Mia's Golden Bird

by Lisa Schroeder

  “When do you go shopping then?”

  “My manager arranges it so I can go to a boutique and have the place to myself.”

  “Wow, that must be awesome,” Mia said, trying to imagine what that would be like, having racks and racks of clothes all to yourself.

  Lacy looked out the window. “Awesome? No, not really. It’s pretty lonely, actually.”

  “Would you look at that,” Gail said as she and the two girls watched a bird hover over the water like a helicopter for a moment before tucking in its wings and diving like a small rocket into the water and coming out holding a fish in its beak.

  Lacy peered through her binoculars as she said, “Oh, wow. I love it. That’s a belted kingfisher, right, Grandma?”

  “You got that right, sweetheart,” she said. “Not a large bird, really, but quite spectacular in its own right.”

  “That was amazing,” Mia said as she scrolled through the camera shots she’d managed to get. One was quite impressive: she had captured the bird flying away from the water, the fish sticking out of its beak. She told herself to look up the gray-and-white bird when she got home so she could learn a little more about it.

  A little while later, they saw a snowy egret along the shoreline. The completely white heron with a bright yellow beak and bright yellow feet was stunning.

  “He looks so fashionable, doesn’t he?” Lacy whispered.

  Mia nodded her head in agreement as she took photo after photo until he finally flew away.

  “Ah, to be able to do that,” Lacy said as she stood up from the bench they’d been sitting on. “To just fly away whenever you want.” She looked at Mia, her blue eyes happy and sad all at the same time. “Can you imagine?”

  As Mia hobbled along with her clunky cast, she really couldn’t imagine what it must be like to fly so gracefully and go wherever you wanted. Mia realized both she and Lacy probably envied that about the birds — their freedom and their ability to go wherever they wanted to go. Sixteen more days until Mia wouldn’t feel so limited in what she could do. But for Lacy, there really wasn’t an end in sight.

  Suddenly, it all made sense. That’s why Lacy loved to come here. Not only did she feel free for a little while herself, but she also got to watch the fascinating birds enjoying their freedom too. It was kind of like the farming television show they both liked. Maybe they couldn’t live like that, but it was fun to imagine what it would be like.

  Although they failed to see a clapper rail once again, they did see a snowy plover, which seemed to make Gail happy. It was a cute little bird with a white belly and brown and black markings on its back and head.

  “They’re on the list of endangered birds,” Lacy explained to Mia. “Anytime you see one of those, it feels extra special, you know?”

  Mia understood. The rarer the bird, the more exciting the spotting.

  When they got back into the car a couple of hours later, Lacy spent some time jotting down things in her purple notebook, telling Mia, “If I don’t do it now, I might forget some of the details later.”

  When Lacy finished writing, she closed the cover with a content smile on her face. “Ah, that was great, wasn’t it?”

  Mia nodded. “Seeing that bird dive into the water to catch a fish was pretty cool.”

  “Yep. You just never know what you’re going to see. Each time we go, it’s different from the last.”

  “It’s like a treasure hunt in a way,” Mia said. “Except, instead of precious jewels or pretty shells in the sand, you’re looking for different kinds of birds.”

  Lacy’s face lit up. “Exactly! Oh, I’m going to write that down.” She opened her notebook, and as she wrote, she said, “I’m giving you the credit for saying it, of course.” When she finished, she said, “I hope you can go next Sunday.”

  “I already checked with my mom, in case you asked me to go, and she said it’s fine.”

  Lacy clapped her hands together and said, “Yay! I want to get some scrapbook supplies this week so I can start working on making my book.” She sighed. “Guess I’ll send my assistant out to get some stuff.”

  Mia started to tell her that it would be more fun for her to go and pick out the stickers and pens and other things herself. Like, what if the assistant didn’t think things through and got stickers of dogs when the book was going to be about birds? But before Mia said anything, she remembered that for Lacy, things were different. It was harder for her to do the normal things other girls could do, like go to the craft store and pick out her own stickers.

