A little starling fell one day. She fell from a great height from her treetop nest and broke her heart. While she was wandering around, a man walked by with kind, warm eyes and picked her up. The starling didn’t need the man’s help but she let him carry her to his home anyway.
The man fed her, gave her water and made her a new nest. This new nest was warm and cosy and all her own, certainly better than the old one, even if it had strange feathers lying around. All the while the man talked to the starling and imagined he cared for her. He almost forgot about his last little bird.
Soon enough, the man began to feel he loved the little starling. He would tell her every day and in return the starling loved him back. She loved until her heart felt new again. The man and the starling did everything together. The starling had never seen so many things or been to so many places. She was happier than she remembered being and she tried to tell the man so. Her twittering pleased the man so he held her close and stroked her feathers until she fell asleep in his hand each night.
But then the man became withdrawn, and wouldn’t say so many things to her, nor would he stroke her feathers so kindly. He still took the starling with him but would disappear for hours on end, leaving the starling confused and alone. Her heart beat a warning but she loved him too much to listen. She had trusted the man when he said he loved her, and so she patiently waited for him to return with the old warmth in his eyes when he looked at her, and the soft stroking of her feathers.
When the man came back it was not with his old gentleness, nor did he softly stroke her in his hand. He grabbed the little starling in his fist and threw her out of the window, breaking her wing as she landed on the cold tarmac. She begged and cried but to no avail.
‘I don’t love you anymore, little bird,’ he said, his eyes stony and cold. ‘I don’t care about you anymore.’ With that the man slammed the window shut and disappeared from view.
Now the little starling wanders around with her broken wing, sobbing. She sees the people walking by, but she is just a bird and so they smile to hear her sing.
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