F LY AWAY HOME
What if you wished you were a bird—and it came true?
by Delia McCrae, Victoria
WRITER’S BLOCKA
lmost every day when Rosanna
walked through the park with
Grandad, they stopped to feed
the seagulls and pigeons. Today,
the birds made a dreadful racket as they
swooped down for the bread Rosanna car-
ried in her pocket. Feeding the birds was
one of her favourite things to do in the
park. Rosanna loved to watch them flit
about before finding a resting spot.
Grandad told Rosanna he’d love to be a
seagull and fly away to China to visit the
town where he’d lived as a young boy. Rosan-
na had heard him talk about China before.
To her it seemed like a magical place and she
always wanted to hear more. “I would like to
do that, too, Grandad!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, Rosanna, that would be such fun.
We could fly across the ocean and see the
whole world along the way. It would be won-
derful, let’s go!” he said as he held her hands
up in the air and pretended to fly away.
Rosanna laughed. “Grandad, you are so
silly,” she said when they both stopped flap-
ping their arms about. Grandad smiled at
Rosanna and said, “It must be time for us to
go to the children’s play park, Rosanna.”
In the children’s play park, ran to the
swings calling out, “Push me, Grandad. I
want to reach the sky!” Grandad came overand helped Rosanna up onto
the swing. As he pushed her,
Rosanna began to chant, “Fly
away, high in the sky. I’m a birdie and
so are you. Fly, fly, high in the sky!”
That’s when something strange hap-
pened. Rosanna felt a sudden gust of wind
lift her high above the swing. She reached
her arms out but saw feathered wings had
taken their place. They flapped up and
down and she soared high above the peo-
ple below. Her spindly bird legs and small
feet tucked up nicely beneath her new
feathered chest.
Below, a loud noise, like a huge gaggle of
geese taking o and quacking loudly,
caught her attention. It was a group of
school children running toward the play
area. What a hullabaloo she thought.
Then Rosanna saw Grandad looking
around. He had a worried look on his face
and he hollered out “Rosanna! Rosanna,
where are you?” Oh no, she thought, he
can’t find me. She saw him look over his
shoulder and all around to see if she was
anywhere near the swings. He looked at all
the children in the park to see if one of
them was Rosanna but he couldn’t spot
her. He looked everywhere, but there was
no Rosanna in the park.
Grandad called again, “Rosanna. Rosan-
na, please don’t hide from me. Where are
you?” Still, he could not find her. What
would he do now? How could it be that he
would lose Rosanna in the park?
Rosanna saw Grandad stop and look up
in the sky. He saw the birds soaring but
how could he know that Rosanna was one
of them. She swooped right down in front
of him, but he ignored her.
After Grandad darted back and forth in
the playground and asked almost everyone
he saw if they had seen a little girl with
dark eyes and pigtails and a beautifulABOUT THE AUTHORA degree in English literature,
a stint as editor and publisher of a community newspa-
per, and working as a freelance radio broadcaster for
CBC, sparked Delia’s interest in writing. In her mid-30s,
she became a teacher. Correspondence courses
helped her to further develop her writing skills.
After retiring from teaching, she pursued a
PhD focusing on diversity and inclusion. Delia
now has eight wonderful grandchildren who
allow her to see and appreciate the wonder
and delight of life through their eyes.50 Our Canada AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019