A Sunny Day in Pacifica – Essay by Alexander Perea
In a nest far from Pacifica there was a family of cardinals. The mother and the father had built a nest in late September. The mother then laid her eggs in the nest. There were two eggs in total. During December and January the parents took turns on keeping the eggs warm. Then one day, there was a third egg that wasn’t the same as the other eggs. In the early spring an egg began to shake. Then the next day the egg hatched and the parents named the chick Niko. Then a couple days later the second egg hatched, the parents named him Bud. Then there was the third egg. The third egg didn’t hatch and the parents got depressed. Then in late spring there was a wiggle. The day after there was another wiggle. Then on the sunny, third day, the egg hatched and the parents named her Sunny.
Sunny was a very strange chick compared to others. Niko was big and strong, he hung out with the bigger birds. Bud was smart and had many friends who would play with him. Sunny was a brownish white unlike the red of a cardinal. Sunny didn’t have any friends. She was a lot bigger but weaker than anyone else. She loved to learn and talk about things. She loved to explore the unknown and the mysterious. She wondered what was beyond the forest. Instead of playing Sunny would stay with her parents a lot.
Sunny’s parents told her about the darkest part of the forest. This part of the forest was uncharted and scary. No animal or bird would dare go there. Even though her parents told her all the scary stories, Sunny decided to go anyways. She traveled alone at night so she could be home by morning. Unfortunately it was a stormy night. Around her she could hear thunder and occasionally she saw lightning. Then she got tired of flying and flew into a little hole in the tree. She waited a while and then the thunder kept getting louder. Then from outside the hole lightning struck a tree in front of her.
All of the sudden her heart began to race. She began to breathe heavily, so many thoughts ran through her mind all at once. Some thoughts were nice and happy and others were dark and scary. Fire began to burn the forest. Sunny flew out of the hole and straight home. By the morning everything was on fire. All the homes were burned down. Every started coming up with ideas on how to fix it Sunny came up with the idea that they all move. No one agreed and the birds said it was stupid so they stayed and tryed to rebuild what was burned.
Meanwhile Sunny flew off in anger, she flew high in the sky. She flew past a river and over a mountain. She flew in a valley for days. Then one day she was wondering, Is there another place besides home? Then the next day she flew over a mountain and into a valley. This valley had houses made by people. She was amazed at what she saw. The sun was a beautiful gold on the bright green leaves and her now white feathers. She then saw the ocean. She got closer and saw other birds that looked like Sunny. The other birds were seagulls. Sunny loved the smell of the beach. Then a huge humpback whale leapt out of the water. She saw the other birds talk to the whale so Sunny went as well. The whale noticed that she was different and asked her what her name was. Sunny replied with her name. Sunny then asked the whale what his name was? The whale replied with Oliver. Oliver told Sunny to dive in the water, Sunny dove into the water and she could see clearly.
Sunny was amazed at what she could see. She saw plenty of fish and sea animals. She swam a little bit and saw sea otters playing with their children. She also saw how nice and friendly the animals were. She saw sea lions playing in the water. Most of them were asleep on the pier, and yelling at each other. Giant sail boats going around the bay. Sunny made friends with a baby otter. Sunny took another dive and saw a huge kelp forest. She witnessed an explosion of life and colors. Oliver was close as well.
Then she now went to the land and saw all the lovely people dressed in their shorts and bathing suits. She also met tons of dogs of all breeds. Then she saw a person sitting on rock at the far side of the beach. The person looked sad so Sunny went over to the person. Sunny knew the person wouldn’t understand what she was saying but Sunny asked the person why they were sad. Sunny was confused, she thought, “How could anyone be sad in such a happy place?”
Sunny kept on exploring, she saw so many happy people with happy faces. She then remembered her family and how they were happy, so she then went past the valley and into the mountains. All the way back to her family. She told them about this amazing place and every thing she saw. They all followed and then they were all surprised on what Sunny had found. Sunny said, “Even if you are different you can still make a difference”. They met many new friends and lived in Pacifica. For generations the family would live in Pacifica as happy as ever. This is the beauty of Pacifica. Sunny truly discovered Pacifica.
Alexander Perea won runner up in under 18 category for the 2019 Fog Fest Essay Contest with theme of ‘Discover Pacifica’. Learn more about Fog Fest Annual Essay contest here.
