Cautiously Discovering Courage T

wump!” The door closes behind Mr. Heetderks and Mac as they disappear out into WorldWonder.

When she’d cautiously stepped away from the crate a few moments ago, Mica had noticed a glowing warm light on the opposite end of the room and absent-mindedly started moving toward it. She isn’t paying much attention to the details of what she is seeing and isn’t even really listening to the things around her. She is not used to figuring things out for herself.

It is in this state that she wanders by a table that has several very interesting cactuses on it. She curves back around and passes by a cabinet with glass jars filled with rare shells and coral rocks. Presently, she is standing under a skull of some large animal with huge horns, and now she is beside an aquarium with a gigantic caiman lizard. Mica is looking at these things, but she’s not really seeing them.

In Mica’s world she always just goes wherever her Momma must be. Her brother is always doing stuff and she sometimes gets caught up in it. But Mica doesn’t usually cause the activity. So, in this sea of strange things in a place she’s never been, she’s feeling very lost, a bit confused, and a lot overwhelmed, and she thinks nervously, almost in a panic, “I’m alone!”

Getting a Bird’s Eye View

Mica, as she is starting to panic a little says out loud, “What should I do now?”

But she thought she had said it in her head so, imagine her surprise when she hears this answer, “That depends on what you’ve already tried.” The unidentified voice answers.

Cautiously, Mica turns around only to discover a huge parrot sitting way up on a perch.

Parrots are much like peacocks in that they are rather aware of how beautiful they are, but parrots, unlike peacocks, are smart. If fact, if you want to get a bird’s eye view on some interesting thing, a parrot would be a great bird to ask. They do not let the fact that they are beautiful go to their heads and are often very humble creatures.

On the other hand, most parrots are rather concrete in their thinking, and they prefer to get right to the point of things. So, you’ll want to ask exactly what you want to know and not waste a lot of time going on and on. Mica, of course, does not know any of this about parrots.

The parrot continues as parrots often will when being asked for advice, by saying, “if you have just tried climbing around with your beak, for example, and that is not accomplishing all that you were hoping, then perhaps you can consider sitting and thinking for a moment. Or taking off and flying.”

At this he cocked his head to the side and kind of leaned over a bit to stare directly at Mica with his blue eye. “What you should do now always comes after what you’ve already tried. So, ‘what have you tried?’” He repeats.

“What do you mean?” Mica asks, still trying to catch up to the fact that she is somehow in the middle of a conversation with a parrot she doesn’t know.

“Mean?” it repeats. “One question at a time, please.” The parrot responds curtly. “You will weigh down the situation before it gets off the perch if you ask a second question before you answer the first. First, let’s figure out, what have you tried already?”

Mica, being thoroughly confused, doesn’t know how to respond but manages to say, “I’ve just come from my brother’s crate, but…”

“Good!” the parrot interrupts enthusiastically. “From his crate.” He repeats. “And how is that?” he asks.

“Uhhh?” Mica questions, “I don’t know what you want me to say?”

“What I want…” he repeats. “But that seems to be the problem then doesn’t it. I know what I want, but that’s not what you were asking. Do you want to know what I want, or do you want to know what you should do?” He pauses to see if Mica wants to choose one or the other. Seeing that she is not sure he proceeds, “If you want to know what I want, I’ll tell you. I want to help you know what to do. But that doesn’t help you know what to do, it only helps you know what I want. To help you know what you should do, you will have to know what you want.”

Mica has no idea what this bird is talking about, and she starts panicking and trying to find an excuse to end the conversation when she blurts out, “I don’t know what I want to do.”

“Don’t know. Don’t know.” He says, “but who does know then?” he asks. Not in a mean way, he seems genuinely curious.

“I don’t know.” Mica says, but then realizing that this is just going to trap her back in the same place she’s been stuck with this parrot already she quickly says, “I mean, I should know, but I guess I need to think about it.”

“Think about it.” He repeats, “But, that’s your answer.” He continues. “The next thing you should do is think about what you want.”

“Think about what I want…” Mica repeats, not realizing that she is starting to speak very much like a parrot, repeating things all the time. “Yes, that’s true.” Mica says, pronouncing each word slowly, realizing that this is the answer to her question.

