Colby is a young boy who has four elder sisters. His mother tries to maintain peace in this huge rambling family but finds it tough. Emotions are measured and distributed in a miserly way and little Colby has to bear the brunt of his slightly spoiled sisters. So there are picnics which are cancelled because one of the girls got into a fight. Or a doll party organised instead of a cowboy one.
‘ But Colby couldn't see where he came first with anybody. As far as he was concerned, he was always at the bottom of a heap of scraping sisters. His rights were never mightier than their wrongs.’
Aunt Emily is, as the story goes, ‘ the sounding board ’ ever since Colby was four. A friend of his mother’s, she was a courtesy aunt. Haven’t we seen how such people become much more friendly and caring than the real blood relatives?
Having lost her only son in a winter accident, Emily had decided to retire to a shell of loneliness. But Colby’s feeling of being shunned by his family and his need t o escape from them, creates an unlikely friendship between these two people. During vacations, Colby spent more time with her than at his home. She understood that she ‘had to live in a world that could not bend its tempo to the slow cadence of grief.’
One day with a particular moment which upset little Colby, he came to Aunt Emily’s house, went to a room and shut the door . He knew he could take freedom in her house and have his way which is what he missed at his own home. She tried to make him calm and to come out to talk it out with her. But he didn't heed. Confused as to how to pacify him, Aunt Emily saw a blue jay fly across the sky. Though a familiar bird to the landscape, the bird still drew interest in people.
Taking this novelty, she made up a story about a rare bird out in the garden which little Colby should see immediately or else he may miss out. The little boy wipes his tears and comes out. Aunt Emily draws him into a fantasy story about birds and plants and both are exported out of their upsetting world temporarily. Soon this becomes a practice and Colby finds solace and cheer in her home. One day when he is about the age of eight, she reveals that she had made up tales and stories to cheer him up. He understands that she did so to prevent him from venting out against his family which in turn sometimes helps to maintain peace within the family. He waited in his sadness and frustration to see if something wonderful will come out, instead of being grounded or lectured to punishment.
The story shows that sometimes it takes two griefs to come together for both sadness to be cancelled out.
The story has themes of loneliness, family discrimination, unlikely friendships where blood may not be thicker than water, and finding solutions before a problem builds up.
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