The Bird in the Gold Cage

A story.

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Once upon a time, there lived a songbird, called Taraneh. She was a small creature, with feathers the color of a shiny sapphire. She had a pointy, yellowy-orange beak, and black beady eyes that could look into your soul.

Taraneh lived in a sweeping castle, enclosed in a gold cage - handcrafted by the finest goldsmith in the Kingdom.

The cage was magnificently built, reaching towards the high ceiling, with gold and silver leaves intertwined in the bars. The cage had a door with a heavy padlock, but it was only opened by the scullery maids when it was time to clean the cage.

The jewel encrusted key to the cage hung on a wall next to an expansive painting of the Royal Queen.

The songbird had been presented to the Queen as a gift from a neighboring royal, in exchange for a piece of land. Taraneh was a bird one of its kind, for she had a beautiful voice like no other.

When the bird sang, her voice moved people to tears. The first time the Queen had laid her eyes on the bird, she had been entranced by its sweet song, like a poetic flute echoing through the walls.

The Queen had paid a great price for Taraneh - giving up her precious land, and so the bird unbeknownst to it, was to remain imprisoned in the castle forever. Taraneh was destined to sing, and only sing for the rest of her life.

But the songbird didn’t know she was a prisoner. She had a luxurious life, and her only job was to sing and to be admired.

Everyday, the songbird was given fresh exotic fruit to feast upon, and important people from all over the kingdom came to see her. She would enjoy putting on a show for them, singing loud and proudly for her audience.

Taraneh loved sitting on her golden perch, swinging back and forth while singing in her charming, melodious voice. The cage stood next to a large arched window, looking out into the impressive castle gardens.

The bird had only ever known the cage as her home, but she liked looking outside at the green, carefully manicured gardens.

Every morning, at sunrise, when the sky was all purply-pink, Taraneh would start singing her dawn chorus, her voice ringing throughout the castle. She would cock her head onto the side, and watch as the sun rose up, lighting up the lush gardens outside, casting a golden glow onto everything its rays touched.

The window next to the cage always remained closed - on strict orders from the Queen, so the bird could only see nature’s beauty, but could not smell the sweet scent of the red roses that grew on the bushes right outside the window, or feel the cool breeze as the tall willow trees swayed in the wind.

You see, the Queen was afraid that the bird would want to escape from her cage, if she realized there was a whole world waiting outside for her to explore.

One day, Taraneh was gliding around in her expansive home, singing away. It had been a good day, Taraneh had been given a fat hunk of juicy watermelon to feast on - her favorite. A newly hired maid entered the room, reached out for the heavy gold key, and unlocked the door to the cage.

The door swung open, its hinges squeaking in protest, and the maid stepped into the cage. She turned around to lock the door and carefully placed the key into her pocket, as she was strictly instructed to keep the cage locked at all times.

But Taraneh never even thought of escaping, because for her there was no need to break free. She had a perfect life, and that’s all she needed. She didn’t know any better. The Queen however knew there was more to Taraneh’s life, and would go to any cost to keep her unaware of the endless skies outside.

The new, young maid was a nervous little thing, and was afraid to make any mistakes on her first day in the royal castle. She had four young siblings to take care of, and she desperately needed this job.

She carefully cleaned out the cage, filled Taraneh’s bowl with fresh spring water, and left a bunch of fat, juicy grapes in her food tray. Stepping out of the cage, she attentively locked the cage door, turning it twice as instructed.

She hung the key next to the painting, and then opened the window next to the cage, to let in fresh air.

She had done everything correctly, but in her nervousness had forgotten the most important rule.

Never open the window.

That was the maid’s greatest mistake. She was running late for her next tasks, so in her haste she forgot to close the window.

That day, everything changed in Taraneh’s life. The first thing she felt was the gentle breeze that lazily glided its way in, ruffling her precious feathers, and tickling her senses.

Then almost simultaneously she registered the sounds of nature. Strange sounds, yet so similar. Taraneh could hear melodies like her own, but they weren’t quite the same.

Taraneh halted mid-flight for a moment, but then flew closer to the bars of the cage, to look out. She peered out through the gold bars, gazing at the scene beyond the window, taking in the strange heady scent, coming from the plump red roses outside her window.

