Chapter 1
A bird flies over buildings, brushing against the smooth and bumpy trees. It flies up and pecks on a leaf, and then, it soars off. It flies into the sun, its feathers shining. It pecks on the leaf again. The bird sees bees collecting pollen and people getting up. Then, the bird looks up and sees the sun rising, with yellow and pink colors.
Then, he studies the sparkling sun. He tilts his head and flies off. He flies more and then stops. He sees the most beautiful building ever as he flies up and up. Then, he goes to the very top, and he sees flowers and his friends. He flies down and tells them what he saw that day.
The birds play in the vines, jump, fly, eat leaves, and find worms. They throw the worms down and forget about them. They keep on playing for the rest of the day.
Then, they go back to the nest. Just then, they see a bat. They fly into the nest as fast as they can!! The bat sees them, but they curl up, and ten minutes later, they fall asleep. But the bat is still there.
“But, you guys! I’m your friend, remember?” says the bat, “Remember? My name is Blackie.”
But the two birds are fast asleep. The birds dream of going to see their old friend, but they don’t remember what their old friend looks like and what animal he is.
Meanwhile, the bat finds a spot to go to sleep. The next morning, the pigeons wake up. They go to examine the bat. They don’t remember anything they saw or dreamed about, but they decide to think, and think, and think. But still, they can’t remember. Just then, the bat wakes up.
The birds jump back, but the bat says, “Remember me? I’m Blackie.”
Then, they remember that it was Blackie, their friend.
“Oh, hi! We didn’t know it was you. Sorry, yesterday we couldn’t see you, and it was dark.”
“It’s okay, I came here to see you guys.”
Just then, the sun rises up.
Birdie says, “Let’s go look. I want to show you what we did yesterday, and then, we can do it again today too!”
“Okay,” says Blackie.
So they fly off. First, they stop and sit on the windowsill of a building. They see a cat, so they fly to another ledge. They see their friend Rattie.
“Rattie, wanna come play with us today?” they say.
“Sorry, maybe tomorrow. I have to go and get to the grocery store.”
“Okay, it’s fine. We will go tomorrow.”
So, they fly off and go to the vine building.
“What’s this?” asks Rattie and Blackie.
“It’s a building with vines!” says Birdie and his other bird friend, Pinnie.
Blackie starts to fly up to the top. Rattie climbs and climbs to the top. Then, Birdie flies up and then Pinnie. They play hide and go seek. Then, they play tag.
“Tag, you’re it.”
Blackie is it. Rattie runs, and runs, and then, he tags Pinnie. Pinnie flies and tags Rattie. Rattie is very, very fast, but Birdie and the others can fly. But Rattie can jump too! He jumps into the air to Birdie, and now Birdie is it. Birdie flies and gets Blackie and Pinnie. They do rock paper scissors. Pinnie wins.
Chapter 2
They play hide and go seek. Pinnie is it, while the others go and hide. First, he checks for Rattie because Rattie loves hiding in small corners. He looks in the top corner, and the bottom corner, the other top corner, and the other bottom corner. He finds Rattie in the other bottom corner. Rattie and Pinnie start looking for Blackie. Blackie loves hiding in the bushes. They look in parts of the building, for little parts that are small, that Blackie can hide behind. They find one, but he isn’t there. They find the second one, but he isn’t there. The third one is really big. They look and there is Blackie.
Then, they look for Birdie. Birdie isn’t particular to where he hides. They look under the building, on top the building, and around the building, but they still can’’t find him. They look at the side of window, but they still can’t find him. They go back to the nest, thinking he is right behind them. They look behind them, but he isn’t there. They keep walking, and he still isn’t there. Then suddenly, Birdie pops out of the nest.
“Boo!” he says.
They all jump back, and Rattie almost falls out of the tree, but Pinnie catches him and pulls him up. That night, they make another nest. Rattie sleeps in one nest and Pinnie and Birdie sleep in the other. And Blackie sleeps right above them. It is a full moon, so they don’t fall asleep for a while.
Finally, at 8 o’clock p.m., they fall asleep.