She is on the other side of this room because Mac told her she needed to look around. She didn’t want to look around, she wanted to stay close to him; to stay safe. But she often feels she needs to do what he asks and now here she is, alone, and uncertain of what to do next.

Thinking through all of this, it occurs to Mica to ask the parrot another question, only this time she asks with a little more confidence, “I would like to know more about where I am. What is this place?”

“This place,” the parrot begins, “…is the Nature Center.”

“Oh!” Mica says, feeling unsatisfied with that answer. Knowing what this place is called isn’t really what she wants to know, she realizes. Then she wonders, “What do I want to know about this place? It is a big place with lots of things I’ve never seen before.” She stops to look around and consider what she’s looking at.

At first, she sees mostly table and chair legs since she’s not very big. Then, as she looks a little longer, she sees jars filled with strange things on bookshelves nearby. She turns slowly around and sees, way across the room, the tank where Doc is now hiding and then she sees how close it is to the crate where Mac is staying.

She sees several other tanks and cages with other creatures in them. There are lots of decorations on the walls, and interesting things all over the counters. Finally, she turns back around to face the Parrot’s perch and realizes that the whole back wall is windows. As she looks past her reflection, she sees that she is standing only a few feet from where Mr. Heetderks had put her down to find her brother. Suddenly, this room, even though it is very large to her, is not so large as she thought, and she decides not to be afraid. Being emboldened a little by this realization she looks up at the parrot and asks, “What do people normally do in the Nature Center?”

“Do in the Nature Center?” He says, “mostly, they discover things, just like you’re doing now.” And then he winked at her.

After being momentarily distracted by this winking parrot, Mica feels excitement welling up inside. Looking around the room again she thinks, “I don’t know anything about this place, where do I start?” As she begins to feel overwhelmed a thought pops into her head. It’s Mr. Heetderks’ voice from when she was standing on the firepit wall. He says, “Come on Mica, you don’t need to stay on that firepit wall anymore, I think. You can come back with me. After we get your brother settled, I can give you that tour around WorldWonder.”

Mica realizes that Mr. Heetderks already promised to help her discover this place. “How did he know she would want that?” she wonders. It seems almost magical that his words come to her just when she needs them. Especially since, when he’d said them to her the first time, she hadn’t even understood what he meant.

At the time, stressed as she was over her brother’s fall and worried about being separated from her Momma, getting a tour around this big, unknown place was the last thing she wanted. But now things are different. Now, she does want to discover more about this place. Suddenly, instead of being overwhelmed, she’s excited for Mr. Heetderks to come back. She takes another quick look around and realizes that this place is a very exciting place to discover when you want to begin discovering things.

Resolving to be ready when he does return, she begins planning where she’ll be waiting for him.

As she turns to make her way back across the room to where Mac’s crate is, she remembers she never thanked the parrot. So, she looks up and says, “Thank you, you have been very helpful.”

“Very helpful.” He repeats. “Yes, very helpful,” he says, thoughtfully, “He tells all of us when we come here to be helpful. Most of us do. Not all, but most.” Then, without warning, he leaps from the perch and flies across the room and lands on top of a cage next to another parrot. They begin chattering to each other and forget all about Mica.

Mica watches the parrots for a second and then thinks to herself, “I will place myself right inside the door where Mr. Heetderks will come in so I can’t miss him.”

With that she begins moving much less cautiously back toward the door on the other side of the room. And as she walks across the room this time, she sees all the interesting and strange things in the Nature Center. Leaving her more curious and courageous than ever.

Chapter 5

Rubber Boots and Bubbles

Mac can hardly remember a time when he was less happy than he is right now. Wet, covered in a strange smell (he thought it was strange anyway, the rest of us call it soap), and unable to hop on his bruised heel. Mr. Heetderks, on the other hand seems pleased as he hoists Mac out of the basin, towel in hand, and says, “There we go! Finally got all that soot out. Had to scrub you good, didn’t we?” he asks, seeming to notice Mac’s distress.

In a comforting tone, Mr. Heetderks says, “Now, let’s get you dried off and back inside. I promised you a chance to rest your foot, and so far, we’ve just been leaping from one thing to the next.”

He finishes drying Mac off with the towel and turns to walk toward the Nature Center. Reaching toward the door handle he says, “You’ll be up and running in no time.”

