Orin’s Game of First Perches — Every afternoon, Orin hopped along the low bean fence and tapped three safe spots with his beak: twig, rail, stone. Read the full story →
Every afternoon, Orin hopped along the low bean fence and tapped three safe spots with his beak: twig, rail, stone. The garden smelled of sun-warmed leaves and damp soil, and the tall birdhouse above him stayed as far away as the moon. Then he invented First Perches, a game where each landing had to be a place his feet had never touched.
Because of that, he stepped onto the tulip stake, then the rose trellis, where petals brushed his chest like cool paper. Because of THAT, a bee’s buzz startled him up to the narrow peg beneath the painted house. Wind slid under his wings. “One more,” Orin whispered.
At last he hopped to the round doorway and heard the hollow wooden hush inside. The whole garden seemed to hold its breath. Can you find the little peg where courage first made room for his feet: twig, rail, stone?
