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BIRDS...
I am constantly surrounded by birds. They fly here, past my window, in a pattern - 50 or more - and they totally fascinate me. How do they all turn the same way at the same moment? It happens all the time. They do not come into the Home but they are there, in the coffeehouse with us, walking among our feet, collecting crumbs. We are really quite surrounded by them and I keep going back and forth with my past and present because of them. I wrote the "Birds" story quite a while back, but it is with me here now and I thought I would share it with you....

BIRDS...
There has been an awful lot of cooing and moving around in the corner just outside the window; she noticed two pigeons coming and going, chattering all the time! They are building a nest in the very corner!... When she mentioned that to her friends, they told her to get rid of it! Right away! Pigeons bring diseases! Get rid of them, they all said. When she told them, with great satisfaction, that when the terrace door is open, the birds stroll in and clean up under the table, they were aghast! You must get rid of them right away, they all said to her! When she noticed another two making a nest in the other corner, she took the left-over stale bread and crumbled it for them... A good way to use that bread she thought; one does not throw bread away - none of it! Even when it is mouldy. When one is hungry even that tastes wonderful and she knows all about hunger and eating mouldy bread!

And so, the birds remained. She knows better. She knows that birds are good luck. She remembered hearing it a very long time ago, when WW2 broke out. Yes that long ago! The bombing of Poland was so severe that they ran away from Krakow to a small town, where they rented a room. One day a bird flew into the room and flew around it for a while. They tried to chase it out the window, but it landed on the little plate near the ceiling at the end of the lamp. The plate was loose, a few inches away from the ceiling and the bird just stayed there for a while and then flew out.

It was warm and the window stayed open. Before long the bird was back; this time it went straight to the little plate, stayed for a minute and out it went again, but was back. They noticed that it was carrying something in its beak... Onto the plate it went and out the bird flew and was back within minutes with more twigs in its beak! Fascinated by what was happening, they suddenly realized that there were two birds coming and going! Both bringing twigs and dropping them onto the plate way up above the bed, building a nest!

The father wanted to get rid of this new irritation immediately, but friends who heard of the flying birds and the building of the nest persuaded him to wait. Birds bring luck, they all insisted; you will live through the war because of those birds, they insisted. Do not remove it, they warned! The nest building continued. If they closed the windows at night, the birds would peck at the window until it was opened for them!

It became an interesting phenomena for a lot of people; they came to watch and they all agreed that those birds will bring good luck. We will live through the war! The birds finally finished their "home" and one just stayed. The other kept flying in and out bringing her food... We could not see into the nest, but we assumed that she must have laid some eggs and was now sitting on them. The bed was covered with newspapers all the time; the dirt flying out of the nest was amazing. The nest must have been spotless. Both birds would turn their tails out and we would get the... Yes! There was a constant shower of dirt coming from "up-there".

When the eggs hatched and they knew that for a fact, because shells came flying down onto the newspapers as well as dirt, a symphony of chirping was heard from above. The male bird now had a big job of feeding his large family! And there was an utter commotion if we ever closed the window! When the "flying" lessons started, the room was really out of bounds for everybody. It was quite amazing to watch though: one bird would push a chick out of the nest and let it drop, while the other caught it before it hit the bed. This happened over and over again! It took a while, but all four babies started to fly and one day, with papa leading the way, the chicks in single file behind him and mama closing the chain, they flew out the window and although the window stayed open for a while, they did not return!

Yes; birds bring good luck and yes, we all made it and lived through the war and I am here to tell you that. And I will not get rid of the birds on my terrace.

Send your questions to The Wacky Cook: email: debbiemorgenshtern@gmail.com      

Debbie Morgenstern is the author of "My Life in Israel" and other short stories.
"My Life in Israel" can be purchased by accessing this link: "My Life in Israel"