Week 7 Story: The Bird That Could Sing

The Bird That Could Sing

Chirp the bird loved to sing. He sang all through the day and all through the night. None of his friends sang, so most days he sang alone. Chirp's mother praised her son for his joyful voice. She enjoyed listening to her son make beautiful music.

Harmony, Chirp's mother had a small bakery in the town. She was known for her famous scones. She had the most popular bakery in the town. Everyone loved going there to get all the delicious treats that she bakes.

Chirp's mother was his biggest fan and he knew how proud his voice made her. There was one problem though. The town that they lived in was very small and Chirp had such a loud voice that it overpowered the whole town. It often times made the townspeople angry that his voice was so loud. Many of them had a hard time focusing on their work each day.

One afternoon, Chirp was singing as he usually does. He was at the top of the tallest tree in the town, singing his little heart out. "La la la la la" Chirp sang.

Even though he had a beautiful voice, the townspeople were becoming more angry as the weeks went on. The loud singing was starting to get on their last nerve. The townspeople decided that something needed to be done. They all made the decision to have a town meeting without Chirp and Harmony knowing.

At the meeting, all of them started to express their concerns about the noise and how it was impacting their work. "Something needs to be done" said one of the townsmen. Everyone was agreeing that something had to change. One of the townspeople suggested that Chirp be banned from the town and only be allowed back if he promises not to sing ever again.

The decision was made. Chirp was to be banned from the town unless he promised to never sing again. The townspeople shared the news with Chirp and his mother. Hearing this news made them incredibly sad. Chirp thought that everyone loved hearing him sing. He didn't realize that he was upsetting so many people.

"I can't stop singing" Chirp said to his mother.

"I know, we will just have to pack our bags and move elsewhere" replied his mother.

"What about your bakery?" Chirp said in a concerning voice.

"I'll have to shut it down" said his mother.

After packing up all of their things, Harmony had one last thing to do. She went to her bakery and put a sign on the door that read "Closed" and her and Chirp left town.

Later that day, all of the townspeople saw the sign and realized they had made a big mistake. Banning Chirp from the town meant that his mother was leaving too. They couldn't live without Harmony's famous scones.

The mayor of the town called Chirp and his mother asking them to come back for a meeting. "Surely we can work something out" said the mayor on the phone.

Chirp and his mother arrived at the meeting a bit confused. "You ban Chirp from the town and now you want us back?" asked Harmony. "We realized we have made a huge mistake by banning your son and then forcing you to close your bakery" responded the mayor. "We want to make a deal" added the mayor.

"How about we allow Chirp to sing at designated times throughout the day" said the mayor.

"What do you mean designated times?" asked Harmony

"I want to be able to sing whenever I want" exclaimed Chirp.

"Let's hear what the mayor has to say" responded Harmony.

"How about you sing in the morning, afternoon, and evening of each day?" asked the mayor.

Hmmm Chirp though to himself.

"You can be everyones alarm clock in the morning, waking everyone up with your beautiful voice" said the mayor.

"That sounds like a plan" said Chirp.

Although he didn't quite get what he wanted, Chirp was still excited to no longer be banned from the town. His mother was excited too! She could reopen her bakery and start making her famous scones again.

Chirp

Authors Note: I took the original story "The Lightning and the Thunder" and added my own twist. In the original story, the characters were quite different from my story. In the original story, the thunder was an old mother sheep and the lightning was her son, who was an angry ram. The lightning was very mean and often times destroyed the homes of the people that lived in the town. He would destroy everything in his path when he went on a rage. At times he would become so angry that he would use his lightning power to strike people, which ultimately killed them. He had an angry rage that couldn't be tamed. His mother didn't know what to do. She couldn't control her son, despite her efforts of yelling at him and attempting to stop him. The only option was for the lightning and thunder to leave the town. The king of the town forced them to leave the town and never come back. I changed the ending of my story a little form the original story. In the original story, the lightning and thunder weren't able to come back, but in my story, the two main characters were able to come back to the town.

Story Source: Nigeria: The Lightning and the Thunder

Author: Elphinstone Dayrell