Kokorico! – Read and Print

By Rachel Dunstan Muller, copyright 2022

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On Monday morning, Jeremiah Jones found a green feather in his bowl of cereal.

“Oh, no, no, no,” said Jeremiah’s mother. “We don’t need any of that! You take that feather to the window, and you let the wind have it. I won’t have any green feathers making a mess in this house!”

So, Jeremiah took that green feather, and he did just what his mother told him: he tossed it out the window, and the wind came and carried it away.

The very next morning, on Tuesday, Jeremiah Jones found a purple feather in his sock drawer.

“Un uh,” said his mother when she saw that feather. “No how, no way. You take that feather, Jeremiah Jones, and you let it fly all the way back from where it came.”

So, Jeremiah took that purple feather to the window, and he let it fly. The wind caught it and carried it up, and up, and up some more, until it was gone.

On Wednesday morning, Jeremiah Jones found an orange feather in the pocket of his favourite pair of jeans.

When Jeremiah’s mother saw that feather, she put her hands on her hips and shook her head. Jeremiah didn’t need to be told what that meant. He went straight to the window, tossed that orange feather outside, and watched it float away.

Well, I’m guessing that you already know that the feathers just kept coming. There was a yellow feather in Jeremiah’s closet on Thursday, a red feather in the bathroom sink on Friday, and a blue feather in his shoe on Saturday.

“But I kind of like these feathers,” Jeremiah told his mother, when she pointed to the window.

“It’s not the feathers that are trouble,” said Jeremiah’s mother. “It’s the bird that comes with them. That bird is trouble with a capital ‘T’. If you see even the ittiest, bittiest little pink feather, you get rid of it as fast as you can blink. Do you hear me, Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah nodded.

But on Sunday morning when Jeremiah woke up, he found the most amazing feather of all, lying right beside him on his pillow. It wasn’t just one colour; it was red, and orange, and yellow, green, and blue, and purple. And it was sparkly too, and it shimmered when he touched it. And Jeremiah – he didn’t want to get rid of that feather. He didn’t want to watch the wind blow it away. So, this time, instead of tossing it out the window, he took it outside and carefully hid it under a bush. Then he came back in to eat his breakfast.

Everything was fine until later that day, just as all his aunts and uncles and cousins were sitting down to a great big Sunday dinner. That’s when Jeremiah heard a noise. A squeaking, squawking, scraping kind of noise, just outside, near the bush where he’d hidden the feather – right beneath the dining room window. No one else seemed to hear it – at first. But then it got louder. And as everyone turned to look, Jeremiah saw a streak of something bright. Something every colour of the rainbow.

“Oh, no!” said Jeremiah’s mother. “Quickly – shut that window; close the curtains tight!”

But Jeremiah’s cousins didn’t run to shut the window. Instead, they raced to the door and ran right out into the front yard – shouting for joy. “It’s the Kokorico bird!”

Trrrrrrr-ico . . . trrrrrrr -ico, said the bird.

Jeremiah followed them, of course. He’d never seen anything like that great, big, colourful bird. It made him a little nervous at first, watching it squeak and squawk and flap its wings. And every time the Kokorico bird flapped its wings, it sent a shower of sparkling feathers into the air – like fireworks. 

But Jeremiah didn’t stay nervous for long – not when he saw how his cousins were laughing and clapping their hands. Even his mother was trying hard not to smile.

Oh, that crazy bird. Trrrrrrr-ico . . . trrrrrrr -ico, it said, as it flew over their heads. It flew back and forth and upside down. It flew in and out and under and past. It was a one-bird-fiesta of sparkle and sound, a rainbow blur of glitter and light! And beneath that whirling, spinning bird, Jeremiah and his cousins were whirling too, raising their arms and lifting their feet.

Everyone was exhausted by the end of that night. And when the Kokorico bird finally flew away – it left behind a layer of feathers almost as high as Jeremiah.

Jeremiah’s mother threw up her hands as she looked at the mess. “I told you that bird was nothing but trouble!”

It took Jeremiah’s family nearly a month to clean up all those feathers. And even then, they still missed a few. Which was just fine with Jeremiah. He likes those coloured feathers. He even has his own special collection, which he’s keeping until the Kokorico bird comes back, in a shoebox under the front steps.

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