Cricket201904

The birds had never known about the world outside until the day Nimbus

discovered words. She remembered when understanding had hit her like a

thunderbolt.

B-i-r-d. A word written on the teacher’s whiteboard. “Bird,” the teacher

had said, along with a string of other words. But her human finger had

stopped at the word as she made the sound. It was a word Nimbus had seen

before. It was on the cage. People had looked at her and said it. She was a bird.

In time, the teacher’s simple habit of pointing to words on the board and

saying them aloud helped Nimbus discover more. Before the month was out,

she had learned a bit of geography, weather, and astronomy, gobbling up the

information like millet seeds. Most important, she had learned about the sky,

flight, and a world beyond the school door filled with many other birds. This

information jolted Nimbus’s brain like electricity. It meant there was more to

discover. More to life. It answered a question in Nimbus’s heart she had always

possessed but could not name. Something more was out there.

In time, with practice and patience, Nimbus could read the newspapers.

She was never able to choose the information, of course, but there was enough

about weather and geography to build her knowledge and keep her thirsty for

DO YOU

THINK ALL

BUGS CAN

READ AND

WRITE?

JUST BUGS

LUCKY ENOUGH

TO HAVE OLD

CRICKET AS A

TEACHER.

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