FLY AWAY HOME

What if you wished you were a bird—and it came true?

Almost every day when Rosanna walked through the park with Grandad, they stopped to feed the seagulls and pigeons. Today, the birds made a dreadful racket as they swooped down for the bread Rosanna carried in her pocket. Feeding the birds was one of her favourite things to do in the park. Rosanna loved to watch them flit about before finding a resting spot.

Grandad told Rosanna he’d love to be a seagull and fly away to China to visit the town where he’d lived as a young boy. Rosanna had heard him talk about China before. To her it seemed like a magical place and she always wanted to hear more. “I would like to do that, too, Grandad!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, Rosanna, that would be such fun. We could fly across the ocean and see the whole world along the way. It would be wonderful, let’s go!” he said as he held her hands up in the air and pretended to fly away.

Rosanna laughed. “Grandad, you are so silly,” she said when they both stopped flapping their arms about. Grandad smiled at Rosanna and said, “It must be time for us to go to the children’s play park, Rosanna.”

In the children’s play park, ran to the swings calling out, “Push me, Grandad. I want to reach the sky!” Grandad came over

and helped Rosanna up onto the swing. As he pushed her, Rosanna began to chant, “Fly away, high in the sky. I’m a birdie and so are you. Fly, fly, high in the sky!”

That’s when something strange happened. Rosanna felt a sudden gust of wind lift her high above the swing. She reached her arms out but saw feathered wings had taken their place. They flapped up and down and she soared high above the people below. Her spindly bird legs and small feet tucked up nicely beneath her new feathered chest.

Below, a loud noise, like a huge gaggle of geese taking oˆ and quacking loudly, caught her attention. It was a group of school children running toward the play area. What a hullabaloo she thought.

Then Rosanna saw Grandad looking around. He had a worried look on his face and he hollered out “Rosanna! Rosanna, where are you?” Oh no, she thought, he can’t find me. She saw him look over his shoulder and all around to see if she was anywhere near the swings. He looked at all the children in the park to see if one of them was Rosanna but he couldn’t spot her. He looked everywhere, but there was no Rosanna in the park.

Grandad called again, “Rosanna. Rosanna, please don’t hide from me. Where are you?” Still, he could not find her. What would he do now? How could it be that he would lose Rosanna in the park?

Rosanna saw Grandad stop and look up in the sky. He saw the birds soaring but how could he know that Rosanna was one of them. She swooped right down in front of him, but he ignored her.

After Grandad darted back and forth in the playground and asked almost everyone he saw if they had seen a little girl with dark eyes and pigtails and a beautiful

smile, dressed in a bright red T-shirt, jeans and white runners, he began to run towards their home. Rosanna had never seen his feet move so fast. He couldn’t get home fast enough.

Now that her dream of becoming a bird had come true, Rosanna was happier than she could ever remember being in her life. From way up high she could see all the children playing in the park. People walked and jogged, and the seagulls and pigeons gathered by the shore just like they always did. Now she was one of them. Where would she go now that she was a bird? she wondered.

She could go to China to see Grandad’s village where he lived as a small boy like they talked about. But she thought that without Grandad the village might be hard to find and decided it wouldn’t be that much fun without him. She’d never been that far from home and it might be scary going all that way alone.

Even though Rosanna knew Grandad was worried about her, she wanted to fly around the edge of the park and see what she could see. She saw a boat in the harbour, people taking pictures and cars driving along the road.

Then she saw the large totem poles near the entrance to the park and decided to take a rest—flying was hard work. Perched on top of the highest pole, she looked around. What a glorious view she had from up here. She loved feeling the wind in her face.

After a few minutes rest, Rosanna felt better and flew across the park to find her home. She knew she could rest in the tree outside her bedroom window for the night or until she decided where else to go.

When she got near her home she realized everyone in her neighbourhood was panicking. A police car was parked outside her house. From up in the tree top outside her bedroom window she could hear people calling out, “Rosanna, where are you, Rosanna?”

Her brother stuck his head out the window and called, “Rosanna!” Her mother leaned out the kitchen window and hollered, “Rosanna!” Then her father walked out the front door and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Rosanna!” Grandad sat on a chair on the veranda looking very sad.

My goodness, she had quite a problem now! She was having such fun up in the sky being free, but her family was so worried about her. What should she do?

After thinking for awhile , Rosanna decided she would fly down to the veranda. She swooped down and saw her family through the window. They admired the beautiful bird that had come to visit. One of them even came out with bread crumbs. Her Grandad looked up and smiled at her, but she was a seagull and he didn’t recognize her.

When everyone was back inside, Rosanna decided to wish very hard to become a girl again. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to fly and be free as a bird, but that she would make her family very happy by becoming a girl again.

In a few seconds, Rosanna looked down and saw that she looked just the same as she did this morning when she left home. She could see her white runners, her jeans and her hands. She boldly stepped towards the door and knocked.

When the door opened, everyone called out “Rosanna, Rosanna is home. Where have you been? Hurray! Rosanna is home!”

Someone called out, “Let’s have a party, tell the neighbours, Rosanna is home!” It wasn’t long before people were streaming in the door with food. Someone even brought a cake. Everyone was overjoyed because Rosanna was home. Rosanna was very happy they weren’t all angry with her.

The little girl felt very happy inside, and just at that very moment, she heard her mother call loudly, “Rosanna, you must get up now or you’ll be late for school!”