The Tap on the Window

Gia lives on the second floor. Her bedroom window faces a big tree.

Every morning at six o'clock, something goes tap, tap, tap. The sound is loud. Gia wakes up. She is tired and she is cross.

"Who is there?" she says. Nobody answers. She opens the curtain. She looks at the tree. It is empty.

The next morning, the sound comes again. Tap, tap, tap. It is six o'clock. Gia jumps out of bed. She looks left and right. She sees nothing.

She tries to sleep again. She puts a pillow on her head. It does not help. The tapping is too loud. She goes to work with sleepy eyes.

At the office she tells her friend. Her friend says, "Maybe a ghost lives in your tree." Gia does not laugh. She wants to know the answer.

"Maybe it is the wind," she thinks. But the leaves do not move. The air is still.

At lunch she calls her brother. "Something taps on my window every morning," she says.

"Is it a ghost?" he asks.

"I do not think so," says Gia.

"Is it a branch?"

"No. The branches are far from the glass."

"Then make a video," says her brother. "Use your phone."

That night Gia puts her phone on the shelf. The camera looks at the window. She starts the video. Then she goes to sleep.

At six o'clock, tap, tap, tap. Gia does not open her eyes. She is too sleepy. She wants to sleep a little more.

At breakfast she watches the video. At first she sees only the grey window. Then a small bird lands on the tree. It has a red chest and a black head. It looks at the glass.

Then the bird flies at the window. Tap! It hits the glass with its beak. It flies back to the tree. Then it comes again. Tap! Tap! Tap!

"A bird!" says Gia. She laughs. "You are my ghost!"

But why does the bird do this? She looks on her phone. She reads a short page.

The page says, "Glass can look like a mirror. The bird sees another bird. It thinks the other bird is an enemy. So it fights."

"It fights itself," says Gia. "Poor little bird."

She wants to help. She takes a big sheet of white paper. She cuts it into long pieces. She opens the window. She sticks the paper on the outside of the glass. Now the window does not look like a mirror.

That night she goes to bed early. She wakes up at six o'clock. It is quiet. There is no tap. She smiles and turns over.

At seven o'clock she opens the window. The bird sits on the tree. It looks at the paper. Then it looks at her. It does not fly at the glass.

"Hello," says Gia. "I am sorry about your enemy."

She finds a small bowl in the kitchen. She puts some seeds in it. She hangs the bowl on the tree.

The bird jumps down and eats. Gia sits at the window with her tea.

"Good morning, little fighter," she says.