Amelia Discovers Anything Worth Getting Comes with a Cost
A Most Curious Sequence of Events for Amelia and Pearl
In this chapter, Amelia has just finished “The Plan” she devised to free the captive birds from the Circus of Professor Accipiter. But as you may know, often there are consequences in life, and many are not good. If you know Amelia, you know that the one thing she loves more than anything is being able to fly! You also know that Amelia does not give up, and she never feels sorry for herself and withdraws from life. She simply keeps going forward.
Once again we get a glimpse of Amelia at her best as she proves she has learned what was hinted at by The Raven With Blue Eyes.
If you have read our book How to Explain Christmas to Chickens, you will recognize many of the events and dialogue with Pearl. This is one of the reasons I have previously shared that I wish I had written this series first and created what you might call “spin-off” smaller, illustrated books from it. But since Amelia’s adventures and Pearl’s adventures beyond The Backyard Garden Home culminate on Christmas morning, it feels quite natural.
Don’t forget about Pearl and The Bottle Cap Lady! Here is a link to what Pearl was up to several newsletters ago.
Kleenex tissue Advisory: These concluding chapters always grab my heart and they may have the same effect on you.
“You are evil and traitorous, Mayflower, or whatever your name is,” spat out The Professor. “The Rat was suspicious of you from the start, and I should have been as well.
“You are begging to go swimming with the dumplings, aren’t you? And what a tasty treat you will make for what is left of my circus that you have totally ruined.
“But first, you are going to have to get every one of those birds returned here—or else you need to find new birds to take their places. Maybe with some smart garden chickens from the city that the Sewer Rat tells us about.”
Teeny Clotilda held Amelia up by her feet, and The Professor grabbed one wing and clipped the feathers with a large and sturdy pair of scissors. Then he grabbed and stretched out the other wing that Amelia was holding in close against her body and clipped those feathers as well.
“You will not be flying off anywhere soon,” said The Professor. “But don’t worry. The Rat can carry you from place to place in a cart, and you can work your lying skills to lure in more performing birds to replace the ones you let escape.
“Maybe if you are dedicated to fixing what you have ruined, you can find that Eejit Willie and convince him to come back after he has failed out there in the real world of men. Imagine him thinking he could be like me, even better than me!”
“And dear, faithful Sewer Rat, when you find where he is hiding, destroy him, or set him up so that I can destroy him.
“Torment him until he begs for the sleep that comes from The Absence of Love. I want him to suffer until he is crushed without hope! Only then will he return to me for hope and what he is missing.”
“And meanwhile, my captive prized pet, you’d better hold tight to this iron perch. It’s going to get windier than it is right now. And that wind is bringing cold and snow. You will see how cold iron can get. You have felt its heat from the sun in summer, now you will learn its coldness from the snow and ice in winter.”
Amelia remained quiet. She knew it was Christmas morning there in the twisted world of the Circus, but it was also Christmas morning back in the dependable world of Home. Emily would help get her back there. Amelia decided she would put her trust in Emily and then do what chickens like herself do so well—take a leap of faith—just as she had done so often when trusting only herself to fly to new places.
Finally, as the first rays of the morning sunlight were showing over the treetops, The Bottle Cap Lady stirred awake.
“What’s the matter, sweetie girl? Did you forget your lines? I will say them for you. ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and goodwill.’ All because that little baby was born to make everything right.”
By then, Pearl understood Christmas as well as any chicken could.
She could see the ground and flew down. She stretched out her legs and her wings. It felt good, extremely good. At last, when it mattered most, she must have won the game called Who Can Stay Still The Longest?
Pearl hurried past the decorations, up the walkway, and hopped into The Bottle Cap Lady’s lap. It was all she knew to do so The Bottle Cap Lady would understand she had a best friend, even if her best friend was only a chicken.
“Well, Happy Merry Christmas to you, Little Lady!” she said. “Your name is Pearl, isn’t it, Sweetie? I think that’s what I’ve heard him call you.”
