Yesterday night Nikki caught a small baby bird on the staircase. It was smaller than my fist. When I found it, it was still alive, but helpless though. I brought it into the house to nurse it. We gave it a name-Pabird. Haaaa it wasn't a fanciful name but during that time, it only sounded right. So then as I looked closer, I realise Pabird has been attacked by red ants too. There were 3 giant red ants, sticking to this body, biting. Carefully I pulled them away with a tweezer. Pabird chirped alot during this process. It must've hurt. We took him to the toilet to get him washed and blow-dryed. He was so small, I had to be really gentle with his delicate wings. He looked clean and neat then. He smelled good too. I put him in a shoe-box and arranged a few paper napkins into a nest. I even found some feathers my brother bought last time to make his dreamcatchers. I wanted Pabird to feel at home. I wanted him to feel at ease. True enough, he slept soundly. And even throughout the night. As I went to sleep, I poked 4 giant holes onto the box, closed the lid and went to sleep, excited to meet Pabird later on in the morning.
However, the next morning, Abah came in and asked where my bird went. He wasn't in the box. We looked around the house. And that was when I found it in the living room, already cold, with Nikki beside him. As I teared, stroking him, trying to revive him, I realise it was already too late. It rained when I went down to place him under a tree. I used a leaf to cover his dead body. He was a baby. He hasn't even learnt how to fly. That was when I realise, who was I to stop nature. What use was there to scold a mere tabby cat for the death of a baby bird. I can't stop a cat from attacking its prey. Neither could I stop the rain from falling. It's nature. We can't stop someone from falling in love. Neither could we stop him from falling out of love. As much as I want things to go my way, it doesn't have to. And it doesn't need to. What if I closed the lid and tape it too?, or I should've kept Pabird somewhere Nikki or Coco couldn't find it. But who was I to know? There are so much What Ifs and I Should'ves I've gone through, only to realise that this is the way life operates. Nature. We cannot stop what is going to happen because we don't know of it, yet. Like the bird, so young and naive and yet to fly, I have alot more to learn. Maybe I should adopt a new mantra in life. Cos maybe from now on, life will give me something more. Perhaps something more than just a dead baby bird.