A yellow bee buzzed around the flowers searching for sweet nectar, and Taraneh was entranced by its sound. A rooster was crowing somewhere in the distance, and the ducks in the small pond in the royal gardens were quacking.

She watched as a white dove flew into the great big blue sky. It kept going high, and high, until it disappeared out of sight. Taraneh wondered, where the dove was flying to. Would she ever come back?

Taraneh had seen birds fly before too, but she hadn’t ever felt the wind or heard the sounds of the world, or taken in the scents, so she didn’t think of it as anything special.

All her life, she had thought she was the special one, the one that people from all over the world came to watch her sing, when in fact she had been captive the entire time. The special ones were those who were free to fly into the great sky.

That day, Taraneh spent a long time watching the world go by, forgetting to sing or fly. She sat still on her perch, watching, taking everything in. Her grapes, lay untouched.

Until the young maid came back, having realized her grave mistake. She quickly closed the window, shutting out the world. Taraneh chirped loudly in protest, but the maid ignored her, and hurried out of the room.

That was the day, Taraneh started dreaming of the impossible. She now knew there was a world out there, and for the first time in her life, she wanted to escape the cage.

She tried picking at the lock with her beak, but it was of no use. She flew around the cage, fluttering her wings in a rapid motion, thinking of the whole world outside. She wanted to go out there too. She tried to squeeze through the cage bars, but they were too narrow to fit her body through.

She twittered, trying to bring back the maid who had given her the gift of the impossible dream. But nobody came. Nightfall came, and Taraneh sat on her perch, dejectedly watching the stars twinkling in the sky against the black velvet sky.

They looked so shiny, and bright. They twinkled, seemingly beckoning her to them. She wanted to fly close to the stars.

She wanted, needed, desired, freedom.

The next morning, when the sun was rising, for the first time in her life Taraneh didn’t sing her dawn chorus. She just watched the sky light up, and thought of the cool breeze she had felt in her life for the first time the day before.

Her sad eyes watched the world go by, and her heart skipped when she saw a pigeon fly into the forest beyond the royal gardens. She too wanted to fly into the forest, and see what secrets it held.

She waited for the maid to come again, to clean her cage, hoping it would be the same young maid that had left open the window for her. Sure enough, the maid came with Taraneh’s breakfast of ruby colored berries. But Taraneh hadn’t eaten since yesterday, she didn’t want to.

She watched greedily as the maid grabbed the gold key from the wall, and opened the lock. Taraneh raced towards the open door, but the maid was too quick for her, locking the door swiftly as she entered the cage.

Taraneh was now in love with her impossible dream. She wanted out. She wanted freedom. But there seemed to be no way out. It was impossible.

Several days passed, and Taraneh stopped singing her dawn chorus completely. She stopped eating, but would aimlessly fly around the cage. The cage was so big, that she could fly almost endlessly.

But there was no blue sky to soar into, and there were no other birds to fly with. She watched a flock of birds form a v and put on a performance in the sky. She wanted that too. But it was impossible.

Impossible, impossible, impossible.

Days turned into weeks, and people from all over the kingdom were coming to listen to her song. But Taraneh didn’t sing with her heart in it anymore, so her song wasn’t special now. Her song, no longer brought tears to the eyes of the listeners.

The Queen was worried too, but she couldn’t understand. She didn’t know that Taraneh had tasted freedom, you see. Things were getting turbulent in the Kingdom, so she was preoccupied.

One day, Taraneh was watching the maid clean her cage, yearning for the freedom that the maid had, to walk out of the cage as she pleased. The maid had opened the window, because Taraneh had been squawking angrily.

As the maid sweeped the cage, there was a loud bang followed by a crash. Taraneh’s feathers ruffled up in fear, and she began tweeting loudly.

The maid looked at her with wide, fearful eyes, as they heard more gunshots through out the castle. There were screams, followed by thundering footsteps. War had broken out, and the Queen was dead, both Taraneh and the maid heard someone declare. The Kingdom had fallen.

The maid in fear for her life, unlocked the cage door with trembling hands, dropped the gold key with a heavy clang to the floor and escaped.

Taraneh’s impossible dream was no longer impossible. It was possible.

But for Taraneh, it was still an impossible dream, for she had spent her entire life in captivity. She didn’t know anything else. And so for many days, she remained enclosed in the cage, by her own will.