Pearl nodded.
“That’s a good name for you, sweetie. An excellent name. You are so precious, a precious little treasure is what you are. And if that’s not your name, it should be because you are just as white and beautiful and pure and good as any pearl I’ve ever seen, real or dime-store-make-believe.”
They smiled at each other. Pearl settled into the nest of The Bottle Cap Lady’s lap. It was soft and warm.
“I know you’ve been looking for your friend, that other white one like you. As old as I am, I just may help you look for her, maybe one day really soon. I don’t know what her name is, but I will know her when I see her.
“I have a feeling I already know where she is. She is probably in the same place where my Judy Lynne is. They might be playing together right now. Don’t you worry, though. My Judy Lynne is gentle with everybody and everything.
“So don’t you worry. I’ll find her. I’ll find them both. And then we will all wait for you to come and join us. I promise. It won’t be long. The waiting goes a lot faster than you might think.”
She looked far away off beyond the decorations and the houses and the trees to the sunrise colors. They reminded her of beautiful glass Christmas ornaments as they spread their newness across everything, even herself.
“Maybe life isn’t so much about getting yourself loved. It could be life is about being with Love. That’s what I’m going to go find out for us, sweetie.”
She laid her hand on Pearl’s back and stroked her feathers. Then The Bottle Cap Lady carefully lifted Pearl up to her cheek.
“I’ll bet you don’t know my name. I know everybody around here who has ever seen me has taken to calling me The Bottle Cap Lady, but I have a real name, just like you.”
Then she whispered her name into Pearl’s ear. It was a secret, just like the ones Pearl and Blanche had shared together. What a wonderful gift, she thought, and she knew with all certainty that The Bottle Cap Lady was her friend.
“It’s a name that means what we are to each other, sweetie. You’d better run along home now. He’s going to be missing you, and I hope he’s got some really nice Christmas presents for you to open up this morning. Thank you, Pearl.”
Pearl knew she had already been given the best gift. She bwawked and clucked and did a joyfully silly dance down The Bottle Cap Lady’s front sidewalk.
“Thank you for giving me my dream, Pearl,” the Bottle Cap Lady called to her one last time. “And for helping me draw a picture in my heart to hold safe forever.”
At the end of the street, Pearl could see The Big Boy putting gas into his new go-cart and the Little Boy trying to ride his new bicycle. Santa Claus had visited their houses. They had been at home and asleep. But Pearl had not.
There would be no roasted pumpkin seeds in her stocking. There would be no Blanche to lean against for comfort. But somehow it didn’t matter. She still felt the same Love she had felt the night before, the kind of Love that only comes from Forever, the kind of Love that lasts Forever.
And so, Pearl took out the picture she had made in her heart of The Promise Of Easter, the promise that Love makes all things new. Then she made another picture in her heart of The Promise Of Christmas, the promise that Love gives its very best even to those who have nothing to give in return.
And just like that, without her even knowing it, while Pearl hopped, skipped, and stumbled back home into her backyard, it happened.
It happened as quietly as a tiny white feather falling on fresh Christmas snow.
The wonderful new life Pearl had been wanting for so long began without her even being aware.
Perhaps that is just the way it is when you receive a simple, everyday miracle.
It was Christmas morning. The temperature had dropped, and the wind had picked up. The weather report on the radio had been right. Both Uncle Buddy and Aunt Grace had talked to me about it the night before to make sure I knew what to do.
“You’d better make sure you’ve got everything outside tied down securely or stored in the garage. When that wind starts to throwing things around, there’s no telling what kind of damage it will do.”
Just as I went outside to take the chickens their breakfast salad, Pearl came running towards her coop from the front yard.
“Pearl, what are you doing out here?” I asked. “Never mind. You can explain later. There is a big storm coming our way with lots of wind and lots of cold. I think you girls should come inside to the sunroom, where you’ll be safer and more comfortable.”
