bird.

Finally, Mr. Corn remembered his manners and said, “Please allow me to introduce myself and my friend. I am Mr. Autumn A. Corn and this is Sir Dickey Doodah. We are the branch executives of this branch of The Old Oak Tree. Welcome to Wooffer’s Woods.”

Sport said, “Thank you for the welcome. Are there any Acacia trees in these woods?. Their fruit is my very favorite of anything to eat.”

“What does an Acacia tree look like?” inquired Mr. Corn.

“The Acacia tree is known as the Thorn Tree of Africa. That is where I come from. They grow here and there on the African savannah. They are covered in thorns to protect themselves from the animals of the savannah who graze on the grasses and who would graze on them if they had no thorns. The thorns do not bother me. The fruit hangs like a bell so I would hang upside down to eat it. (Sport hung upside down from his swing to demonstrate.) I have not seen the Acacia tree for many years. I saw all these trees of Wooffer’s Woods and thought it might be possible that one grew here.”

“There is one tree that grows down the road that has many thorns. Wooffer will have to ask his mom about it when he gets home. She knows many things.

This tree is an oak tree, explained Sir Doodah. It grows acorns and no thorns. Right now, it is blooming. The acorns come later. All the squirrels eat acorns.”

At that moment, Wooffer’s mom returned from the garden with a bunch of flowers in one hand and some collard greens in the other. The collard greens were for Sport’s breakfast. She placed them beside his dish of special seeds and added two strawberries for dessert.

Sport ate his breakfast. He found that collard greens were quite delicious and thought that if he could eat strawberries every day he might not miss the Acacia fruit at all.

Most every animal that lived in the Woods was awake and busy before the sun arose above the horizon - most everyone, except Camille and the rest of the lizards. They liked to sleep until the sun was well up and the sun had warmed the day before they ventured out into the world. The lizards had a saying among themselves: ‘A warm lizard is a lively lizard!” And that was true. Spring had just begun and the early mornings were still colder than any lizard liked so they enjoyed a nice long sleep before any one of them faced the world. Camille’s favorite spot to warm her self was the screen of Wooffer’s porch. It faced to the south and the sun was not hindered by the trees of the woods. It shone brightly and warmly on her favorite spot. She breathed a sigh of happiness as the sun shone warm rays on her back. Life was good!

“Is that you? Camilla!”

Camille thought it was one of the bully frogs who had spoken. Sport’s “froggy” voice had startled Camille so much that she ran behind the water spout to hide. She peeked around to see who was talking to her. She saw Sport hanging upside down on his swing by one clawed toe looking at her - first out of one red eye then the other.

“I see that I was mistaken. You look just like my best friend in all the world. Her name is Camilla. She comes to visit me almost every day on my porch at home,” said Sport. “She is a lizard like you. Sometimes she is green and sometimes she is brown like you.”

“I can be as green as the next lizard!” said Camille offended. “I have won the rainbow trophy at The Changing of the Colors Festival several times.”

Camille explained that when the Changing of the Colors Festival took place every lizard for miles around came to enter the contest of changing colors. Each contestant brought something that was the color they wanted to change to so they could stand upon it and think of the color with all their mind so that they could change from brown they usually are to the new color. Most of the lizards brought something green to stand on, but Camille explained that she had brought something with many colors to stand upon.

“That is how I won the trophy”, she said with pride. “What kind of bird are you and what are you doing on Wooffer’s porch?”
Sport told her his name and explained that he was an African Red- Bellied Parrot. “I live with my mom on a porch similar to this one. She had to go far away for a week so I have come to Wooffer’s Woods to stay until she gets back. My friend Camilla has told me about the Festival you mentioned. She mentioned a lizard named Camille who won the trophy by thinking of so many colors at once that she turned black all over. That must have been you! Camilla was very impressed. She said that everyone was.”

Camille was so pleased by these remarks that she turned green at once! She smiled from one lizard ear to the other.