The next morning, they watch the sunrise. The colors are pink, purple, orange, and yellow. It is really fun. After that, they go into the train station. They find some tickets on the ground. They have one, two, three, but one was missing. They search the ground..
“Rattie, look at this! There’s two more tickets. What should we do?”
“Maybe we can print out more tickets and give them to the others.”
“Okay!”
So Rattie goes to print them, and Pinnie goes to tell the others. She calls Blackie and Birdie. They go to the printer all together. Rattie types it in, Blackie presses the button, puts the paper in, and Birdie takes the papers out. They have eight tickets now. They can go on two trips!
Birdie is looking at the tickets. Pinnie is walking over, and Rattie is jumping off the printer. He lands next to Pinnie, and he almost knocks his beak off.
Just then, Birdie screams, “These are tickets to India! And even better, plane tickets!”
One time, when Birdie was a baby pigeon, he wandered off and he snuck onto a plane. He didn’t know where it was, he didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know how to fly. He got lost on the plane. He found his way into the cargo. He saw this little puppy.
He said, “Hi.”
The dog didn’t understand him, so he read his name tag and read, “Fluffy.” He knew a little English, so he said, “Hi, little puppy.”
The dog said, “Woof, woof, woof.”
“Maybe I should switch to dog,” he said. “Hello, little dog. What is your name?”
The dog said back, “My name’s Fluffy. I’m from India. My owner’s on the plane. I want some food. I’m really hungry. One second.”
He went back. He started walking down the aisle and saw some food. He picked it up and brought it back to the cargo.
“Thank you,” said Fluffy. “Can we be friends?”
“I’ll give you my phone number.”
And that is how they became friends.
Birdie is so happy that he is going to India because he is going to see his friend, Fluffy.
“Before I met Fluffy, I was afraid of dogs.”
“Cool!” say Pinnie and Rattie.
So, they put the tickets on top of the counter where the flight attendant checks them. They grab them down, and go onto the airplane. They sneak onto the plane, with snacks like gum, crackers, ice cream, and donuts. They drop their backpacks and give each other a piece of gum.
They sleep for a while. Then, they hear that dinner is coming around, and Birdie says, “Wake up, everyone! Dinner is here!”
Rattie goes up and gets two juices from the juice bar and two bowls of spaghetti with meatballs. Rattie runs across the bar, gets two juices and runs back. Then, he goes to the food bar and gets two plates of spaghetti and meatballs and scampers back.
“I wonder where we are going,” says Birdie.
“I will check,” says Rattie.
He runs down the aisle, reads the sign, and then he goes back to his friends.
He says, “We’re going to India!”
“Cool,” says Blackie.
Chapter 3
“I’m hungry for dinner,” says Birdie, “I’m going to go up to the dinner bar.”
So Birdie starts walking. He walks down the aisle like a person. But just then, a flight attendant walks down the aisle. She isn’t watching, and she steps on Birdie’s tail. He screeches. The flight attendant starts chasing after him. He runs into the food bar. He doesn’t get anything because he just starts running back down the aisle. He goes under the chair where all of his friends are.
He says, “There’s a flight attendant coming to get us! Quick, hold onto the top of the chair, so they don’t see us.”
But Blackie is too late. They see him. They take them all to the cargo and put them in a cage. They are so sad because they want to see what the view is like. But they can’t now. Now, they have to wait until they come out of the airplane. Just then, Birdie is reading the ticket because he still has it in his wing.
And he says, “Oh no, we don’t know if we are getting off on the right thing. We’re stopping in London, and we might not know when to get off.”
Blackie says, “I could try and gnaw off these bars.”
“No,” says Birdie. “That would hurt your teeth and you might break them.”
Rattie starts running around the cage like a maniac. Birdie has to calm him down and puts him on the little blanket that they put in the cages for animals. Just then, they hear a beeping sound from outside.
“Oh no! This might be India, or it could be London,” says Rattie.
“Quick!” says Birdie. “Gnaw off the lock for us! It won’t hurt your teeth because it’s only a lil bit of metal.”
