Henry makes his grand entrance

“Daddy! Daddy! Mummy! Mummy!” shouted Rosa running into her parents’ bedroom while George and Sybil were fast asleep. They groaned. Rosa shouted, “wake up! wake up guys! one of my baby dolls has come to life.”

Upon hearing that, Sybil groaned extra loudly, while George sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?” he asked as a smiling Rosa came into focus.

“I don’t know daddy. But you must come and see the magic.” George didn’t reply. All this seemed so surreal to him. He leaned over and picked up his iPhone from his bedside table and then laid it back with a large sigh.

“Rosa, do you know what time it is?”

Of course Rosa had no idea what time it was, nor did she care. There was a miracle taking place in her slice of the universe and nothing else mattered. “It’s Sunday daddy. You can go back to sleep on the deck later, that’s what you do every Sunday.”

“It’s 8 o’clock,” replied George who wanted to lay down and go back to sleep for at least another half an hour or so. But he knew that that was now a pipe dream. He turned and looked at Sybil who turned over facing away from the two of them.

He was about to say something when Sybil pre-empted him. “She’s your daughter so, you get up and see what magic Rosa is talking about and then when it’s another false alarm, maybe you can come back to bed.”

George nodded and swung his feet onto the floor where they felt for his slippers. Rosa stood there rocking slightly waiting for her father. When he was taking too long in her opinion, she grabbed his wing saying, “you don’t need your slippers daddy.”

The next thing George knew, was that he was being pulled out of the bedroom into the hallway and finally into the living room where he stopped abruptly. He realised he didn’t have his glasses on so he was about to turn around and go back to get them, when he realised he didn’t need them. “What’s that baby bird doing in here?”

“That’s my doll who came to life, daddy,” replied an exuberant Rosa.

“No, Rosa. That’s not your baby doll, that’s a baby…… “

“Seagull!” shouted Sybil interrupting George.

Before George or Rosa could say anything, another voice came from behind Sybil drowning out the little group. “Kill it!”

“What!” shouted Rosa, George and Sybil in unison. They turned and saw Julia standing there in the hallway in her Dolly Parton nightgown.

She grinned and shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what they would do in the wild west,” she added.

“We’re not in the wild west,” replied Sybil. “I don’t believe I have a daughter who thinks of nothing else than Cowboys and Indians.”

“And food,” interrupted Julia. “All of you would starve if I didn’t cook.”

Sybil swung her head back and raised her eyebrows. “Anyway, we need to find out what to do with this little child.”

Rosa was confused. “Daddy, mummy. That’s not a baby seagull. That’s Brenda who came to life.”

“No,” replied Sybil getting tired of the nonsense. “Brenda is already alive. She doesn’t need to be brought back to life.”

“No, mummy,” Rosa walked over to the baby bird who was laying on the front mat. It looked dazed. “This is not a baby seagull. This is Brenda my doll who came to life. She needs to go into my room.” And as she said that, she stooped over to pick up the baby bird.

She then heard Sybil say, “that’s fine. You go ahead, but if it makes a mess in your room you’re going to have to clean it up.”

Rosa stood back up, “we can put one of Brenda’s diapers on it,” but a quick glance around proved to her that was not going anywhere.

“Put it outside,” Julia decided that if they weren’t going to kill it, then maybe a vulture or some other bird of prey would do the job for them.

“Julia!” reprimanded Sybil, “I just don’t believe you don’t care about this poor little baby. What would you say if we put Rosa out there and let the vultures take her away?” But before Julia answered Sybil glared at her as she realised the answer she was going to give would not be acceptable. “We just can’t put the baby out there. It’s hot and humid and she might die. You wouldn’t like that, Rosa.”

By this time Rosa wasn’t sure what to think. She had gone from a high of believing that one of her dolls had come to life to now being faced with the fact that it was a baby seagull. She closed her eyes for a brief second and then said, “in all seriousness, maybe Julia is right. Maybe we should kill it.”

There was a sound of disbelief from George and Sybil while Julia in the background grinned. “Well mummy, daddy, if it’s really not my doll that came to life, but really a baby seagull it will grow up and try to kill us.”

“Exactly my point,” interjected Julia in her strong fake southern drawl which made Sybil cringe.

“Wait a minute!” replied George. “I have a question no one has answered so far. How did the baby bird get into the nest?” Everyone turned and looked at Rosa. She grinned sheepishly. “Well,” she began crossing her wings. “It was like this. I was in my bedroom playing with my barbie dolls when Brenda number three fell off the bed and slid behind it and the wall. At that time, I heard a bang. So, I thought the bang was from Brenda. I walked out into the living room from where the bang came and saw nothing. I was about to walk back into my bedroom when I heard a tiny voice say help me. It seemed to come from outside. So, I opened the door and saw that Brenda had come alive and she was outside. So, I brought her inside.”

By this time the baby seagull had begun to come around and opened its eyes. It grinned at the sandpipers. It waved its wing sadly. Sybil felt that it was time for her to spring into action. She pushed past George and Rosa and knelt by the bird. “Are you ok?” she asked the baby seagull.

“Nope!” it replied, “would you be ok if you slammed into someone’s door?” Sybil wasn’t happy with the reply she got, while the others listened intently.

“Shall we put you outside and then you can fly off back to your family?” The little bird tried to get up but it appeared hurt. “Are you hurt?” asked Sybil trying to employ all her motherly instincts, which weren’t many.

“What do you think?” the baby bird replied. By now Rosa had decided that the bird couldn’t possibly be one of her dolls coming to life. In fact, she regretted having brought it inside. “Well,” said Sybil sternly. “I think we should just boot you out and let you fight for your survival. You’re not a very nice bird. Now, I know why nobody likes seagulls…….”

“I’m not a seagull!” interrupted the baby bird trying desperately to get up.

“You’re not?” the others replied in unison.

“No!” replied the bird, “I’m a mixture of Osprey and Sandpiper.”

The others looked at each and shook their heads. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen an Osprey,” said George. “Do you live around here?”

Before the baby bird could reply, Timmy walked into the room and stood at the back near the hallway. “Osprey. Isn’t that what those planes from the Marine base are?”

“Do I look like a plane?” asked the baby bird and then nodded its head towards Timmy. “Who’s Einstein?”

That was enough for the rest and then in unison they opened the door and put the baby bird outside. They were about to close the door when they heard it say, “wait a minute. I’m sorry. I’ve been rude. I owe you an apology. By the way, my name is Henry. I was sent here by my mother because my father lives here.”

What?” shouted everyone immediately looking at George, who in turn looked confused. The baby bird continued, “my daddy’s name is Jeremy, or at least that’s what my mother told me.”

“What!” they all shouted in unison again. Rosa bent down and pulled the bird back inside the nest.

“Why did you do that?” asked Julia after they closed the door.

“Well,” she replied, “if she he’s not my baby Brenda come to life, then he must be my cousin if Jeremy is his father.”

“Or a serial killer in training,” scoffed Julia turning and leaving the room.