“In Africa, the parrots have a festival, too, called The Call Of The Wild Festival. It is not for changing colors but for imitating sounds of other animals. See those crows out there by the pig’s pen? I have been listening to them tell stories to that pig all morning. I can sound just like them.”

“Caw! Caw! Caw!” screeched Sport to show Camille how he could sound like a crow. “Caw! Caw! Caw!”
Horace, DeLoris and Morty, the crows, heard this sound and stopped eating the pig’s corn long enough to listen for the strange crow to speak again. Another crow was not welcome. No, indeed!

“There is not enough corn for any more crows, said Horace. “This pig, he pointed to Ho Chi, “ eats like a hog as it is. There is barely enough left for the three of us!”

“You are right,” said Morty. “This is our pig and our corn!”

They all agreed that there was no more room at Ho Chi’s table for anyone else so off they flew searching for the intruding crows. They flew all around the Woods and Lester’s Field, a pasture that lay over the road. The cows in the pasture had not seen any new crows and neither had Maudie, the horse.

“Probably just some crows passing by,” observed Horace. The three crows went back to visit Ho Chi, the pig, and tell her more stories and eat more of her corn.

Camille laughed. “You have upset those three crows. They think someone new has come to eat part of Ho Chi’s corn. They will be looking for those invisible crows for days!”

That gave Sport an idea. Even though he was not in Africa and could not attend the Call Of The Wild Festival, he could practice sounding like other animals and have fun doing it right there on Wooffer’s porch.

He was so pleased with this idea that he screeched “Caw! Caw! Caw!” one more time. When the crows heard it again, they flew to the Old Oak Tree and looked all around. Not a crow was to be seen. All that was there was a strange bird in a cage and a very green lizard.

Early the next morning, Margaret, the chicken, clucked a good morning to Sport as she hurried past the porch to join the other hens near the worm beds. It was the early chicken who got the most worms. All the chickens knew that to be true.. She was late. Her hurried arrival set the other hens to cackling and squawking so loudly that they did not notice Sport sounding just like a bunch of excited hens. No, they did not notice it at all at that moment but later in the day they heard a noise that sounded just like a whole flock of chickens were near the house. Chickens do like a lot of company and they all went off at a trot to find these new hens.

Neither a hen nor even a feather of a hen was in sight. “How strange!” said Margaret and the other chickens agreed that it was very strange indeed. She told Reginald, the rooster about the chickens that seem to vanish into thin air. He said, “You know, I was sure I heard another rooster this morning. I only heard the sound once and it was such a surprise that I thought I had been dreaming. Reginald got very excited. With a whole other flock of chickens there was bound to be another rooster with them. It had been many years since Reginald had seen or heard any other rooster give his good-morning Cock-a-doodle-do!

“It certainly would be nice to have someone to call out good-morning with. I will keep my eyes and ears open!”

Reginald did not have to wait long to hear the Cock-a-doodle-do of a rooster crowing because Camille had come that morning to sun herself on the screen and visit with her new friend Sport. Sport was glad to see her and to show her all the sounds of the animals he could imitate so far - the crows, the chickens and the rooster.

When Reginald heard the Cock-a-doodle-do again, he smiled from one side of his beak to the other and took off - half running and half flying - toward the porch. He looked all around the porch and all around the house. He looked up in the branches of The Old Oak Tree. He searched the nearby woods. Nothing! Nothing at all.

Sport was having a lot of fun imitating the animals of the woods. But, the animals of the Woods were mystified by the voices of animals that could not be seen and only heard. With Wooffer still not home they wondered who they should ask. Margaret considered for only a moment.

“Our friend Cho Lee Yen, the peacock can solve these mysterious happenings. He is in the garden eating collard greens. Let us go ask him.”

So, off they all went to talk to Cho Lee Yen.

Cho Lee listened to each one of their reports of mysterious and invisible animals and decided that they all had one thing in common. The sounds came from somewhere near The Old Oak Tree.

