Zoey Rockshindle, chapter 9: The Bird

Over the next couple of days, Mellisa, Zoey, and the Woodpecker had

a lot of fun together. They were confident that Zoey's parents were not

at all worrying about Zoey. In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Rockshindle were happy

Zoey was away for a while, because they figured:

"Well, we might as well not worry about her. It won't do any good. And

she sounded fine in her letter. She's probably having the time of her life."

Indeed, that was practical thinking. But risky, too. If Zoey were not a bird

that could fly away at any moment from danger, she might've gotten into

trouble with that bad, snobby attitude of her's.

Luckily she was safe with her friends in the park wandering about. Zoey spent

lots of her time sitting on the abandoned eggs. The weather lately had

been cloudy, but with no rain. It was a bit depressing, but with her friends,
Zoey was happy.

One morning, Zoey woke up to a cracking sound. At first, she thought it

was pecking, and was angry with the Woodpecker, because they had

made a deal for him not to peck on the tree she was in. But then she

recognized it as an eggshell being broken. She jumped up, and ran

over to the eggs. A little beak was trying to make it's way through

the shell. It poked and scratched, until finally, Zoey could see a
squirmy, wet little body struggling out of the shell.

"Wow!" Zoey cawed as it made it's way onto the ground.

"WOODY!" She screeched.

In a few minutes, the woodpecker swooped into the tree cave and plopped

down beside Zoey.

"Woody, go get some bugs. Quickly, please!"

The woodpecker raced out of the cave. In a second he returned with a

mouth full of bugs. But the baby bird just would'nt eat them!


"Oh, no," She said. She was beginning to understand.

"What?" Woody asked.

"It doesn't want bugs. Some baby birds have to be fed food
that's already partly digested." Zoey said. She gulped.

Woody looked grossed out. He said:

"I guess...we could try."

So, since Woody didn't seem as eager to do it, Zoey ate the worms,

then unwillingly put her open mouth above the hungry baby bird's mouth.
But it just didn't feel right. It wasn't only gross--Zoey didn't think
she was meant to regurgitate, being a crow. Didn't crows feed their
babies bugs? She couldn't remember.

"I don't think crows can throw up," Zoey told Woody. "They feed their
young bugs."

Zoey and Woody knew what they would have to do.

"We need Mellisa." Woody said.