family

I look around the cage to my brothers and sisters. I have heard that we are not a normal family. I often wonder what a normal family is like. My little brother bites me in the gills. I know he is only playing but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.

Something is wrong with the master. He is not moving like he normally does and looks as if there is something bad in his mouth. He opens the cage then falls over. He is not moving at all now. My older sister steps over his body and into the room. She chortles happily and ruffles her plumage.

There are many people outside on the streets. They stare at as. We pass a man standing next to a car with lights on the roof. He talks into a tiny box about us. A few minutes later I am restrained like the master used to restrain me when I left the cage. I wonder if they will take me back to the cage.

I am put in a cage, but it is nicer than the old cage. It has soft things to sit on and there is tasty food. Different people come to visit. They all ask me many questions. Some questions are about the master. One man asks me where a came from. I say that I don’t know and return the question. He says that he was born. When I ask what this means he decides to leave.

I am taken to a large room with some of my brothers and sisters. They tell us that we are on trial and that they are going to decide whether or not we are humans and whether or not we are entitled to human rights. I say that the master called us chimera. The people do not say anything else until the trial begins.

Even though we are only biologically three-fifths human, we are granted full human rights and human status. The people who brought us here are very happy but not everyone in the room is very happy.

When I am with my little brother in the streets the next day. A person from the trial points something at my little brother. Little brother’s head pops, and red stuff leaks out. People scream and the person points the thing at me.