I can remember when I was first born my mother and father both held me in their soft, fluffy feathers and smiled at me gently. The first food they fed me was a long worm with fly wings on it. It tasted wirey the very first time but then I got used to it as I got older. When I turned one year old my mother and father gave me my first tour out in the trees. I was scared of getting out of the nest but I had to. I got used to it though when me and my other brothers and sisters started to play together. When it started to get dark we had to turn back to our nest. In the grass we all saw a little rabbit eating bark from the trees. But then it turned around and ran back to its family.

Around 7:00 P.M. we had supper. My father had caught some mice and we had a roast of little skinned mice. When we were done eating my mother went out for a walk alone because she was not feeling good. When I was about to go to bed she came home. Just in time, because we heard men walking around searching for turkeys to shoot. My parents always told me never to fly out if a man was close by because he would kill you.

When morning came my parents called my name. "Angela, come over here and help with the cooking. Today is a big day. Nobody but you and your father is allowed to go out today because there are a lot of men going hunting. You little children might get killed out there. And if we ever leave this grass house we are going to walk. There will be no flying if something goes wrong. I was told that sometimes they burn the grass. Last year your aunt died because she was so panicked. If something goes wrong just walk as fast as you can through the grass into the trees, and then fly away as fast as you can."

"Right now," my mother said," we have to get our cooking done. Tonight is Thanksgiving, and we are having a nice fat muskrat. Your father caught it with a man's trap in the lakes. I also picked some blue, rasp, salmon, and cranberries from the tundra. I thought it would be a good dessert. I hope we can all be here to eat together, because now you and your father have to go out and get some pine needles and leaves for decorating the house tonight. But be careful. I'm staying home with the little ones. I don't want them wandering around the grass or trees alone. There might be traps that are set, or even open ground holes. Some other friends are going along too.

When we left we had to be really quiet because we heard men speaking really quietly out there. As I was picking some leaves my tail got stepped on by a man, but I just lay completely still. My father got really scared. So he made some noise and ran in the other direction. Then all of a sudden he got shot in the side. He yelled for me to go home and not to come back for him because it was too late. He was done for.

When I reached home I told my mother that dad was killed. She got so pale and felt so confused. She went looking for him but all she found was some of his blood on the ground. She cried so hard. She just couldn't believe it for awhile. Then she finally came back home.

We had our Thanksgiving without our father for the very first time. But when we were at the table saying grace, suddenly my father's spirit appeared and told us,"Don't worry, I will always be with you, and you won't have Thanksgiving alone,ever!"

BY: Carmen Pitka