Mica had positioned herself just inside the door. To pass the time while she waits, she looks at all the interesting things in the room, like the gigantic skull on the bookshelf beside her. She doesn’t have any idea what it is, otherwise, she might be more nervous than she is. Instead, she is only very interested to hear from Mr. Heetderks about all the strange things.

And just as she is thinking this, she sees him approaching the door, carrying Mac swaddled in a towel. She can’t help hopping in excitement as the door swings open.

“Well, hello there, Mica.” He says with a joy-filled chuckle. “It’s good to see you, too.”

She’s a little embarrassed at the attention, but it quickly fades as Mr. Heetderks walks past her back toward the crate by Doc’s tank and begins lowering Mac into place on the sawdust.

She follows them for a few hops and then pauses and waits, expecting for Mr. Heetderks to turn to her any second.

She hears him say quietly to Mac, “There you go. Stay here and rest, we should be able to get you out of here in a couple days.” Mica realizes Mac must have fallen asleep, which is exactly what happened. In all the stress of the past forty minutes he had finally felt calm and comfortable wrapped in a warm towel and swaying in Mr. Heetderks steps and drifted off to sleep.

Mr. Heetderks places Mac quietly in the bottom of the crate and then, without turning around, began walking toward the far end of the room. Mica feels a sudden shock thinking for a second that Mr. Heetderks has forgotten her, but she hardly has any time to be disappointed before he looks back mid-stride and says with a quiet smile, “The tour starts this way.” And gestures with his hand for her to follow.

Flooded with relief and joy, she follows him without a hint of hesitation.

Back to the Gate

Mr. Heetderks sits on a nearby chair and unlaces his shoes. Sitting beside him are two brown boots that to Mica, who only stands about 9 inches off the ground, are positively humongous. She nervously hops out of the way as the first boot swoops past her and is pulled on by Mr. Heetderks. Now the second one is on, and Mr. Heetderks stands to move toward the door.

He says quietly, “It’s always a good idea to put your boots on when you’re heading out on a tour, you never know when you’ll need to step into the pond or get in with the goats. Things can get a little messy in WorldWonder if you’re not wearing a good pair of boots. But don’t let me get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning.”

And with that he sweeps open the door and waves for Mica to follow him. They step outside and Mica discovers they are right back where the whole adventure started an hour ago. Seeing the crates they came in, she looks around with anticipation expecting to see her momma standing nearby. But her momma is nowhere to be seen. The second crate that her dad and Mac arrived in is also empty. Mica begins to feel a little homesick. She’s never been away from her Momma for more than a few minutes, and she has always been able to see her even while she was exploring before. But this is different, she doesn’t even know where her momma is.

Mr. Heetderks breaks the silence, “Don’t worry Mica, I’ll take you to Momma and Dad at the end of the tour. We’ve got them set up in a nice spot at the back of WorldWonder and they’re excited to see you. But we better get going, it’s almost 2:00 p.m. and I think we can expect a heavy rain soon.”

Mica feels comforted and it doesn’t even register with her this time that Mr. Heetderks knows exactly what she’s thinking about.

“Now,” he continues as he walks past the empty crates toward the entrance gate, “This is the front gate of WorldWonder,” he says. “We always leave it open because we love to have guests come in, but that means you could easily go out. That road out there,” He says, pointing to a road ten feet away, “is very close and can be very dangerous for someone as small as you.” He finishes his thought and then turns and walks back into WorldWonder.

“SQUAWKKK!” Mica hears from just behind her. She turns back and sees a peacock sitting in her nest on top of a large stone just outside the gate. The peacock is peering down at her suspiciously. She turns and hops after Mr. Heetderks, leaving this large, suspicious peacock in peace, and decides that she is not interested in going out of the gate.

Back to the Beginning

By the time Mica catches up to Mr. Heetderks he has rounded the corner and is standing right where they had been standing when he let her down to run after her brother. He looks down at her to say something, but then seems to change his mind mid-thought and says, “Why, Mica, you’re not the same, cautious little kangaroo I set down here an hour ago. You’ve grown!” He pauses and smiles down at her with a kind and genuine face. Mica straightens her back, standing a little taller.

