The True Story of Stellina by Matteo Pericoli

This is the true story of Stellina.
    Stellina was a bird:
    “CHEEP.”
    A very little bird:
    “ CHEEP! ”

    Holly, my wife,
    once saw a very little bird
    on the corner of
    46th and Third.
    In Manhattan.
    Cars were rushing by,
    ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!
    Cars are loud in the city.

    But “CHEEP,” Holly heard.
    Holly, my wife, has very good ears.
    Could you also have heard
    “CHEEP”
    on the corner of
    46th and Third,
    in the middle of the day,
    while cars were rushing by?
    ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!
    That’s not easy to hear.

    But, as I was saying,
    “CHEEP,” she heard all of a sudden.
    A bird, a very little bird,
    had fallen from her nest.
    Her nest must have been
    (and this is what we think)
    inside a traffic-light post.
    High, high above
    the corner of
    46th and Third.

    Holly, my wife,
    waited and waited.
    And waited and waited.
    She hoped, she told me,
    that the very little bird’s mother,
    “CHEEP,”
    would soon return
    to take her home,
    back to her nest.

    But her mother didn’t return.
    Who knows why she didn’t,
    or where she went.

    So Stellina,
    “CHEEP,”
    stood out there for a while,
    not knowing what to do,
    not knowing what to say
    (except, of course:
    “CHEEP”),
    and not knowing
    how to get around,
    all by herself,
    in such a b i i i i i g place
    as M A N H A T T A N.

    It was evening when Holly, my wife,
    decided to take Stellina home with her.
    They sat together for a while,
    looking at each other,
    and both must have wondered:
    “And now? What’s going to happen now?”

    They spent hours and hours together.
    From home,
    they used to go out
    to many places.
    They always traveled by subway.
    Holly, my wife, carried Stellina in a little box
    where she patiently sat
    without saying a word.

    Perhaps only
    “CHEEP” every once in a while.
    But nothing else.
    Or maybe she was wondering:
    “And now? What’s going to happen now?”

    Stellina would go with holly, my wife,
    to her office,
    “CHEEP,”
    and stand there,
    on her desk,
    looking at her,
    “CHEEP,” she would tell her
    every once in a while

    After the office they would leave,
    this time to go to the dance studio.
    Because Holly, my wife, is a dancer.

    So while Holly was dancing--
    “Ole!” (she dances Spanish dances)--
    Stellina woul watch,
    “CHEEP,”
    and watch,
    “CHEEP, CHEEP,”
    and grow while she looked at Holly.

    Stellina was growing because she was eating.
    “That’s normal!” you would say.
    “I am growing because I am eating, too!”
    And you are right to say so.
    But Stellina was supposed to be fed by her mama
    (a bird),
    and Holly, my wife, was not her mama
    (or a bird).
    Little wild birds usually want
    only their mothers to feed them,
    and they are very picky about it.
    They often say, “No one can feed me,
    except my mama!”

    But Holly, my wife, was patient,
    very patient and loving.
    She would peel and squeeze fresh grapes
    into Stellina’s beak,
    crumble hard-boiled eggs,
    and use her finger, her pinky finger,
    to feed Stellina,
    who was very hungry,
    “CHEEP,”
    and who stood there, all the time,
    with her beak open wide—
    like this: “AAAAAAAHHHH.”

    “Why not?”
    Stellina must have thought.
    “Holly can be my mother for a while.”

    Stellina started to love Holly, my wife,
    probably after their first day together.
    And each day more and more.
    And Holly, too,
    couldn’t stop loving Stellina.

    Then, one day,
    Stellina learned how to eat by herself,
    and Holly was so happy.
    She didn’t have to feed her
    with her pinky finger any longer.
    And she didn’t have
    to watch her all the time.
    Or take her wherever she went.
    Stellina was growing up.

    And then, another day,
    Stellina learned how to fly,
    all by herself,
    and Holly was so excited,
    because Holly, my wife,
    doesn’t know how to fly.
    She knows how to dance,
    but not how to fly.

    So Stellina,
    “CHEEP,”
    started to fly out of her cage
    and around the apartment,
    looking for Holly.
    She would sit on her head.
    Or on her