It was the proudest discovery of her life and something she would do almost every single day. She had the whole routine: put her doll on the side of the stool, try to lift the lid (it really was very heavy, but it was her older brother who taught her the trick on how to use both her arms to get it open), and then start counting. When she was in a hurry, like today, she would count to 18 from the left. On a more adventurous day, she would start from 100 and count down from the right. That was hard too, although hard in a different way. But once she finally got it right, and sometimes it took a good quarter of an hour, it made her really proud too.
Today the countdown seemed to take forever, but finally there it was. A single white key. Her brother told her the proper name of it — it sounded like one of those action heroes he played with just earlier this summer and now claimed he’s way too mature to ever do it again — but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that this particular key had magical powers, and she was about to test them again. With her tongue between her lips, she pressed the key a couple of times, slowly closed the lid, looked out the window, and waited.
She had names for them, although they changed almost on a weekly basis. Today, they were called Flicker and Flutter, and with a smile on her face, she spotted them slowly approaching her window — two little sparrows that were for some reason drawn to the sound of that particular note she just played. She never told about them to anyone, even her brother. She always enjoyed watching them walking around on the ledge of their little balcony for a couple minutes. Sometimes, when she wasn’t in a hurry, she would put up some food for them first. No matter how hard she tried, they would eventually fly away, and she knew by then that she would not be able to summon them until the next day came. Maybe that’s why she treasured those short visits so much; many years later, this would be her childhood memory that would last the longest. But today she didn’t know that. She waved to Flicker and Flutter flying away, grabbed her doll, and ran back to her room to play.
— March 2010.