Mr. Heetderks begins again shortly, “This seems like the perfect place to start our tour, or rather a perfect place to restart it, only this time, we’ll skip the firepit, you’ve already discovered that part.” At this he steps out from under the awning and starts making his way toward the pond.

For the next hour, Mr. Heetderks walks with Mica through WorldWonder teaching her about the things they come across. There is so much to learn and so many things to see and do that Mica hardly notices the time passing. Sometimes she is nearly running to keep up, and other times she is being held by Mr. Heetderks. Some things he describes as they are walking by, and Mica doesn’t even see what he is describing before they have passed it. Other times they stop and watch together for several minutes as some mysterious and wonderful thing happens; like beautiful fish as big as Mica eating pellets Mr. Heetderks has just produced from his pocket, or a plant smaller than Mica’s toe with lots of tiny leaves like a fern that collapse on themselves after they have been brushed by Mr. Heetderks finger. They tour through huge wooden structures with towering poles and around and over stumps and logs that swing and tip as they walk across them.

Kids, Bubbles and Mosquitos

At one point, Mica sits on a platform under the slanted grass roof of a hut, while Mr. Heetderks talks with a large group of children who are walking through the Nature Center with their teacher.

“Well, we use the bubbles to scare the mosquitos away.” He says in response to a small, excitable young boy’s question.

“But why do mosquitos even exist?” one particularly insightful girl shouts above the din.

“It’s a good question,” he says, swatting mosquitos away from his face, “They can be very difficult to deal with. But lots of things we don’t understand or even like have important purposes to play in WorldWonder.” He concludes. The girl seems skeptical as she squishes a mosquito that has landed on the back of her hand.

Of course, Mica isn’t bothered by the mosquitos because she has long fur, so she doesn’t see what the fuss is all about. And she also doesn’t know what bubbles are. Just then a bubble drifts down to where she is sitting and pops right in front of her nose. She leaps back in fright causing the crowd of children to squeal with delight. Many of the children press in to get closer to Mica, several of them ask at the same time, “Can we pet her?”

They are all very interested in Mica, but Mr. Heetderks explains that Mica is still young and not ready to be petted yet. Many of the kids look disappointed at his news even though some continue inching toward her with outstretched squiggly fingers.

Mica is feeling much bolder now than she had when she stepped out of her momma’s pouch this morning. However, she is grateful for Mr. Heetderks’ protection. “These kids are so huge,” she thinks as she positions herself, so Mr. Heetderks is standing between her and the small group of kids trying to sneak by him. She is only about nine inches tall after all.

Eventually the kids disperse and disappear around a corner with their teacher who leads them down the path and out of WorldWonder. “Well,” Mr. Heetderks says breathlessly, “we have just one more stop before I take you to your parents.” And with that he picked Mica up and started down the path.

Tommy, Stanley, and the Goats

As they round the corner Mica sees the firepit off to her right but, as promised, Mr. Heetderks walks right past it and doesn’t even mention it. Up ahead, Mica sees a bunch of wooden pillars sticking up out of the ground. Then suddenly she feels herself going up steps. She refocuses her attention back to the path in front of her only to discover that Mr. Heetderks is carrying her across the top of the pillars. On either side of her, there is a drop down into an enclosure. She scans the area and sees a bunch of rocks, at least she thinks they are rocks until one of them moves. It extends its head and long neck up in their direction. It takes her a moment to realize that this “rock” is a turtle.

“That’s Tommy. I think you’d really enjoy spending time with him. He went on a big adventure of his own last year and I’m sure he’d tell you all about it.” Mr. Heetderks says without pausing. They cross the pillars and start down the other side. Mica looks back at Tommy as he returns to nibbling on some lettuce in his bowl.

Suddenly Mica sees a small red animal with a fluffy tail leap from the far wall into the enclosure. It runs across the open space to Tommy’s bowl, grabs a large piece of lettuce right out of Tommy’s mouth, and takes off running back in the opposite direction. It leaps up onto the wall and disappears over it. Mica thinks she hears the tortoise say, “Stanley!” but she isn’t sure.

Just then Mr. Heetderks turns the corner, and the scene is hidden from view. Mica doesn’t know what to make of the whole thing, but something about it doesn’t seem right to her. She can’t quite put her finger on why, but she feels very bad for that turtle and decides she needs to investigate this situation as soon as possible.