Copyright 1998  --  Robert Baer Jr

PROLOGUE

What if the entire world had gone "to the birds?"  It has in BirdWorld! 
This is the story of Robin Mallary, working mom, executive and loving
wife.   How is she handling all these responibilities?  Let's ask
"Chipper" Birdwell, Robin's dad!

Birdworld --  "The Monster"

As we search for Chipper in that old familiar tree, we find that he is
carrying some small boxes and has his back turned to us.  As he slowly
turns around, he's startled to see us and drops all his boxes!   "Whoa,"
Chipper shouts,"Don't scare me like that!    I'm an old bird, I can't take
too many more surprises, help me with these boxes, will you please?   You
know, this reminds me of what happened the other day in the city, the one
over that hill, where many of us birds live and work.  Everyone, including
my dear daughter Robin, sure got a BIG surprise that day, yes sir!  It all
started when Robin returned to the radio station after lunch....


Robin sat down at her desk and began to plan finish the script for her
talk show later in the day.  The others were busy, also, Meadowlark
Gremmon was typing a sports report, Howard Yates was busy telephoning
clients and Thrush Limbird was quietly grumbling, as usual!   Robin had no
more asked the question,"Where's Edward?" when Babs Finchly called her on
the intercom, telling her that Edward was on the line with an important
breaking news story!  He was so excited that  he could only ask to be
patched straight into the booth to give the report live on the air!  Robin
ran into the control room and signaled Wild Bill Bluejay to pre-empt his
show for this news bulletin. When they patched Edward in, they were in for
quite a shock!

"This is a WBIRD news bulletin, Edward R Sparrow reporting, this is NOT a
hoax, on the edge of our far city is a huge monster, repeating, a huge
monster is near the city limits, coming closer to the city!   No one knows
where this creature came from, but it's slowly walking toward the downtown
area!   Birds all over the city are taking flight, and the police and
volunteer militias have been called to the scene.  "

As the report continued, the entire office staff was suddenly fearful. 
"This is terrible!"  Meadowlark chirped with sadness,"I hope that thing
doesn't come this way!"   

"This makes no sense,"  Howard reasoned,"there's never been anything like
this happen here before, you don't suppose that old Eddie is seeing
things, do you?   He is getting up there in years..... hey, where's
Thrush?"

Thrush was hiding under his desk, afraid to look up!   "Now this is silly,
Thrush!"  Robin said to him,"come up out ot there, Thrush, you're a grown
bird!" 

Edward's report continued -- "Now the creature is almost in the city, I'm
standing only 500 yards from it.  It has stopped moving, and .... I do
believe the monster is speaking!    I can't quite make out what it is
saying, but it is speaking to the few birds that have gathered around to
see it.  Some in the crowd were screaming, things like "monster!"  and
"Help!"  and "Fly away everyone!"  as the monster lowered it's huge head
to speak. "

Robin pondered all of this in her mind, who or what can this monster be? 
Robin grabbed the control room mike and asked Edward to describe the
beast.  Edward said it was gray and huge, had four legs, a long neck and
long tail!  He even thought he'd heard the beast speak with a southern
accent!

"Southern accent?" Robin said aloud,"hey, that's no monster, he's a friend
of mine!"

"Well Robin..." Edward answered back,"you're 'friend' is about to be
confronted by the police and militia forces, they may try to shot that
thing!"

Robin rushed out of the control room and told the office staff, "I must go
to him, someone may get hurt!"   Before anyone could chirp another word,
Robin had flown out the window.  She flew as fast as she could toward the
city and on the horizon, she could see the "monster" every bird seemed to
be so afraid of!  

"Robin!"  the creature bellowed,"I've been looking for you, these birds
down here won't give me any directions to find you,  are they upset with
me?  Some of them seem to be yelling at me!"  

"Computer Dinosaur!" Robin said with amazement,"what are you doing here?"

"You and Joe asked me to come and visit y'all, so here I am!" the Dinosaur
said happily.

Down on the ground the police and militia were waiting, weapons pointed
toward the reptile, ready to shoot as the Mayor walked toward the front
line.  "Creature, you're not welcome here!  We won't let you eat us or
crush our fair city, now leave or we'll make you leave!"  he shouted.   

"What's wrong with you people!"  Robin chirped in anger,"this is the
Computer Dinosaur, he's a friend of mine from the outside world, and I
asked him to come to visit my family!"

"Robin!"  Edward R Sparrow screamed,"get away from that thing, it's big
mouth will swallow you whole!"

"Robin!" the police chief shouted through his bullhorn,"you're in the line
of fire, fly away so we can blast the creature!"

"why won't y'all believe me?" the Dinosaur said sadly,"I don't want to
hurt anyone, I just came here to see Robin!"

"Silence, you evil lizard!' the Mayor yelled,"leave our city!"

"This is MADNESS!"  Robin screamed,"If this dinosaur was dangerous, would
I do this?"  Robin flew into the air and landed on top of the Dinosaur's
head.  The crowd was astonished!  She was perched there silently for five
minutes, trying to prove her point.  Some in the crowd expected the
"monster" to eat her, or try to grab her with it's huge front feet, but
the Dinosaur stood just as still as Robin did, so finally the police chief
agreed and said,"OK, stand down from alert status."  One by one the
members of the Birdworld militia lowered their weapons and walked away. 
Even the mayor was convinced,"Creature --- er I mean Mr Dinosaur, it
appears we have made a terrible error of judgment, can you ever forgive
us?"

"I sure can!" the Dinosaur shouted with joy,"I reckon I'd been a little
scared of me too!"

"Dinosaur, I have to return to the station soon to do my radio show, but
I'll guide you to my house!" Robin said as she flew away from the city,
shouting,"follow me!"

With that the Dinosaur followed Robin to our tree.  I must admit that I
was a might scared when I first saw that big scaly giant, but I really
liked this huge fellow when I got to know him.  The kids really thought he
was GREAT!   He brought many gifts, all "bird-sized" as the Dinosaur
called it, including many books, "shrunk to size" by his friend Uncle
Buford, the scientist.  The Dinosaur told us many wonderful stories, and
then he returned home.  

I gotta believe every bird in the city learned a lesson that day, not to
be so quick to be scared of things they don't understand.  In fact, the
Dinosaur's visit even changed Robin's talk show that day, every caller
kept asking her questions about HIM!   How they met, what classes they had
together in college, what information she knew about him, and so on!  It
was her highest rated program so far this year!   Robin's name was on the
front page of the paper and she even did a TV interview later that day! 
Mr Biszop, the owner of the radio station was thrilled at how things
turned out, there was even talk that the mayor would make this 'Computer'
Dinosaur an honorary citizen of BirdWorld!   Yes, we birds have sure
learned a lot from this giant 'outsider!'   Now, excuse me, if you'll hand
me those empty boxes I have to go now.   Must get some things together for
our church's charity drive,  come back again sometime, OK?

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