By Lane Topher
Michaela was reading a book when a bird flew by. It flapped its wings and chirped as it landed in the book she held. Michaela strained herself from moving as she didn’t want the bird to flee. Michaela gave a smile and made the bird lower its guards to perform a little chirp.
It was a rare sight, so as sly as she could, Michaela tried to take a photo. Its sharp eyes took notice, however, and it flew off, frightened. Michaela was saddened as it left. Now the bird could only be accessed through her memory, easy to be forgotten.
Read the piece four times but failed to extract the takeaway.
To me, the story is saying to enjoy moments, especially the small ones, in life. Nowadays, people are tempted to record or take pictures of every thing/experience, rather than enjoy the experience live, in real time. The movie, Secret Life of Walter Mitty speaks on it well. 🙂
Loved it especially the unexpected ending
You’ve depicted a tender moment, but I felt the name ‘Michaela’ was mentioned too often. Perhaps consider varying it with ‘she’ or ‘her’ to avoid repetition.
As it happens, I felt that the repetion (of Michaela) was poetic – almost every sentence begins with it, adding rather than detracting from the story.