Malcolm's coo became a cry.

The child peeked into the cardboard box, vexation clearly etched etched upon his face. "What's the matter, little bird?" he asked, reaching down to stroke the wounded pigeon. His mother had warned him to stay away, that sometimes birds would bite and a wild bird like Malcolm could carry diseases. He didn't care. He wanted to stroke his back feathers, far enough back that the bird's beak couldn't reach his pudgey fingers... just in case.

"David! Stay away from that bird!" his mother called.

The boy yanked his finger back just as the pigeon lunged for the pink flesh, just out of reach. Instead, David ran to his room and pulled out one of his old baby toys, a ratty purple bear with plastic hands and feet with little bumps on them. He put it into the box with Malcolm and watched joyfully as the bird pecked away.

"I thought you'd like that," said the boy. "Mommy said that when I was little, I liked to chew on things too." He smiled. "You can have it."

The shiny button eyes of the bird glinted slightly as it pecked away happily at the unresponsive

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ganymeder over 11 years ago

(the final word cut off as I ran out of time. It should be:)
bear.

ganymeder (joined about 14 years ago)
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Author Catherine Russell shares her life with her high school sweetheart, their son, and two ferocious puppies in the Wilds of Ohio while writing short stories, editing her novel, and learning more about the craft every day. Her work has been published in Flash Me magazine, Metro Fiction, Beyond Centauri, and the ‘Best of Friday Flash – Volume One‘ and the ‘Best of Friday Flash – Volume Two‘ anthologies.

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License

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

genres

Slice of life

tags

childhood compassion

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