Once upon a time there was a little bird named Chico. His
best friend was a mouse named Nugget. Chico and Nugget lived in a big boarding
house where lots of people came in and out night and day from all over the
world.
Sometimes at night the guests would play card games and
laugh and laugh. One of these nights, the little bird heard a man with a high
throaty laugh named Chico. The little bird liked the sound it made when he
called, “Chi-co, Chi-co,” so he decided to keep it for his name. He whistled it
softly to himself that night as he settled in under the eaves.
Nugget’s scratching woke him in the morning. Chico quickly
stretched his wings and opened his beady eyes to find the source of the noise.
A mouse quivered by the doorpost and nibbled a split pea.
“Breakfast!” thought Chico.
Normally Chico would eat bugs and seeds in accordance with
his statue, but today with his new name he felt bold and fierce.
The mouse was surprised to see such a small bird descend
upon him, but the gleam in its eyes was undeniable: hunger.
Luckily, the little mouse had watched the borders’ exercise
videos and he leaped nimbly aside. Chico’s inexperience drove his beak into the
ground as he lay eye to eye with the mouse.
“You don’t want me,” said the mouse to the bird. “I’m just a
little nugget!
“A bird of your might would take much more to fill; I bet
you could eat the whole head of a sunflower.”
Chico’s curiosity was piqued and he rose to the challenge. A
great windfall befell Nugget who ate all the seeds that fell from the messy
bird’s beak.
A friendship began—at first superficial, until Nugget’s leg
was broken by the banging porch door and Chico brought him seeds and sap to
heal him right up.
“That’s a great story, Penelope. But if I wrote it, Nugget
would never have got a broken leg,” said TANK, “because Chico would have eaten him
in one gulp!”
Penelope rolled her eyes and lightly pushed her little
brother from the stump he sat on to the grass beneath his feet.
“Nice plot,” she said, and walked off to find her journal.