  “Hey,” Lacy said, pulling Mia out of her thoughts, “I was wondering, do you have any plans for next Saturday?”

  “I have to go and watch my team play soccer in the morning. But after that, I don’t have anything going on. Why?”

  “I thought I’d check and see,” she said as she nervously twisted her ring back and forth on her finger, “if you might want to come and sleep over at my house? Then we could just leave for the lagoon straight from there Sunday morning.”

  “Oh,” Mia said, trying not to sound surprised even though she was sort of freaking out about the idea. “Um …”

  Stay at Lacy Bell’s house?

  If any of her friends found out, what would they think? And if she said yes, didn’t that turn all of this bird watching and photography stuff into something other than a job?

  “Never mind,” Lacy said, when Mia didn’t give an answer right away. “I can tell you don’t really want to. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  The last thing Mia wanted to do was hurt the girl’s feelings. After all, if it weren’t for her, Mia wouldn’t be here, making money for summer camp doing work that didn’t feel like work at all.

  “Oh, no, sorry, I do want to,” Mia replied quickly. “I was just thinking about whether or not my mom would let me. She’s kind of overprotective.”

  It was like Mia had turned on a light switch by giving Lacy the answer she wanted. Lacy’s face was bright and happy again. “My grandma can talk to her. She talked her into letting you come birding with us, right? She’s good at that kind of thing.” Lacy squeezed Mia’s arm. “We’re going to have so much fun. You’ll see.”

  When they arrived at the café, they all went inside so Gail could speak to Mia’s mom about Lacy’s idea. While they talked, Lacy gave Mia another hundred-dollar bill.

  “Thanks,” Mia said. “I’ll have more photos for you next weekend.”

  “I can’t wait to see them,” Lacy said. “And I get to see you too! For a whole twenty-four hours.”

  It gave Mia a funny feeling. Like the world had just tilted a little bit and things weren’t as they should be. And yet it seemed like, for the moment anyway, there wasn’t anything to do but try to get used to it.

  When Gail came back and told Mia and Lacy the sleepover was a go, Lacy grabbed Mia and hugged her tight. All Mia could do was close her eyes, hang on, and hope for the best. Whatever that might be.

  Mia told herself it was a new week.

  A new chance to get things back on track with her friends.

  She’d decided she would talk to Salina again and show her she’d been working on her attitude, and everything would go back to normal.

  Except when she got to school, the halls were abuzz about something. “What’s going on?” Mia asked Josie, who she spotted first when she got to school.

  “Tyler Hanks is having a super-cool party this coming weekend,” she said. “At the beach. Salina is helping him pass out invitations. She’s at your locker; she probably has one for you.”

  Mia found Salina just where Josie said she’d be. But Mia played it cool and didn’t mention the invitation right away. She figured Salina had probably been looking forward to sharing the exciting news with Mia, and she didn’t want to ruin that for her.

  “Hey,” Mia said. “Everyone seems to be in a really good mood today. What’s up with that?”

  “Really?” Salina said, looking around. “I hadn’t noticed.” She avoided meet
ing Mia’s eyes as if they might shoot poisonous darts at her any second. “Look, I gotta go. I need to finish some homework before the bell rings.”

  “But —”

  “Sorry, Mia, but I really do have to go,” Salina said before she hurried off down the hall, a fat binder in her hand, no doubt containing the invitations to the super-cool party.

  Mia stood there in disbelief. What did Salina’s weird behavior mean? Mia felt sick as more and more questions popped into her head.

  Had Tyler not invited Mia to the party? And if not, how come? Was it because Salina had told him not to?

  She couldn’t stand it. Mia decided she had to know what was going on. She went and found Salina’s first-period class, language arts, and peered in. Salina’s back was to Mia, but she could see her handing an envelope to Jake Evans, who was grinning from ear to ear as he took it from her.

  Mia hobbled into the room. All eyes turned to look at her. Salina turned around just as she approached.

