Virginia Harris
ABOUT THE BOOK.....
Charlie’s Cage is an engaging book for Early Readers and Spiritual Readers of all ages. The main character, a parakeet named Charlie, escapes his cage and home and is guided by other birds, animals, and elements of nature through all four seasons on his journey back home.
It is a story about responsibility, appreciating what we have, and learning from those who provide support and assistance as we find ourselves in various types of "cages" during our earthly life. The spiritual undertone symbolizes our journeys through the seasons of life on Earth as we learn, grow, and prepare for the Ultimate Homecoming in the spirit realm.
As a Native American storyteller, the teachings of the four directions and spiritual symbolism for the various characters, in conjunction with my Christian faith and beliefs, makes Charlie's Cage a tapestry of words to be enjoyed by the children of every season.
Virginia Harris is a paralegal by profession; a writer based on passion; and a spiritual vessel for the Ultimate Source of Creativity. Her words and works are divinely inspired and she gives all credit to God - the Master Muse in her life.
As a Cherokee descendant, she honors her Native American ancestry and spiritualism by living up to her Indian name of Beautiful Painted Words.
Virginia lives in picturesque southeastern Kentucky with her husband and four-legged family: dog - Gizmo; and cats - Mushu and Sadie. She has been blessed with two daughters, two sons, twin granddaughters and a grandson who are constant sources of joy, inspiration, and motivation for stories yet to be told......
"This is it!" thought Charlie, "I’m outside and now I’m going to meet the other birds at the feeder." Using his strong wings, he flew four feet up to the feeder and perched on the side, just as he had seen the other birds do. Soon other birds joined him, but they weren’t very friendly. All they seemed to want to do was eat. Charlie chirped and squawked, but they would just eat a few seeds and fly off. Charlie decided that maybe the friendlier birds were up in the tree on the tall branches. He pivoted around on the perch, spread his wings and with all his might aimed for the highest branch of the tree. He didn’t realize how far up it was and his wings carried him only to a branch that was several feet below the tallest one.
"Whew," said Charlie. "That was a lot of work! My wings are really tired." He sat up in the tree watching butterflies flutter by and really noisy bees zip past him.
Before long he felt rested again and decided to try his wings out by flying across the street to the park to look for Emily. Harder and harder he flapped his wings and then a nice, summer breeze picked up and helped him glide even higher and faster until he found himself in the center of the park. He couldn’t even see his house or the bird feeder from there, but he was sure he could find Emily.
There were lots of boys and girls playing in the swings and Charlie thought it was really funny that they were trying to fly like him. There were all kinds of trees in this place and in the center was a big fountain filled with water. There were lots of birds around the fountain, bathing and drinking. After flying all that way, Charlie was thirsty and decided to swoop down and join them. There were so many of them splashing around he decided to wait on the ground then jump in when a spot was cleared for him.
Just as Charlie landed on the ground by the fountain, he saw a very strange and scary creature coming toward him, crouched low in the tall grass. It had big green eyes, four legs, a long tail and was brown and black striped. It kept crawling closer and closer as Charlie hopped farther and farther away. Just as Charlie decided to fly up to the fountain, the creature lurched at him and just barely missed his beautiful tail feathers. At the same time, a big blue jay came squawking down from one of the tall trees and made so much noise the creature ran away.
"What was that thing?" asked Charlie of the Blue Jay. "That was a cat, silly house bird!" squawked the Blue Jay. "Don’t you know you’re supposed to stay in the air when they’re around or they’ll eat you? What’s a bright kid like you doing in a place like this anyhow?" asked the Blue Jay.
