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THE

CAGED as always. The magnificence of the building’s infrastructure never failed to astonish me.
It was late afternoon when I headed back to the mansion. The walk took a while

BIRD was ironic. How could such a lovely place be filled with so much gloom?
High-marbled walls, curved window sills and a fountain gushing out of sweet water-- it

As I stepped into the mansion, my ears nabbed an abrupt sound. It was the same
doleful cry that I had been hearing for the past few days. Was that the sound of a bird?

Could it be crying?

I was drawn in, I could not deny it. My feet pulled me across the wooden

floorboards of the mansion, and I kept my ears peeled. Before I realized it, the stairway
loomed before me. I looked up at the second floor. The master had warned us about it.
Off-limits, he said. Yet today, the door at the end of the hallway was open. A faint light
emanated from behind the door. Nervously, I made my way upstairs. I pushed the door

open gently.

Written by Chloe Eu Ji Chen
The light suddenly vanished, and what lay before my eyes was a dark, shabby

room. The light reappeared, and I made out the silhouette of a caged bird. Oh, a little
bird! It perched, still and solitary. Its white wings were clipped. Scars and grayish stains
The afternoon sun pounded mercilessly covered them. Strings fastened its legs to the cage, restricting its movements. The little
on the earth. I soaked in sour sweat, tending bird caught sight of me as soon as the door creaked. Immediately, it cried out a fearful

to Master’s garden with a pair of rusted shears trill, its sorrowful gaze fixing upon me.
in hand. Trimming off the final blades of
grass, I tilted my head towards the sky again,
breathing in the fresh gusts of air. Rubbing Whoever was it who imprisoned the bird here? What has it endured? Who robbed
my sore thumbs, I turned around to leave. it of its freedom in the skies, who trapped it behind those cold, metal bars?

No, some blades had been trimmed too It ought to have the freedom to soar, just like all the other birds in the skies. The
short. I eyed the area of uneven grass again, cage is not, and will never, be its home.

disgruntled. My heart palpitated, not wanting
to disobey orders. I avoided Master’s gaze, Under the dim light, I squinted my eyes, searching frantically for the key. My
quickly trimming the grass blades to an equal limbs blurred into a cacophony of confusion, desperate for this lease of freedom, albeit

length. for this little bird.
Illustration by Wong Xiao Qing
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