I showed Philip the thing I had brought from the park.
“Do you think we can save her?”
“It’s not moving,” he said, picking at the bird with his pen.
“Hey!” I said quietly, so Mrs. Rosenfeld wouldn’t hear.
He didn’t care. “I think it’s dead. Mrs. Rosenfeld!”

In a minute, the teacher was over, looking at the small box
with the smaller bird inside of it.
“That bird is gone,” she said, solemnly. “Get rid of it,
before anybody catches anything.”
We carried the box to the bathroom, and dumped it into the garbage,
getting out of there before anyone else came along.
“Wanna go anywhere else?” Philip asked.
“Before going back to class?” I thought about it. “Like where?”
“Ms. Freeman’s class, Mrs. Takagi’s, the library… Thoughts?”
“I dunno…”
“Library!” Philip said, and headed for the stairs.

After entering, we headed straight to the research section,
where resided The Comic Book Heroes, by Jules Feiffer.
It features origin stories of a bunch of superheroes, like
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the original Green Lantern,
the Spectre, the Spirit, Captain America, and the Human Torch.
It was a bible to us.
Feiffer had written a huge essay about the heroes
and what they meant to him,
but it was far too long for us to appreciate
even as fifth graders.

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled Philip out of there.
I don’t know how often he took sojourns like this,
but I didn’t think we’d get away with so long a departure.
Luckily, Mrs. Rosenfeld didn’t notice a thing.
We settled back into class, free of any bird,
and learned about something or other.

Should I come clean to the teacher now?