I picked up Pearl and brought her into the house, then went out and did the same for Gracie, Bessie, and Emily. After that, I made another trip outside to get their food and water dispensers and the gifts I had made for them.
Once we were settled inside, we could hear the wind blowing against the windows and even rattling them occasionally. None of us enjoyed hearing the sleet hitting against the glass.
“Let’s listen to some Christmas music,” I suggested. It will keep our mind on good things, not bad.”
“So is it now officially Christmas morning?” asked Emily.
“Yes, it most certainly is,” said Pearl. “I have seen it for myself.”
“Then I need to go up on the roof and bring Amelia home.”
“It’s dangerous out there—and especially up there,” I told her.
“I am going up there with or without your help. I made a promise to Amelia with love, and I cannot break that promise. I have no other choice.”
Seeing her determination, I said, “I will help you, Emily.”
“Don’t forget your pencil,” she reminded me.
I placed the pencil and then Emily inside the bucket, climbed the ladder with an old broom. Once safely on the roof, I brushed off the snow that had begun to fall and then pulled the bucket with Emily up to the roof.
“Just the safest way, Emily. I know you would have rather done it all by yourself, but you need to conserve your energy and strength to bring Amelia home.”
I placed her inside my jacket and carefully walked the rest of the way up the slanted roof to the brick chimney. The metal roof was already slippery from the sleet and light show, so the old broom came in handy again. We would need something solid and firm to hold.
I took Emily out of my jacket and put my baseball cap on the cold metal roof for her to stand on without getting her feet frozen by the cold metal roof.
“My pencil?” she asked.
I brought it out of the bucket and made sure it was sharp. I had my pocket knife with me just in case it required some trimming.
Emily took the pencil in her mouth and began to draw Amelia, just as she had first drawn her. Then around her, she drew circles and spirals.
“Those are for the winds with snow and sleet,” she
explained. “Now put your hands down and let me trace around them.”
I did just as she said, and I felt a little like I was in first grade doing an art project. From the sunroom below, we could hear the “See Amid the Winter Snow” on The Record Player along with Gracie’s footsteps as she danced.
Emily and I both marveled at how the wind and snow began to calm, as if slowed by Gracie’s dance steps. I watched as Emily stood looking at her drawing and began to close her eyes and open them again. She closed her eyes for a bit longer, and then she opened them again. The third time, she closed her eyes and kept them closed.
Slowly, her wings began to stretch out until they were fully extended, and she trembled with excitement.
Her eyes opened wide, and in front of her above the roof, there was a mass of whirling circles and spirals made with gray, and there was her drawing of Amelia, inside it.
Emily said something to Amelia in Old Chicken, and as she did, the hands, my hands she had traced, took on color and lifted her up from where she was perched.
Miles away, Amelia looked beyond her iron perch in the middle of the Circus training grounds and watched as whirling circles and spirals began to form in the air. She heard Emily’s voice calling to her. She felt warm hands embracing and lifting her to kiss the top of her head. And Amelia did the only thing she knew to do. She spread her clipped wings out wide and launched her into the whirling spirals and flapped.
As she rose higher, she watched the spirals pick up and toss the litter of popcorn bags and candy wrappers around The Circus grounds. This is really quite fascinating, she thought. As she looked below, she could see the river growing smaller, and then she could see the round globe of the earth doing the same. She looked above her and saw the Moon growing larger.
“This is unbelievable, but it has to be happening,” she called out to Emily. “I know I can trust you because I know you trust yourself.”
“I’d better add this to my map,” she said, and began sampling the air for smell and taste until there were none. Then, suspended between earth and moon, she realized why she had never gotten any clues for her map from the Moon ever before.
Just as she began to call out to Emily, “I’m lost, and I’m not afraid,” she felt two hands beneath her, shielding her from the whirling gray lines and guiding her towards the moon. At the time, she did not realize that what she felt holding her up were the real hands of The Great Gardener, but she could feel the Love radiating from them.
When she felt the moon beneath her feet, she called out, “I did it, Emily. You did it, Emily. We did it, Emily!”
