I called him "budgie"

I had always known him being there, opposite my bedroom window. Now I was thirty and he was probably forty. Always behind his balcony bars. His parents had never taken him to the street. Having a mentally handicapped child had been a curse for them for who knows which sin.

Happiness behind the bars

He was running hectically to and fro. Suddenly he would stop, look down at the passers-by and sing loudly small fragments. Behind the four year old boy, a greenish neglected open door. He smiled at people as they noticed him and grabbed the rusty balcony bars with his tiny hands.

There comes the sun

The schoolgirl had always tried hard to grow some plants in her flower boxes. It was always disappointing, as in three years no seed had sprouted. One morning, after opening her balcony door, for the first time she experienced a state of bliss when she saw a tiny green bud.