“Chirp! Tweet! Chirp chirp tweet!”
Kari looked up as her aunt came down the stairs.
“Child, what are you doing?” her aunt asked, yawning.
“I’m singing hello to the sun,” Kari said. “Like the birds do. Tweet chirp tweet!”
“Do you have to sing at ten after five in the morning?”
“That’s when the sun gets up, so, yeah.”
Her aunt sighed. “Of course. Tea?”
“Yes please!” Kari looked out the window again, listening to the birds. “Tweechirp!”
----------------------------------------
“Ssssss! Sssssweeeeee! Sweeeeeee!”
Kari looked up as her aunt came down the stairs.
“Trying to whistle?” she guessed.
“Yeah, I’m trying to copy bird sounds better. Sssuuuuuuuup!”
Her aunt yawned. “Your teeth are too close together. Tea?”
“Yes please!” She smiled as the first ray of light hit the windowsill. “Thhhhhhpppppppppp!”
----------------------------------------
Kari whistled, trying to copy the bird sounds as the sun rose. Her aunt came down the stairs, yawning.
“You do this every morning?”
“The sun rises every morning,” Kari shrugged.
“Good point. You’re off pitch.”
“Yeah, I can’t make sounds as high as the birds.”
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
“I’ll probably regret this, but have you ever tried using a flute or recorder?”
“Nope! Should I?”
Her aunt smiled. “Probably not. I’ll get you one today, they’re easy enough to learn. Tea?”
“Yes please!”
----------------------------------------
Kari put her fingers over the holes in the recorder and tried to copy the birds. It sounded awful.
“Yep, instant regret,” her aunt muttered, coming down the stairs. “Go slower with your breath, it’ll give the air time to make actual notes instead of that horrid screeching.”
“Ok! Thanks!” Kari took a deep breath and made a less awful sound on the recorder.
“Better. Tea?”
“Yes please!”
----------------------------------------
Kari focused, playing something on the recorder that didn’t make her ears ring. It wasn’t nearly as pretty as the bird’s songs, but it wasn’t so bad that it’d make the sun go back under the horizon.
“I never asked why you greet the sun every day,” her aunt said, coming down the stairs.
Kari lowered the recorder. “Mom… She had to take pills at five every morning. She didn’t like them, so I had to get up to make sure she ate them. Then we’d stay awake and sing to the sun with the birds.”
…
“Oh.”
Her aunt went to the kitchen to make tea. Kari started playing the recorder again.
----------------------------------------
Kari tried to copy one bird in particular. It was a very pretty song. If she could just get that one note to sound right…
“That’s starting to sound like an actual song,” her aunt said. “You’d need more than five notes, though.”
“What if I put all the bird songs in a row?” Kari asked, smiling at her.
“That’s a good idea. Then you could practice it and have an actual sun song to play every day.”
“Yeah!”
Her aunt hesitated. “Do- do you want me to play with you?”
Kari thought about it, watching the rose bush outside slowly brighten.
“No. The song was made by me and Mom. You can hear it, but I don’t want anyone else to play it.”
“Ok. Tea?”
“Yes please!”
----------------------------------------
Kari focused. Tweechirp followed by the doo-woop bird sound followed by the bird that made sounds like a car alarm. There were other bird sounds, but they’d be added once she got these ones perfect.
Her aunt came down the stairs and listened for a while before heading to the kitchen. Kari kept playing. A few minutes later she came back and handed Kari a cup of tea.
“The sun song is sounding good,” she said.
“Thanks!”
She pulled Kari into a hug. “Your mom would’ve loved it.”