The Laughing Macaw

Ammie was just 10 years old when her mother died. She was left under the care of her father and uncles and aunts. She loved them very much but she missed her mother terribly. Ammie doesn't have many friends in the village, she became withdrawn and sometimes angry since the death of her mother. She found it difficult to cope as did her father Joseph. The death took its toll but Ammie remembers how she and her mother used to walk to the nearest well to fetch water together, about 5 miles away, and whenever they'de reach the well, there would be the same Macaw, and it would laugh and swirl and twirl, but it's laugh was so amazing - it almost sounded human.

No one else ever saw or heard this Macaw. It was just a special secret between Ammie and her mother. Sometimes Ammie would ask around the village if anyone knew of the laughing Macaw and they would laugh instead and say her and mother were just playing tricks on them. But Ammie knew it was real, and it was the best memory she had of her and her mother. It was an amazing memory. Ammie hadn't been to the well since her mother died. She couldn't as she started school and her aunt never wanted her to go along for fear she would become upset along the way or get tired.

One day, Ammie decided that she just needed to go to the well and see and hear the laughing Macaw, the best memory of her childhood with her late mother. Ammie, now 14 years old, decided to simply go along to the well alone, by herself, with only the spirit of her mother beside her. As she walked along the dirt track, the dusty road, with the thick vegetation and growth of the jungle alongside, with the birdsong of thousands of birds, and the chirping of insects, the hissing of snakes, kept walking and walking and walking. It was magical, a magical journey, knowing that the lions and tigers and poisonous snakes and frogs and lizards were all somewhere, out there, nearby, but never ever harming Ammie. The air was heavy and dry with blue skies above, clouds that whispered to the sun in Ammie’s mind, telling the sun to break through the clouds.

Ammie kept walking and walking. Her flip flops were comfy, she was used to walking in them, but her feet became dusty and dirty. She couldn’t wait to get to the well to wash them, wash the dirt and dust off them. She started to think of her mother, and she started to smile, and couldn’t stop smiling. It was the first time she had smiled for years since her mother died. She was beaming, a monkey jumped through the trees and smiled back. Ammie was so focused on the laughing Macaw, the secret between her and her mother, the amazing beautiful laughing Macaw that was so precious and rare, and magical, that she just couldn’t wait to see it again. Ammie started to run and bound with a new found boundless energy. She was stumbling and tripping because of the little pebbles and the unevenness of the dirt track but it didn’t matter, all that mattered was that for once, she was happy again, she felt happiness and pure joy wash over her again after so many years.

Finally, there it was, Ammie had arrived at the well, imagining she was holding her mother’s hand or the she was on her mother’s shoulders as she used to put Ammie on her shoulders. She was so impressed with how strong her mother was. How could she walk and run that far with me on her shoulders? As the sun glistened against the water, as she peered into the well, she heard it, Ammie heard the laugh. It was the laughing Macaw, beautiful and brightly coloured scarlet, just chuckling to itself and laughing. Ammie started laughing too with tears of joy and contentment. They laughed together and the Macaw flew and swirled around Ammie and landed on her shoulder.

Ammie made her way back to the village with the laughing Macaw and it never once flew off Ammie’s shoulder. When she returned to the village, the villagers and her family couldn’t believe it – the Macaw was real, it laughed, and it was like no other Macaw. From that point onwards, the laughing Macaw never left Ammie’s side, it could have flown away and flown free, but it never did. Now Ammie is married with daughter of her own, she and her daughter laugh together with the laughing Macaw.