Bill Burgess
Trying to keep the voice alive
Bill Burgess
Trying to keep the voice alive
Trying to keep the voice alive
Trying to keep the voice alive
Come on, birds!! Let me sleep just a little longer. 🥱
I know I stayed up a little too late last night, but I’m used to sleeping in until noon when I do that. The birds woke me up at 6 am with their sweet/annoying chirping. Maybe they were asking their Mom for breakfast? Maybe they were just more excited about waking up than I was. Either way, I’m groggy and want to go back to sleep. I wish I cou...
Look, Dad chose to make me a journal. I can’t help that. He put stories in here for me, but I don’t mind sharing them with you… I guess. I just need you to not be a jerk about it. And don’t ever take my journal again!!!
I’m seeing now how much like Fledge and Buzzy we are. You are the cautious bird, always looking out for yourself. I’m the reckless bird. I know it’s true. Buzzy, haha, I mean Char...
I can’t believe you thought I wouldn’t notice! It seemed odd when you kept the compass so close… even when you were using the privy. Now what are we supposed to do?? We have to get home to Mom and Dad now! You heard them… it’s dangerous out here.
We have no idea what kinds of animals are watching us even right now. I can feel their beady eyes just waiting for us to let our guard down. Fledge, yo...
I don’t know how you do it. You can wound me with just a look. Maybe it’s because you genuinely used to feel like my friend. I know you remember the hours we spent building a fort in the backyard. You have to remember us begging mom and dad to take us for milkshakes when we got tired of building. And there’s no way you have forgotten the scavenger hunts we used to create for the neighbors. Teammat...
Dad, I guess I didn’t realize what being in the car for multiple days feels like. I remember us taking little weekend trips in the Sardine Shack where we would drive to Henry Horton or the Natchez Trace and camp for a couple of days, but this is WAY different. It feels like we have been driving for a month. But things out the window are starting to change.
We started out in the green lushness of ...
Charlie needs to stay on her side. I’m tired of her messing with my stuff. Why can’t she just not touch my things?! She keeps to herself in every other way. It’s not fair!
You know what, Dad? I’m done. I am stretching these broken binoculars out on the seat between us as a “Do Not Cross!!!” Maybe Charlie will see what she’s done at the same time. She broke the one good thing on this trip. She bro...
I really don’t think I’ve heard Charlie say more than 10 words on this trip, and we’ve been gone from home three days! You know what? I’m going to make her talk. I’m going to annoy her into telling me what she’s thinking.
I just need a way to break in. What would get under her skin the same way that her silence gets under mine? I could copy everything she does. Like sit how she does, pretend to ...
Fledge and Buzzy flew through the night as far away from the strange scene in Toad Suck as they could go. They collapsed near a river once the sun peeked over the horizon. Buzzy said, “Where are we? The ground looks drier than before, and all of the buildings are more spaced out.“ Fledge agreed and said, “It’s colder and drier in the air, too. I’m scared, Buzzy!”
Buzzy, being older, felt like she...
Charlie, you will probably never read this, but I have to get these thoughts out of my head.
1. It kills me every time you laugh at me. I know you’re mostly laughing at the situation, but for some reason I can’t take it. I’d rather you be completely solemn toward me for the rest of my life than see you stifle a laugh that is about something I am or did.
2. Why can’t you stop looking at your pho...