Maddi picked at her food that night. She wasn’t very hungry after a long day of school and finding the birds in the clearing. “Maddison, sweetie, is everything alright?” Her mother asked. Maddi nodded.
“Are you sure Mads-” Maddi cut her father off. “Don’t call me that!” Then she pushed back from the table and ran upstairs to her room.
She stayed in her room the rest of the evening. Her mom brought her dinner up to her and asked Maddi if she wanted to talk about anything. Maddi just shook her head. She ate the rest of her dinner in silence. She did her algebra homework and read the assigned pages in her book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for literature.
As soon as she thought her parents were asleep, Maddi snuck out of her room and tiptoed down the hall to Dean’s bedroom and began searching for his bird book. Finding it under his pillow, she grabbed it and ran back to her room. Closing her door, she quickly started to flip through the pages. Maddi stopped on the page that was marked with a post-it note. Her heart thudded in her chest as she read, ‘Bluebird’ on the page.
Maddi stayed up all night reading about bluebirds. Dean loved bluebirds. Maddi wished that he were here reading and telling her about his favorite bird. But Dean wasn’t here and there was a group of birds freezing in the winter night.
The next day was harder for Maddi, but now she had something to look forward to after school. Ignoring the chatter behind her, Maddi paid attention as best she could. When the bell rang however, she was the first one out of her seat. Maddi got back to her house in twenty five minutes tops, grabbed some old towels and some granola they had set aside for baking and set out. She crossed the river and headed towards the clearing. Maddi laid out a towel on the snow, and sprinkled some granola five feet away from it. Then she sat on the towel and waited.
They came out slowly, seeing that there was food. The birds watched her warily, unsure of her motives. Realizing Maddi had no intentions on harming them they moved closer and pecked at the granola. Maddi slowly moved her hand showing that she had more in it. A brave bird moved to her hand and began to eat from it.
For the first time in a long time, a smile graced Maddi’s lips. She vowed to help these birds. Now she could see, that with the winter coming in and covering all their food sources, they could not eat. They needed her to help them. And she would. For Dean.