Let Me Live!

Chapter 2

It had been a week since I freed Peggy. I was starting to get used to her absence but a little part of me still wished she was here.

My dad had told me some of the stories about messenger birds but they happened a very long time ago so it was hard to imagine them happening now.

It was a Monday afternoon when I arrived home after school and found Peggy standing on the steps of my front porch, as if waiting for me.

I was shocked to see her there and I slowly walked closer to her. I was sure it was her because the blue ribbon was still tied to her leg. She still looked the same and it was good to know that she was okay.

When she heard my footsteps, she didn’t fly away as I had expected. Instead, she turned around and when she saw me, she cooed.

“Peggy!” I exclaimed, smiling at her.

She cooed again and jumped forward so that she was one step closer to me. That was when I noticed that there was a piece of paper tied to her left leg.

“What is this?” I asked out loud as I put my bag aside and crouched down to remove the paper.

I gently took the paper and opened it.

The white paper was small and in a neat handwriting the following message was written:

I am a small yellow bird.

I breed in rocky areas of open or semi-arid Mediterranean woodland where conifers such as Cedrus, Pinus, Abies and Juniperus are usually found.

I feed on seeds and grass and I need water daily.

My home is in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, and Egypt.

I am now a vulnerable species.

Please stop cutting the trees.

Please stop abstracting water.

Please stop hunting my species.

I am a bird and this is my home too.

Let me live!

~Syrian Serin

“Where is this from?” I ask out loud but I got no answer. I wasn’t expecting one anyway but I was curious!

Peggy cooed one final time before spreading her wings and flying away.

I blinked a few times and reread the letter. I had never heard of ‘Syrian Serin’ before. I then folded the paper, grabbed my bag, and went inside. Once I got to my room, I opened my laptop and searched ‘Syrian Serin’.

The information in the letter was true according to the websites I checked. I also searched pictures of that species of birds. I saved the information on my laptop and I put the letter in one of my drawers. The bird was actually very cute. I wasn’t sure if I had seen it before, though.

During dinner, I asked my dad about messenger birds again.

“How do they know where to go?” I asked curiously.

“They just know how to return to their homes,” he replied, shrugging. It was so fascinating. “Missing Peggy?”

I thought about telling him about the message but the idea still seemed a bit unrealistic so I kept it a secret for now.

“Yeah,” I answered simply.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the message. Who wrote it? Why did they write it? Did they know who was going to receive it?

If I had tied another paper to Peggy’s leg, then would the sender have received my letter? Did Peggy know where the sender was or did she just know my home; her home?

Maybe she would come back again, I thought. With that thought in mind, I took out a small white paper and wrote on it ‘Who is the sender?’

I kept it in my bag in case Peggy came back. Hopefully, I would know who the sender was.

Two days passed and Peggy had not returned. I was starting to lose hope by the time the third day started.

Thursday morning, I went out of my house at around seven in the morning. I stopped walking when I saw Peggy on the steps.

I blinked to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. When she didn’t disappear, I ran towards her and knelt down. It was hard to believe that she came back! I was so excited to check the new message and send my own.

I immediately took the paper tied to her right foot and replaced it with my own letter.

She then flew away again and when she was gone, I opened the second letter which looked similar to the first one.

I am a medium-sized brown and white bird.

I breed in the central and eastern basin of the Mediterranean.

I am often killed by incidental fishing bycatch and invasive predators.

You can save me! You can help me live longer!

I am a bird and this is my home too.

Let me live!

~Yelkouan Shearwater

I didn’t have the time to go back to my room and put that letter with the previous one so I just folded it and put it in my bag.

All day I couldn’t stop thinking about the message. I had no idea what those birds were! I was also really hoping to get my reply the next time Peggy returned.

I still didn’t tell anyone about the messages. I wanted to know who the sender was before telling anyone. No one would believe me anyway. Who even still uses messenger birds? They haven’t been used for a long time!

When I returned back home, I looked up the Yelkouan Shearwater species. I read some more about it before saving the information in the same document as the information I had gotten about the Syrian Serin.

Two days later, Peggy returned again with my third letter. The letter didn’t hold a reply to my question, though. Instead it held the following message:

I am a huge white bird.

I breed in Eastern Europe and East-central Asia.

I like the water: rivers, lagoons, lakes, etc.

I am threatened by shooting and persecution by fishers.

I am threatened by wetland alteration and destruction.

I am threatened by water pollution.

I am threatened by collision with overhead power-lines.

Help me. Save me!

I am a bird and this is my home too!

Let me live!

~Dalmatian Pelican