“I will roost there this night and see what is going on,” he said.

So when it was time for Cho Lee to find a roost for the night, he gave his good-night Call and flew up into The Old Oak Tree.
When Sport heard Cho Lee Yen’s loud, clear Call break the silence of the evening, he almost fell off his perch. He listened again.
“That sound would win the First Place Trophy at The Call Of The Wild Festival. I must learn that sound. It is so beautifully loud and clear.”

He waited to hear the sound again but Cho Lee had flown into the high branches of The Old Oak Tree to roost for the night. He sat looking down upon the porch and saw Sport staring up at him. Cho Lee Yen, the Proud Peacock, and Sport, the African Red-Bellied Parrot, looked at each other for a long while. Sport thought that Cho Lee must be the most beautiful bird in the whole wide world.

He was about to tell Cho Lee just that when Cho Lee Yen said right out loud, “You, sir, have magnificent plumage!”

Sports red belly swelled out with pride and his feathers seem to become an even a brighter shade of red.

“I was just about to say the same thing of you.” beamed Sport. “Your feathers are the most extra-ordinary color that I have ever seen and I have seen some beautiful feathers. You must be very proud. What kind of bird are you?”

Sport had never seen a peacock in his life.

Cho Lee was so pleased with Sport’s opinion of his feathers that he flew down to the ground and spread his tail feathers into a beautiful fan, each adorned with a beautiful circle at the end. He strutted around for Sport to see how wonderful he looked. All peacocks are proud of their beautiful tails and Cho Lee was one of the proudest at that moment.

The two birds were friends at once.

The next morning Cho Lee flew down from the tree and gave his loud Good-Morning Call.

Once Sport heard the sound again he proudly imitated the Call and sounded exactly like Cho Lee himself. When Cho Lee saw and heard Sport call his peacock Call he knew at once where all the mysterious animal voices were coming from and who was imitating the sounds of the other animals of the Woods.

“So, it is you who have pretended to be so many animals of the Woods. First the crows, then the hens and rooster and now you repeat my personal Call right in front of me. Have you no honor? What have you to say for yourself?”

Sport was humbled by these words and he hung his head in shame.

“The truth is that I have no voice of my own. No Red-belly does,” responded Sport.

“Nonsense!” exclaimed Cho Lee. “What do you mean you have no voice? I can hear you talking as clear as anyone.”

“Oh, we can speak and have conversations but we have no Call we can call our own. We have to copy the Calls of others to say good-mornings or good-night. Your Call is the loudest and clearest of them all. I was thinking how proud I would be to use it for my own,” said Sport.

Then Sport told Cho Lee Yen the story that every Red-belly knows by heart:

The Red-Belly and the Thorn Tree
In the beginning when the earth was new and all of the animals and plants of the earth were new, a beautiful magical tree grew in the dry part of the land of Africa called the savannah. It was the Acacia Tree. It had the most beautiful flowers and the most delicious fruit of all the plants of the savannah. It also had many thorns. Not many animals could endure the thorns and eat the delicious fruit, but the parrot could without getting poked even once with a big thorn.
The parrot was a very plain, grey little bird, but it had the loudest, clearest Call of all the birds of the savannah. It came often to the Acacia Tree to eat her fruit.
One day, the Acacia Tree harkened to the little grey bird and said, “ If you will give me your word and promise not to eat my fruit, which is life to my generation, I will make you the most beautiful bird of the savannah.”
The parrot agreed right away. Instantly, the parrot was the envy of any flower that ever grew in the Africa. He looked himself all over and sounded his Call for all to come and look at his grand feathers. Everyone admitted that he was grand and beautiful.
The next day, the parrot was very hungry. He looked for berries and found none. It was hot and dry so seeds and nuts were hard to find.
After a few days of being hungry all day long, he went back to the Acacia tree that was now hanging luxuriously with fruit. He began to eat the fruit. “She won’t miss just a little of this fruit,” he reasoned. “She has so much!”
But the Acacia tree was very angry at once. “You have deceived me! You gave me your word and promise to not eat my fruit. Your word has no meaning. From now on, your voice will have no meaning. You will have no Call of your own. If you wish to say good-night, you will have to use another’s Call. If you wish to call good-morning, you will have to use another birds Call to do it!”
That night when the Parrot tried to sing his good-night call, no sound would come from his beak. Not even a peep.
The Parrot told the Thorn Tree he was sorry but to this day the poor Red-belly has no call of his own. He must use another’s voice.

