Daybreak

Day was breaking, the light was outlining itself through the gaps in the curtain. He got up thinking, "Another day, the same, monotonous, without hopes or expectations." He drew back the curtains, the sun poured in with all its strength and brightened that poor boarding-house room for people from the provinces.

He looked out, he saw it, it was huddled in the window frame, shivering, alone like him, abandoned to its fate. He opened the window, took it between his hands hungry for affection, gave it warmth.

The contact between the two woke old memories in the man, of his home town, the unfulfilled dreams, the hopeful promises... He felt something warm between his hands, he looked at them.

Their eyes met and spoke. The man felt a new energy, he felt like singing, it had been so long since he had sung that he did not recognize his own voice.

Suddenly a harmonious trill burst into the room, now he was sure. God was present. So many times in recent months he had denied Him. Why had He abandoned him?

He sighed, smiled, and in an imperceptible gesture opened his arms and set free the cage, his own and the little sparrow's. Then it left, like a magician who vanishes through mirrors.