Who can really be bothered to have a mob of 10 kids for several hours in their own flat?! The damage repair would then take even longer than the preparation itself.

At the party they looked for and found treasures, they collected wood for the fire, grilled sausages, ate cake and played games. They all had a lot of fun. A memorable Birthday Party. At five o’clock in the afternoon the parents of the kids came and picked up one after the other. Kevin and Darren stayed there alone. The two of them were a bit hyper and neither of them wanted to stay alone at home. As they lived in the same block of flats, informing the parents that they would play and stay out longer wasn’t an issue.

They returned to the forest to the place where they had been shortly before and went around their favourite places. Suddenly they heard the sound of a bird. It wasn’t a singing, it was a cry, a cry for help. They followed the voice and not long thereafter, they found a chick under a tree on the ground, uninjured but scared. The bird house seemed to be up on the tree and it took a long time for them to spot it between the branches. They discussed their options. Neither of them wanted to leave the stranded chick on the floor to its fate. After a long discussion they decided not to go home to ask for help but instead to carefully climb up the tree with the chick and to place it back in its home. As Kevin remembered, that his parents had told him that he wasn’t allowed to touch the animal, he took of his t-shirt and they wrapped the fearfully squeaking chick into the fabric. He couldn’t remember why he wasn’t allowed to touch the bird but he didn’t do so regardless. Darren, who had a hoodie, placed the bird into his hood and got ready to climb up to the bird’s home. Kevin had to help Darren with the climb, as the first branch that he could grab was higher up than he could reach himself. He only managed to climb up after 10 minutes. Darren climbed skilfully and without fear. As he was at the level of the bird’s nest he realised, that it would be very difficult to put the little bird into the bird’s home. The bird’s home was on a branch that was relatively far away from the tree trunk and Darren had to lie with his stomach onto the branch to get to the bird’s home. He wasn’t sure himself, whether he would even be able to get the little bird into the small entrance. On his tummy with the little bird in his hood he tried to reach the house without enough grip. Once he arrived at the bird’s home he realised that he wouldn’t be able to reach the entrance with his short hand. He had to drag the bird’s home towards him. He tried it. He found the home was surprisingly heavy. He had to hold onto the branch with one hand and lift the house with the other. He tried it several times without success. He then decided that he would only hold onto the branch with his legs and use both hands to lift the home. In that moment he lost his balance. He tried to hold onto the bird’s home but it caved. Darren, the bird’s nest and the branch fell to the ground. The little bird in his hood was dead, squashed by Darren’s body. Darren had a broken leg; a moderate concussion, the back part of the bird house broke away and the remaining three birds dropped and only one survived the crash.

Kevin left Darren on the ground under the tree and ran as fast as he could home to get the parents to come to help. Darren ended up in hospital, the mended bird home was placed back onto the tree but the bird parents never returned and so the final chick also didn’t survive the rescue mission.

In this way this Birthday became the one that Kevin and Darren would remember for a life time but never spoke of again.

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