Want to keep reading?

You've reached the end of your complimentary access. Subscribe for as little as $4/month.

Subscribe
Aready a Subscriber ? Sign In

The writer is thrilled to find a rare yellow feather

On the way back from a baseball game, the game I hit my first double, I was walking up to the snack bar with all five saved snack tickets clutched in my hand. I decided to walk farther up, when SCREEEEEEECH!

I stopped dead in my tracks. I saw something on the ground. It appeared to be a bird’s feather of some kind, so I flipped it over. In a flash of bright gold-yellow, there it was: a goldfinch feather.

I was sweating with amazement. Some people would call that an overreaction, like, “It’s just a feather!” and, “You see those all the time!” The truth is, though, I hadn’t ever seen a goldfinch or one of their feathers before.

I gave Mommy the amazing bright-yellow object called a goldfinch feather. That was, of course, after I’d shown it to everyone at the snack bar.

Rainbow Feather
Rainbow Feather

It was getting darker by the minute as we edged toward the car, when I spotted something completely different. A massive black beetle was slowly making its way close to the bushes. It was the largest live beetle I had ever seen. It was so black that, for a second, it blended into the surrounding darkness as we reached the car.

Unfortunately, when we got home, we discovered that the goldfinch feather was no longer inside Mommy’s purse. Tears trickled down my face as I sped into the bathroom . . . what an upsetting feeling, when you’ve just found something that can never be replaced, and it didn’t even last a single day in your grasp.

I thought aloud to myself: “Maybe it’s not gone, but that’s unlikely . . . maybe it’s some place we don’t know about, like in the car somewhere . . . ?” A few of the tears disappeared.

Luckily, a few days later, the goldfinch feather was recovered!

Thank goodness it was hidden in Mommy’s leather handbag in her grey VW Beetle. She’d forgotten that she had put it there.

It is now part of my growing feather collection, as my most valued piece. To this day, I am still amazed that I found the feather of a bird I have never actually seen.

NoaMcCarter
Noa McCarter, 8
Collingswood, NJ

Leticia Cheng
Leticia Cheng, 9
San Jose, CA