  “Mia,” Salina said. “What are you doing?”

  “I think I should be asking you that,” Mia said. “Don’t I get an invitation?”

  “I, uh, well …”

  Mia blinked back the tears and told herself to stay strong. The last thing she wanted to do was to start crying in this classroom where she didn’t even belong.

  “Why?” Mia muttered. “Why do you keep leaving me out of things?”

  Salina gently grabbed Mia’s arm and pulled her out of the room and into the hall. “It’s not like that,” Salina told Mia. “You have to understand, we’re only thinking of you.”

  “I’ve known Tyler since I was in kindergarten,” Mia said. “Just like you. He would never invite you and not me. What did you say to him?”

  “I didn’t —”

  “What did you say, Salina?” Mia asked, louder this time. She was trying to stay calm, but it wasn’t easy.

  “There’s going to be beach volleyball,” Salina said. “And three-legged races. You couldn’t do any of that. Would you want us looking over at you all the time, feeling bad? It’s a party. It’s supposed to be fun.”

  “So you’re saying as long as my foot is in this cast, I’m not fun?” Mia quipped back. “How do you even know? We haven’t hung out once since I broke my foot. Not a single time. Do you realize that? You act like I’ve grown three heads — three ugly heads, with bloodshot eyes rolling around in the sockets. It’s just a cast. I’m still the same person. You know that, right?”

  Salina stood there, her mouth slightly open, like she couldn’t quite find the words she was looking for.

  “Did you have fun yesterday?” Mia asked. “Surfing?”

  “Yeah,” Salina said. “We had a blast.”

  Mia sighed, her shoulders sagging. “So you’re afraid I’ll ruin things.” Mia shook her head. “Thanks. Thanks a lot. I’m so glad our friendship means so much to you.”

  Mia started to walk away.

  “Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Salina called out to her. “I’ll get you your invitation, all right?”

  Mia shook her head and kept walking. “I don’t want it. I’m not going.” Then she whispered, “I’m sure that makes you as happy as a lark.”

  Mia didn’t know where to turn. What to do. She felt so alone.

  At lunch, she went straight to the library because she couldn’t stand the thought of seeing everyone talking about the party, excited and happy.

  She sat at a table in the very back of the room, curled her arms on the table, and rested her head there.

  A few minutes later, she felt a tap on her arm. She thought it was probably Mrs. Lennon, wanting to know what was wrong. But when she looked up, it was Josie. Her pretty green eyes looked concerned.

  “Hi,” Josie said as she sat down across the table.

  “Hi.”

  “Salina told me what happened. Please come and have lunch with us. Please? She feels really bad.”

  Mia sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “I can’t believe she did that. He actually had an invitation for me, and she told him he shouldn’t invite me.”

  “I know,” Josie said. “It was wrong, and she knows it too. She wants to give you your invitation and try to make it up to you.”

  “I don’t want the invitation,” Mia said. “I’m not gonna come to the party now anyway, after all that. Besides, I have plans.”

  Josie gave her a funny look. “You do? Then why’d you get so upset?”

  Mia sighed. “Because it hurts to be left out all the time. I feel like you guys would love it if I just … disappeared. Which is why I came here instead of the cafeteria today.”

  “Salina is not going to be happy when she hears that you can’t even come to the party after you threw that fit.”

  “A fit? Is that what she’s calling it?” Mia put her face in her hands. “If you’re trying to make this better, it’s not working.”

  “I’m sorry,” Josie said. She reached over and pulled one of Mia’s hands off her face. She squeezed it. “Come with me. Please? If you guys don’t make up now, it’s just going to get worse and worse every day. Like the laundry basket, when you look at it and it’s full and you know you should go and put the clothes in the washer, but you don’t. And every time you put more on the pile, you think about what you should do, but you don’t, until one day, you have this huge mountain of dirty clothes in your room and nothing to wear.”

  Mia couldn’t help but smile. “You’re comparing our friendship to a pile of dirty laundry?”