Every morning the sun would rise, and the bird still remained in the cage. Every night, as the sky grew dark, Taraneh would look out the window welcoming in the crispy wintery chill. Every day she would stare at the little gap in the unlocked door, but would not go close to it.

There was nothing stopping Taraneh, but herself now.

Until one day, as she was sitting on her perch with her back turned from the window, she heard a song. Her ears perked up, and her heart fluttered. It was a song just like her own. She turned around to see a blue bird sitting on the window.

It was as if Taraneh was looking into a mirror, and the bird stared back at her, quiet now. For a moment, they both stared at each other.

Then the bird fluttered its wings, and flew out into the garden, gliding gracefully towards the forest. Taraneh looked out, flapping her wings up and down.

The other bird was singing again, its song traveling into the castle, and Taraneh finally not being able to help herself, took a leap of faith and flew.

She pushed the cage door open with her beak, and glided out of the open window, into the bright blue sky, singing as loudly as she could.

Taraneh never looked back, not even for a moment, as she felt the rush of the wind, caressing her wings.

She was finally free.

Taraneh’s impossible dream had come true after all.

The End.

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I Have an Impossible Dream Too

I too, have an impossible dream just as Taraneh did. To write a book, to make writing my career. I’ve always been a storyteller, and the first story I remember making up was about a bird. I must have been around 6 years old. When I was 8 years old, I knew what I was meant to be. A writer. A storyteller. A creator.

I had this dream, and I was going to make it true. That’s the beauty of being a child - when you’re young you have an unwavering belief in yourself. But as I grew up, the dream started fraying at the edges, as society told me again and again that this was an impossible dream. Especially for a brown girl like me.

While this may be a bold proclamation on my part, I really do believe I was born to write. This is not to say I’m a prolific writer, or that I’m the next best writer to grace the world. But a writer is just that - a writer. A person who tells stories. That’s all. All stories deserve to be told, don’t they?

For decades, I’ve run away from this impossible yet delicious dream of mine. The one that sends shivers down my spine when I think of it becoming true.

For years I’ve not written, because I’ve been too afraid to fall off into a dark abyss of disappointment. But this impossible dream of mine, has chased after me. The further, the faster I’ve run from it, the quicker and with even more determination it’s followed me.

For over 30 years, I’ve been trapped in a cage of my own making, with unbreakable bars of self doubt and fear of failure. For years and years, I’ve run away from my very own identity.

But I’m tired of running. I’m out of breath, and my heart has beat fast enough. I need to stop running from myself, and take a deep breath. The truth is, whether I write or not, I will always remain a writer. But when I don’t write, I’m unfulfilled - I feel an emptiness that nothing else is able to fill. I have been lost for as long as I can remember. I’ve lived in this gold cage for far too long.

My dream is still impossible - nothing has changed in that respect. The odds aren’t better, the chances aren’t any greater.

Except something has changed. I no longer want to escape from my destiny. My words deserve to be put on paper. They may, or may not get published, but they deserve to live. They may or may not be brilliant, but they deserve to be written. All the stories, the people, places in my mind, deserve to escape out into the world. They don’t deserve to remain captive in my mind for an eternity.

This is my formal public declaration, that I am indeed writing a book. A story came to me 11 years ago, and has stayed with me since then. I even wrote draft zero (about 50,000 words) before I abandoned it, because the fear was too great. It lays unread but not forgotten in an old laptop of mine.

But the girl in the story, is not letting me abandon her. She keeps coming back to me, urging me to write down her story. She’s just a figment of my imagination, but she’s a stubborn one. And I know that I owe it to her, and myself to take a chance. Who knows where it’s going lead me?

I will be sharing more about my journey as I write my debut novel, and I know you must be eager to know more. Unfortunately, I’m still watching the story unfold in front of my eyes, as the words pour onto paper. So with apologies I cannot give you many details at the moment.

But what I can tell you, is that it’s a story based in a fantasy realm, and the main character is a young girl willing to go to any lengths to achieve the very thing she doesn’t have. Even if that means destruction like never before. I’m writing it in a fairytale-esque way, with all the bells and whistles of simply a feel good story.

Don’t worry, I will be revealing more as I write the story, and while I don’t claim for it to be a world changing book, I do think it’s a beautiful story, and one that people of all ages would enjoy.

That’s all for now, my dear readers.

Wishing you a wonderful day,

Wajeeha