Free A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole Page A

osprey painting.”
    Osprey! Celeste thought in alarm.
    Audubon paused. “Yes,” he said. “There is something about this one…. He has spirit.”
    Suddenly the bedroom door swung open, and Audubon and Joseph entered the dim hallway. “Once you’ve gotten the supplies we need in New Orleans, return straight back, Joseph,” Audubon was saying. “If you leave tonight, you can be back by Saturday.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Leaving? thought Celeste. Going away? She felt panicky inside.
    Joseph glanced back into the room, searching for something.
    “Where did she wander off to?” he asked.
    Audubon arched an eyebrow. “Who?”
    “My little helper. Little One. She’s disappeared. I put out some nuts for her, but she’s gone.”
    “Perhaps the cat got her.”
    “No, she’s much too keen for that to have happened. But I feel a little lost without her, without her in my pocket. She’s my companion, my…friend.”
    “Well, I’ll keep an eye out for the little mouse; youget on your way to New Orleans.”
    Celeste pressed against the wall, avoiding the heavy shoes as Audubon and Joseph strode down the hall. She wanted to squeal and squeak and run after Joseph; but she hesitated, fearing the giant Dash, who trotted at their heels. They turned the corner, then clomped down the stairs, their voices dimming as they headed out the front door.
    Again Celeste heard flapping sounds from the bedroom, then the crash of an object falling and pieces of something scattering on the floor. The flapping stopped.

    She peeked around the door.
    There, tied to the footboard of the bed, was a large brown-and-white bird. It turned its sunflower yellow eyes toward Celeste.
    A familiar voice squawked, “It’s impolite to stare, you know!”
    “Lafayette! What happened? What are you doing here?” Celeste raced across the floor and up to the bed rail, and gave the osprey a hug around his leg.
    Lafayette grinned. “I’m glad to see you, too, dumplin’.”
    “But I heard such a commotion! I had no idea it would be you!”
    “You’d make a commotion, too, honey pie, if you were tied up. And look at this.” He gestured to a putrefying catfish head nearby. “They expect me to eat that? That fish has been dead longer than my Great-aunt Mabel, and I’m getting just a little bit tired of the stink!”
    Celeste sniffed in agreement.
    “You’re wonderin’ how I got myself here, am I right, lamb chop?”
    “Oh, yes!”
    “Well, there I was, mindin’ my own business after droppin’ you on the windowsill, had barely gotten any distance at all, and the next thing I know, BOOM! Some crazy maniac down in the yard is jumpin’ around and wavin’ his gun and laughin’! My wing is missin’ some feathers, and down I go. I got a good jab at somebody’s hand, though…. You should have seen the blood! Now I’m tied up here…tied up because my good wing is strong enough to get me up in the air…. I’d try to take off right now if it weren’t for these straps.”
    “What are they going to do with you?”
    “Over there on the table are his sketches. He spends hours studyin’ me and scribblin’ on sheets of paper. Then he gets all flustered and stomps off. Meanwhile,here I sit with Mr. Stinky B. Catfish, and I’m about to go crazy!”

    Celeste noticed the thick leather strap that tied Lafayette to the footboard.

    “Perhaps I could chew through those,” she said. “The window’s open. You could just fly out.”
    “You could do that?”
    “Of course!”
    “Excellent idea!” Lafayette exclaimed. “Start chewin’, sugar pie!”
    Celeste scrambled over and, sitting on Lafayette’s left foot, began to gnaw. It was difficult; the leather strap was hard and tough. In half an hour she was only partway through the strap.
    Just then they heard the slam of thescreen door downstairs and the heavy sound of boots coming up the stairs.
    “He’s back.” The osprey sighed. “The bigger one. I can tell by the footsteps.”
    Celeste darted