The picnic

She was nine years old, and very happy when she found that the bird could talk. It didn't surprise her in the least ... animals often talked to her when she was alone with them. She had long conversations with her pet dog and her cousin's pet turtle. It was rare for her to be alone with wild animals long enough to start up a conversation, but on this picnic Daddy was out of earshot, having taken Rover for a run, and Mummy had dozed off.

So the bird alighted from his branch, sat on her fingers and began to peck at the crumbs she was holding on her palm.

"Good morning, Suzan," he said.

"Good morning, Mr. Bird," she replied.

"Thank you for the crumbs. May I have something to drink now?"

She gave him some lemonade.

"Do you often come here on picnics?"

"It's my first time -- my parents said they used to come before I was born."

"Ah. Then you came along and they got busy looking after you."

"HEY," she said suddenly. "Hey, Mr. Bird! You could answer something."

"What? Anything you'd like to ask, my dear."

"You said about me coming along. Well, I've asked my parents where I came from and they said they'd tell me the story of the birds and the bees one day. I don't know what birds and bees have to do with my coming along. Do you?"

The bird chuckled. It came out as a funny 'twerp' sound.

"These parents!" he said. "Filling their kids up with all sorts of nonsense, not answering a straight question with a straight answer."

"Do you know the straight answer?" she asked, eagerly.

"Yes, I do."

"You know where I came from?"

"Yes, I do."

"Where?"

"From inside your mother."

"But how did I get in there?"

"Your Daddy put you there."

"How did he put me there?"

The bird looked cautiously around. They were close to the child's mother. She might wake up and hear. He jerked his head, and she moved with him behind a convenient bush. He sat on her shoulder and whispered in her ear.

"Parents have a lot of fun, making children," he told her.

"They do?"

"Yes. They get to take each others' clothes off."

"That's fun?"

"It is for grown ups."

"So my Daddy took my Mummy's clothes off, and she took his clothes off?"

"Yes."

"But where was I?"

"You weren't there yet. Then your Daddy and Mummy lied down next to each other and hugged each other very tightly. That's when they created you. There now, I can hear your Mummy waking up."

He flew away.

Her mother was, indeed, waking up, and her Daddy and Rover were visible, running toward them. She looked at both her parents. So they had taken each others' clothes off and hugged each other and she had been created. Could the bird be right?

While her parents were unpacking the picnic basket, she managed to whisper to Rover, "I want to talk to you." She picked up a stick and threw it for him to chase, and he obligingly ran far enough away.

She gasped out what the bird had said. "Did Mummy and Daddy take each others' clothes off and hug, to get me?"

"Yes," he replied. "I was there, I saw it."

"You saw them?"

"Yes. they really love each othter."

She couldn't stand it any more. She strode over to her parents. "Mummy and Daddy," she yelled. "The bird has told me and Rover says it's true because he saw you."

"What are you talking about, darling?"

"The birds and the bees mean you took each others' clothes off and hugged each other."

There was slience.

Then, her father spoke up. "Yes, we did," he said, in a level voice.

"But you tell me always to keep my clothes on unless i'm in my own room."

"We were in our own room."

"You were?"

"Yes."

"Then how did the bird know, and how did Rover see?"

"The bird must've known somehow and Rover was in our room."

"Well, if you were in your own room, that's fine then. May I have a tomato sandwich?"