Amelia looked down and then back at her footprints on the Moon. She felt herself moving quickly back toward the earth, towards where the river meets the land. Finally, she saw a red flag above an almost square house with a porch on the front, a sunroom on the back, and a garden of winter-blooming flowers all around.
“The red flag is just as you described it, and the winter garden is beautiful, Emily. You have pansies outlining everything perfectly, and I can see which house is ours!”
Emily and I watched as the whirling gray spirals and circles expanded and Amelia came more clearly into view. She flapped her wings as she crossed the boundary between where she had been and where she knew she needed to be, the place where she truly belonged, her home.
I snuggled her inside the warmth of my jacket, and Emily scrambled into my lap to join her as well.
“Girls, we have had enough separation. You two get settled together and comfortable inside my jacket. I’m going to take us all down the ladder together, but I will do it very slowly and carefully.”
“No,” said Emily. “Amelia and I will meet you down at The Healing Tree.”
“That sounds like a good plan to me,” said Amelia. “I’ll follow you, Emily.”
I unzipped my jacket, and they tumbled out and raced to the side of the roof over the sunroom closest to their target.
“One. Two. Three,” they counted together and leapt out and down.
“Fly home, free,” they said on the way down and landed together on separate limbs of The Healing Tree.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” said Amelia. “It’s not the easiest maneuver to do. Something has changed within you. Something is not the same.”
“Well, we can fill you in on all you’ve missed,” said Emily, “But first, we want to hear all about your travels and adventures.”
Once inside, everyone examined Amelia to make sure she was still in fine health.
“I could use a little something to eat,” she said.
“If Santa came last night, there might be gifts we can eat,” suggested Pearl. “Can I go and look inside my coop?”
“You’d better not, with the weather as bad as it is getting out there,” I said. “Just look at the ice and snow on all the trees and fences and walkways You know that couldn’t be good for chickens, even with all of those fine feathers to keep you warm.
“Pearl, why don’t you look under the Christmas tree right here in our sunroom instead?”
“That’s a good idea,” said Pearl. “That’s where my new friend, Theodora, has presents that are decorations—under the Christmas trees in her yard. I’ll check there first for us.”
And she did.
The first thing she found was a large bag of roasted pumpkin seeds tied with a ribbon decorated with holly and ivy. “I could smell what this was,” she said. “It was easy to find. It was one of the things on my list that I put in my letter to Santa.”
After Pearl pulled the bag out from under the tree, I opened it and spread the seeds around.
“There are also presents under here, but they will not be easy to pull out,” said Pearl. “I’ll need to get a good grip on the ribbon with my beak before pulling them out.”
One at a time, she did. “You know, this seems odd, but most of these are the same size and weight,” she said. “Maybe they are all the same things with different paper.”
“They have names on them,” said Amelia. “I know because I can see one with my name on it. It is one of the words I can read.”
“I can’t read words, so I should have read the pictures on the wrapping paper,” said Pearl. “Yours is the only one with moons and stars on the paper.”
“That’s because you had been planning to fly to the Moon,” said Emily.
“Here’s one for you, Gracie,” said Pearl. “It has to be yours with pictures of pink ballet slippers on the paper. And look, there are even little pink ballet slippers tied to the bow.”
“I helped draw the ballet slippers,” said Emily.
“Actually, Emily helped draw all of the pictures on the gift wrapping paper,” I said.
“Here’s one for you, Bessie,” said Pearl. “It is the only one with cupcakes and muffins all over the wrapping paper.”
“And what about one for you, Pearl?” asked Emily.
“Those were all of the presents I saw under the Christmas tree,” said Pearl.
“Let me look,” said Emily. “I’m the smallest, and I can see things that are hidden away much easier.”
Emily got as close down to the floor as possible and scooted under the Christmas tree. “I see something!” she said. “And it has to be for you, Pearl.”
“How can you tell it’s for me?” she asked.