When Cho Lee heard this story, he felt very sorry for Sport, the Red-Bellied Parrot. He knew how he would feel if he lost his voice and could not call out loud and clear every morning and evening.

“You have my permission to use my Call while you are here in Wooffer’s Woods,” said Cho Lee. “But you must do it perfectly every time. I will bring all the animals here so that you can tell them your story and apologize for using their Calls without their permission.”

That evening, everyone except the crows, gathered around the Old Oak Tree to hear Sport’s story. They all listened and felt very sorry for Sport.

Reginald, who really did want another rooster to crow with, thought for a moment and said, “You have my permission to use my Call, too. It will be almost the same as having a real rooster to call Cock-a-doodle-do with.”

Margaret and the hens agreed that Sport could use their Calls, too.

By the time Sport went home to his own porch with his own mom, he could sound like anyone in the Woods, even Old Agnes and the field mice. The animals enjoyed hearing Sport sound like them. Any time of the day one or the other of them would be standing by the porch smiling and asking Sport, “Do me. Sound like me!”

When the crows, Horace, DeLoris and Morty, heard about Sport’s ability to sound like any animal in the Woods, they flew to The Old Oak Tree and politely asked Sport to “do them.” Sport listened to Horace first and when he screeched out Horace’s Call, Horace jumped up and down on the branch of the tree with joy.

“Do Morty next!” exclaimed Horace.

Sport listened to Morty screech Caw! Caw! Caw! and smiled when he repeated Morty’s Call. It sounded so much like Horace’s Call that they could have each spoken for the other.

DeLoris sat grinning and waiting her turn to be imitated. She gave her Call for Sport to hear and to Sport’s surprise DeLoris had a lovely calling voice. It was softer and sounded more like music than Horace or Morty’s did.

When DeLoris heard her own voice for the first time, she was proud. It sounded almost like music.. She thanked Sport for singing her song.

DeLoris came to visit with Sport every day after that. They talked of music and voices. DeLoris loved music and knew a lot of songs. When she taught Sport a song called, “Chicken In The Bread Pan Pickin’ Out Dough,” Sport fell in love with her right then and there. The bird had talent!

Sport never tired of sounding like any of his new friends of Wooffer’s Woods and when he went home to his own porch, he told his best friend, Camilla, about his new friend Camille and all the new Calls he had learned from his friends of the Woods.
Sport began to wonder why Camille of Wooffer’s Woods had never requested that he sound like her.

“Camilla, what is your Call? I have never heard it before,” said Sport.

Camilla was warm from the sun and glad that her friend, Sport, was home at last. She explained that lizards do not call.

“We Display!”

And with a flounce of her tail, Camilla turned a flaming red.

“That is how a lizard says Good-Morning, Sport!. You will have to wait until tonight to see how we say Good-Night.”
Sport loved Camilla. He was glad to be home.

####

Betty

Isn't it absolutely wonderful! And that could almost be my little Sport - except mine has a little more green on the tummy. Aren't those eyes something? They are so intelligent!

Thanks DK,
The picture is a public domain photo that I cropped and resized. I love the eye, too.
It was fun to write. I still have the final edits and the formating to do. I will post when it is on Amazon. Thanks to you and Ann for all the help and encouragement during the writing ot Sport's little story.
Love,
Betty

I have a question.

Should the fable in this story have quotation marks at the beginning and end?

Love,
Betty