My first reaction was confusion. 'I have a curtain rod?' I thought to myself. 'I didn't know that. Maybe this isn't my room!'
I looked at the floor. No, it's my room. It is highly unlikely that anyone else would have a floor this messy.
Then it hit me. 'Wait a minute. I'm on my curtain rod. Mom, I'm up here on the curtain rod!'
But no sound came out. My mother turned and left to search the rest of the house.
I looked at myself. So I'm a bird. I'm probably some sort of owl because I can see forward. I wonder if I can fly? Oh well, I guess there's a first time for everything.
I closed my eyes, jumped off the curtain rod and started flapping my wings like crazy.
Wham! 'Yup,' I thought, 'a first time for everything. A first time for becoming a bird, a first time for trying to fly, and a first time for falling seven and a half feet off a curtain rod.
'Well, nothing feels broken. Hey, maybe if I get a running start I'll be able to fly. No, scratch that idea of the list. I wouldn't be able to move two inches on the floor in this room. I should have listened to my mother when she told me to clean my room.'
I suddenly sat up. 'That's it!' I thought. 'If I can get onto my bed, which I'm sure I can, since I could just hop up that pile of junk next to my bed, I could use the bed to get my running start.'
So I hopped up to my bed. It sure was a good thing I had left the sheets pushed to the foot of the bed. This way it would be more flat than if I had left the sheets halfway on my bed.
This time I decided to keep my eyes open and to try to glide at first instead of flapping my wings right away.
So I spread my wings, started running, and when I reached the end of the bed I jumped forward and up.
'I did it! I really did it! I can't believe it!'
I started falling, so I flapped my wings a few times to get a little higher.
I decided to try to find my mother. So I went through all the rooms, and when I did not find her, I flew downstairs.
As I flew through the dining room, something on the table caught my eye. I decided to turn around and fly back to see what it was.
I came to the table and landed beside it. It was a piece of paper that said: "How to change a person who has been changed into a bird back into a human."
Unfortunately, my eyes were unable to focus on the directions. I knew the only way for me to find out what it said was to get my mother to read it out loud to herself. I decided to try to hoot to get her attention.
Well, if I could say this a different way, I would, but as far as I know, the only sound it remotely resembled was a cat hacking up a hairball. At least it got my mother's attention.
"What the heck was that?" she said, walking into the room. "What's this, an owl with a note that says: "How to change a person who has been changed into a bird back into a human. To make change, click back toes three times and say: There's nothing like being human"?
'Pretty original, I thought to myself.
"What kind of joke is this?" my mother said.
'Well, here goes nothin',' I thought, and started to click my back toes. 'There's nothing like being human, there's nothing like being human. There's nothing like . . .'
Suddenly, everything got fuzzy.
"Adam, are you awake? Your alarm clock has been ringing for ten minutes."
"I'm awake now, mom," I said.
My mom looked at my bed, then at me kind of funny.
"Adam, why are there feathers in your bed?"
"It's a long story," I said.