The Cuckoo's call

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and the street was unsurprisingly quiet. The elders were having their precious midday snooze and the kids were glued on to their smartphones much like the way kids were attached to running around in the streets in the good old days. However, the quiet atmosphere was rudely disturbed by the shrill, piercing chirp of the cuckoo. It kept calling out again and again, oblivious to the irritated roars of the many sleepers it had just startled. The Cuckoo was apparently on a roll and was happily chirping away or singing in its opinion anyway. If the Cuckoo could talk the way we do, it would have spoken joyously about how its parents had hoodwinked the crow family into keeping the cuckoo egg. By the time the Cuckoo had grown into the absolutely delightful bird it was now, it had been too late to go back.

The attachment had been sealed, family ties had been cemented and the Cuckoo was now an undeniable part of the crow family. The Cuckoo had no qualms in narrating the intriguing story of its childhood and spared no effort in making the juicy parts entertaining for the listeners. What mattered most to the Cuckoo was that it had found acceptance in the family , despite its lineage and was never subjected to any form of discrimination especially by its doting parents. The Cuckoo had heard otherwise from the other cuckoo folk and never forgot to count its blessings every single day.

It was during one such captivating story-telling session that the Cuckoo had launched into a cheery little song and it turned out to be an unfortunate sleep-shatterer. An old man’s head popped out of the window near the Cuckoo’s tree and he unsuccessfully tried to shoo the Cuckoo away. Yet his efforts seemed to be in vain as the tenacious bird was unfazed and kept happily chattering away. “Let it go , Michael”, said his wife soothingly to the old man as she joined him by the window. “ The Cuckoo’s call reminds of the days when Daniel used to pester us to keep a cuckoo as a pet. The boy used to be fascinated with the  bird and has spent many evenings having one-sided conversations with it. He was convinced that the bird could truly understand every word.”

Her eyes turned misty and she had to stop herself before the tears started to threaten to fall. The old man sighed heavily as he closed his eyes in anticipation of the pain that came every time he recalled the events of that fateful day. “ What are you saying? Am I not your son?”, screamed Daniel as he paced the living room , anger and confusion etched on his face. A mere two weeks had passed since he turned eighteen and Michael and his wife had revealed to their only son that he was adopted. “We have treated you as our own son since the moment you grasped my finger with your tiny hand.”, sobbed Mary as she tried to reason with the agitated boy. Michael was silently begging his son with his eyes to listen to them but Daniel was too emotional at the moment  and he ran out of the house slamming the door shut.

Three years later, the sound still made Mary flinch in shock as she tried to hang on to the hope that her son will come back to the house. He still kept in touch but only through e-mails and the occasional phone call.  Daniel had been the single ray of light after many dark days of waiting and praying and desperately wishing for a child. A child to hold on to and cherish and love unconditionally. They had treasured every moment with him for he had given them a purpose to live. And now, the days stretched on bleak and unforgiving. Michael and Mary had each been reliving the painful memories when hey were jolted out of their thoughts by the sound of a cuckoo’s call.

Michael was about to put his head out of the window again when Mary said softly” It is the doorbell. Let me see.” As she opened the door, there stood her Daniel, before he could utter a single word she enveloped him in a big hug , the two of them crying softly. Mary did not let go of her son’s hand as she ushered him inside their warm home. As Michael laid eyes upon his only son, Mary could see that he too was both thrilled and scared at the same time, apprehensively waiting to find out if Daniel’s arrival was a good sign. “ Sit , Daniel.’ Said Michael as Mary rushed to the kitchen to brew hot cups of strong tea, for all three of them. They still remained a family and she believed with all her heart that Daniel will definitely see it too, one day. The silence stretched on and it was a full ten minutes before Daniel cleared his throat to speak. “ How are you .. guys doing?” he asked slowly and Mary felt her heart clench when she realized that he wasn’t addressing them as mom and dad. Michael replied with a slight nod and a shrug of his shoulders as he too must have heard precisely what had not been said.

“ We are fine , sweetie”, said Mary hurriedly as she resisted the urge to hug him again and ensure to never let go this time. “ Tell us about your classes. You had mentioned in the e-mail last week that you have finally enrolled into biology classes”. She consciously failed to add that she wished he had told them this incredible piece of news face-to-face as it was no small secret that the boy was absolutely fascinated with birds, one in particular. Daniel looked at her and she knew that he had read it in her eyes for he started speaking again. “ I wanted to come down here and tell you guys but I have just been so busy with classes and other stuff.” It seemed that he wanted to say more but then he acted as if something snapped inside him and he would have bounded out again had the Cuckoo not decided to call out again at that exact 

moment.

Daniel froze in shock and for a split second, Michael and Mary were convinced that they were going to be emotionally destroyed a second time, when Daniel turned around and bolted to his room. They found him at his favorite place near the window staring outside at the Cuckoo with an unreadable expression on his face. Suddenly, he started frantically searching for something in his desk drawer and when he couldn’t find it, he started going about his room , opening cupboards and looking under the bed. “ What are you looking for?” asked Michael , bewildered by all that was happening in such a short span of time. “ I had made this drawing, many years ago”, said Daniel running his hands through his hair in frustration.

It was Mary’s turn to scramble out of the room and frankly, Michael was getting annoyed with all this running about but he couldn’t really say it out aloud. “ Is this it?”, asked Mary handing a yellowing piece of paper with shaking hands to her son. “ Yes”, whispered Daniel softly as he placed it on his desk so that the three of them could look at it. It was a drawing of a small Cuckoo with its Mommy and Daddy Cuckoo on each side. “ I drew this years ago when I had first become Cuckoo over Cuckoos” said Daniel as he pointed to where had written his name underneath the small cuckoo. Mary was too stunned to even chuckle at his joke while Michael just stared at his son. “ This picture has been flashing in my mind every day for the past three years and I cannot stop thinking about how you guys are not the Mom and Dad Cuckoo that I thought you were.”

Mary started sobbing uncontrollably then as she realized that her son was about to leave them again, with the picture this time. She had held it in her hands during all those times when she prayed fervently for her son’s return. Michael moved to comfort her and as she tried to compose herself, Daniel held out the picture to her. “ Hear me out,” he softly requested her and as the two of them looked at the picture, they saw that he had been writing something on it. “ What I am trying to say is that” , he managed amidst the tears which were filling his own eyes but he could not continue and he simply pointed towards the picture.

When they saw the picture, Mary collapsed onto the bed crying and Daniel sat on the floor with his head on her lap and Michael wrapped his arms around the two of them for Daniel had struck out the word Cuckoo and had written Crow Mom and Crow Dad. As it turned out, he and the Cuckoo he adored really did have a special connection after all. “ I am your cuckoo mom. Where else will I go?”