Rattie starts gnawing off the metal, and there is a little hole that they can fit in. They squeeze out and push the button to open the door of the cargo. They walk against the wall.
“There’s the door,” says Birdie. “Come on! Go quick!”
They run down the aisle and out the door.
“Whew!” they say.
Birdie notices that it is much colder than in India at the airport. Then, he sees the plane leaving.
“Oh no! This is London! It’s not India!”
All of them start running toward the door to get to the plane, but it is leaving. Now, they have to sneak onto another plane and make sure it is going to India.
Chapter 4
“Now what are we going to do?” says Rattie in his annoying voice.
“Don’t worry,” says Birdie, “We will find a plane that’s somewhere close to India.”
“First of all, we need to find a place to sleep,” Pinnie says.
“Look, we can go under that chair in the corner,” says Blackie.
They walk over to the chair and find a comfy space behind the leg of the chair.
“Perfect, and now we can see when the airplane’s coming, and we can hear if it’s for India.”
For the next two days, they play and steal food like birds and animals do. Then, they hear the announcer say, “The plane for India is leaving now. Please get in line if you are going to India.”
They get up as soon as they hear the word “India” and they run as fast as their little legs can carry them.
Birdie thinks for a second, Oh no! We’re going to get seen.
Just then, he sees another little bird in there flying around.
He says to the others, “You know how birds get stuck in airports sometimes? We should act like one of them.”
So, they start flying around like they are birds that just got stuck there. Then, they see the door opening. They swoop down. Rattie is holding onto Blackie’s back into the door.
“Phew” says Blackie, “We got on! Now let’s find a place to sit where they won’t find us.
“Maybe behind the curtain,” says Rattie.
“Okay,” says Birdie.
They run over to the curtain. They get settled, and they stay there for the whole time. It is really hot in the curtain, so Birdie takes a walk under a seat.
Then, he notices a flight attendant coming. He runs back as fast as he can to the curtain.
“Phew! Don’t go out there, and be quiet,” he said to the others.
They all stay still for a few minutes. Then, Birdie peeks his eye out of the curtain. The flight attendant is gone. They are safe.
They look at the time. It was ten o’clock at night.
Birdie says, “I think we should all go to bed now.” So they all fall asleep.
The next morning, they hear that breakfast is coming. So, they sneak a little pretzel bag. They all share it.
Just then, they hear an announcement that says they are almost in India.
“Yay, we’re almost there!” says Birdie.
So, they spend the rest of the time enjoying the plane. Then, they see on the board that they are landing in two minutes! They count down.
“59, 58, 57…”
They are so excited!
Then, the flight attendant says, “Everyone who wants to get to India, get off.”
They run as fast as they can off the plane. They run through security, and they run through the door of the airport.
They say, “We’re finally here!!”
They sneak onto a taxi and ride all the way to the gate of India. There are a lot of people there! They walk around and look for dogs that look like Fluffy. Just then, they see a beautiful design on the gate of India. They walk around one more time, and they hear a barking noise! There is a dog jumping on someone!
Birdie looks over and says, “That’s my friend!!!”
But just then, Birdie walks up to Fluffy. He pauses. He is nervous. His wings start shaking. Then, he remembers Fluffy is his friend. He is not going to eat him.
Finally, he says, “Hello” to Fluffy.
But Fluffy doesn’t hear Birdie. Birdie runs over, but just then, Fluffy starts walking away!
“Don’t you remember me?” says Birdie.
Just then, they see each other. “You’re my friend that I met on the plane!” says the dog named Fluffy.
“Yeah,” says Birdie, “I came to see you!”
They laugh and play for the rest of the day, and Birdie ends up staying there for a whole month with this friends! Fluffy gets to know his friends, too. They eat a lot of dosas, flat pancakes that you can eat for any meal, and they’re not sweet. They also eat idli’s, rice shaped into balls.
Soon, they plan a date where Fluffy can come to New York! They are so happy. And they live happily ever after, for now.
The End!
(Birdie says goodbye!)