“Look at that bird!” Alyson pointed to the sky as she shielded her eyes and bent her neck back as far as it would go. A swallow glided far overhead of herself and her little brother. “It flies so smoothly.”

“Swooo-o-osh!” Aaron’s arm imitated the bird’s flight, except faster.

Alyson giggled. “You goofball. It’s a bird, not a jet.”

“Well, it flies like a jet,” Aaron said as he began to run ahead of Alyson on the path with his arms stretched out like wings. After reaching top speed, he flapped his arms up and down and jumped. He almost fell. He looked up at the swallow disappearing behind the trees and trudged back to Alyson.

“So you’re not a bird.”

“Birds don’t wear backpacks loaded with schoolbooks,” he said. They walked a little farther. “But I still wonder what it’s like to be a bird.” Aaron crossed his arms. “I’d only see the top of your head and shoulders. You’d be small. Just a dot. The wind would rush past my beak and feathers and wings—it’d be cool.”

“You’d be cold—and wet when it rains.”

“I’d land in my dry, comfy nest.”

“Well, I’m glad I’m a person, with clothes and shoes and a jacket and a nice, warm house.” Alyson lowered her eyelids and looked at Aaron out of the corner of her eye. “And what would you eat?”

Aaron smiled as he opened his eyes wide. “I’d eat worms! Big fat ones. And bugs. Lots of ‘em. Moths and mosquitoes and dragonflies!”

“Ew!” Alyson winced. “Look, the leaves on that tree are almost all orange.”

Aaron wouldn’t let his sister change the subject so fast. “And just think, in the winter I’d fly far, far away, where it’s warm and sunny, and where I could eat bugs all day long. And you’d still be here—where it’s cold and snowy.”

Alyson crossed her arms as well. “You can eat your bugs in the sun.”

Aaron stuck his chin out a bit farther as they neared their home. “Well, I really do wonder what it would be like to be a bird.”

“Well, we better be glad God made us what we are, and thank him.”

“Yeah, I’m glad,” Aaron sniffed. “I’m just wonderin’.”