Catch to release
A bird flew into the house today just as we were about to leave for Leeward.
It flew through the front door, through the tv room, and into the living room, where it then tried to fly out through the fancy blocks, which let in light and some breeze and are large enough to let it through, but are all netted to keep out mosquitos and, sadly, also keep small birds in.
My younger brother tried opening the double doors in the living room to let it in. They're wide and bright and breezy, and I thought it'd fly through them as soon as we did that, but it didn't. It continued flying as high as it could, and kept trying to go through the netted blocks, flying away from us in fright, but never towards the way it came in or the new way we opened.
It kept flying back and forth, round and round in that room, never understanding our words to each other or encouragement to it (of course), until we could see it getting tired. Its chest rose and fell faster. It flew in shorter bursts. It flew lower and lower (but never towards an exit). And it let us get closer and closer to it before flying away.
It was eventually freed when my father caught it in his hands and threw it out of the cage it had flown itself into.