  “No,” Josie said, smiling back. “I’m comparing this fight to a pile of dirty laundry.”

  “I’ve never had a mountain of dirty clothes in my room,” Mia said. “Just so you know.”

  “It’ll happen,” Josie said. “Someday. I’d bet on it.” She raised her eyebrows. “So. You ready to leave this joint and go have some lunch?”

  “I don’t know,” Mia said. “How come Salina didn’t come and find me instead of you? I mean, are you sure she even wants to talk to me?”

  Josie tightened her ponytail as she stood up. “You know what? You are so stubborn. Do what you want. I tried. And I’m hungry, so I’m going to go eat my lunch now. Sit in here and be miserable, if that’s what you want.”

  “It just feels horrible to feel left out all the time,” Mia tried to explain. “I wish you guys could understand.”

  “Then be the kind of person we want to include,” Josie said.

  And with that, she left.

  * * *

  It was another long week. Salina didn’t attempt to smooth over Mia’s hurt feelings, and Mia avoided her the way birds avoid flying in a hailstorm.

  She stayed as far away as she could.

  Friday night, Mia and her mother drove to National City, where her dad had been born and raised. Once a month, the two of them went to a big family gathering with Mia’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was always lots of food, games, and conversation. Mia usually looked forward to the get-together, but this time, it was kind of hard to be excited.

  As her mother drove, she made small talk, about the weather and the traffic. She reminded her daughter to wish her cousin Raul a happy birthday, since it was coming up in a few days.

  “Okay” was all Mia said as she watched the cars inch along on the freeway.

  “I don’t like seeing you like this,” her mother said.

  “Like what?” Mia asked.

  “Triste,” her mother replied. “What’s happened?”

  Sad. So that’s how she’d come across at home. Mia hadn’t said much to her mother about the situation with her friends. To her mother, the solution would be easy: do whatever you need to do to make up. According to her mother, family and friends were the most important things in the world and you must always do your part to keep them happy.

  But Mia didn’t feel like backing down. The way Salina had been acting was wrong, and Mia wanted her to really understand that.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t wa
nt to talk about it,” Mia said. “Not now. Maybe some other time.”

  Her mother patted her daughter’s knee. “All right. I bet spending time with your big, happy family will cheer you up.”

  They certainly couldn’t make Mia feel any worse, she thought to herself.

  After the soccer game on Saturday, Mia went to work with her mother at the café to wait for Lacy to come and pick her up for the sleepover. She brought along a letter from Libby that had arrived in the mail and read it while she ate a sandwich.

  Dear Mia,

  I was sorry to hear about your broken foot. And just when you should be out there on the field, playing soccer. What bad timing!

  I wish there was something I could say or do to cheer you up. You know what they love to say here in the UK, don’t you?

  Chin up, old chap.

  Did that make you smile? I hope so. I can tell you that the picture you sent along of the four of us made me smile like a fool. I miss you all so much, and all of the fun we had together at Camp Brookridge.

  I have a couple of new things to tell you since the last time I wrote to you. Remember how I told you, at camp, that my aunt and uncle own a sweet shop? I think when I told you about it, you said a shop filled with candy jars sounded much more fun than a shop filled with coffee, like your mum owns. Well, a new sweet shop will be opening up soon, giving us some competition. My aunt and uncle are furious about it, which means living with them hasn’t been very fun lately.

  Things with my best friend, Rebecca, haven’t improved much. Perhaps it would be easier if we were going to the same school. Speaking of which, things are going all right, I guess, mostly because I’ve met a boy who’s become a new friend. I swear, Mia, that’s all — a friend! I met him at the park one day, where he was walking his dog and I was walking Dexter. The funny thing was, Dexter actually liked his dog. I couldn’t believe it, because usually Dexter is so mean to other dogs. That’s why we started talking, because I told him his dog must be something extra special for Dexter to like him or her. (Now I know it’s a girl dog — a blond cocker spaniel named Goldie).