“Because instead of a bow, it has a hat—a big, beautiful, ridiculously silly hat!”
Emily backed out from under the tree, pulling out Pearl’s present.
“I love it!” said Pearl. “I feel there is a comedy show coming soon to our backyard, not snow!”
“Well, little girls,” I said, “It’s almost time to open your presents, but first, we have to find Emily’s gift.”
“I already have my gift,” said Emily. “I saw it behind Pearl’s last gift. It’s one I made for Pearl. But making it was my gift to myself.” She looked up into my eyes, and asked timidly, “Would you bring it out for her?”
Getting down on my knees, I felt around far to the back of the Christmas tree and found a small piece of drawing paper.
“All I wanted for Christmas, besides having Amelia back home,” explained Emily, “was a chance to talk to Blanche one last time, and tell her I don’t hold any unforgiveness in my heart towards her for pecking me like she did. That’s why I drew a picture of Blanche in her new home now, so I could see her and tell her what is in my heart.
“And Pearl, I know you gave up your favorite drawing of Blanche to send to Santa, but you didn’t get back in time to be in bed when he came, and so he wasn’t able to leave Blanche or roasted pumpkin seeds.
“Drawing really does let you do things you would never be able to do any other way. This drawing lets me talk to Blanche, and I think it will do the same for you.”
I took Emily’s drawing and propped it up under the Christmas tree where everyone could see it. It was quite a beautiful drawing, skillfully made in chalks and pastels. Blanche’s feathers were drawn in detail, and their whiteness stood out in contrast to the blue of the drawing paper.
“That lovely blue is called Advent Blue,” said Emily. “I asked the songbirds what color it was because I knew you would want to know its name.”
Behind Blanche were drawn two feet wearing sandals beneath a pure white robe trimmed in gold cord.
“That is Blanche’s new home,” explained Emily. She has a spot right at the feet of The Great Gardener.”
“There is no better spot on any map that could be drawn,” added Amelia. “She is there because she has a name, and she was loved so very much and returned that love so perfectly.
“This is all part of a Great Plan, much greater than any of us can see. We are all here together. Even though Blanche is not here, she is still here with us as long as she is remembered in our hearts.
“While I was gone,” continued Amelia, “I know there was some discussion and disagreement within The Living Library about whether Gracie or Emily is The Key they have been waiting for.
“It is a puzzle, but all of you know I am good with puzzles and putting things together. Remember when The Laughing Gull said you were all extraordinary? Well, you are—or we are—because even though Emily and I were adopted in, all six of us together are The Single Key that the Living Library has been waiting for.
“We are stronger together than any one of us will ever be when apart. We unlock each other's gifts. Together, we will lock up The Absence of Love and anyone who tries to harm one of us.
“Now let me tell you more of what I learned while I was away.”
Just a special note for our newsletter fans, the opossum will come up again when Gracie and the others present their ballet titled The Rose Garden Princess in Volume Three: Through the Gate. This will be because of how Amelia described Professor Accipter’s appearance resembles the opossum who has bothered Pearl so often all of the way back to Volume One!
Until Next Time
If you have any comments—good or bad—please share them, especially if this particular chapter was not as satisfying as you had hoped it would be or if Amelia and Pearl don’t stand out as the heroes you had wanted them to be.
Our Best Advice for the Days Ahead: Be grateful for the ones in your own life, like Emily, whose quiet beauty has helped you achieve your goals and dreams!
We will be sending a “Bonus Newsletter” to let you know as soon as Volume One: Into the Garden is available in print!
Thank you for reading!
John, Gracie, Bessie, Blanche, Pearl, Emily, and Amelia
I honestly hope you get wide recognition enough to have these books adapted for film or television. In animation, of course- no other media will make it work as well. Preferably traditional 2D.
I got that in my head reading the Professor calling Willy an "Eejit"- because that always makes me think of Yosemite Sam....
Heartwarming as always with gratitude for the Great Gardener for speaking through you with art and chickens.