Hammie loved running on his hamster wheel more than anything. He loved the feeling of his heart beating stronger and faster. He loved running so fast that the wheel became a blur above him and below him and all around him. He loved the way the wheel created a little breeze for his fur. He was certain that nothing could ever be more fun than running.
One day started off like any other day. Hammie was running on his wheel when he noticed tiny chubby fingers reaching for the bars of his cage. “Awww! The baby learned to stand! And now he can reach all the way up here! Isn’t that cute?” Hammie thought to himself. “He’s growing up so fas-“ and then Hammie wasn’t thinking about anything because he was too busy squeaking as he began to fall. Hammie fell and his wheel fell and his cage fell and they all landed on the floor with a crash. Hammie blinked. He didn’t feel hurt, so that was good. The baby seemed okay, that was very good. Then he saw that his wheel was broken. “That’s not so good.” Thought Hammie sadly.
Hammie was so sad that he didn’t pay too much attention to what was happening for the next few minutes. He crawled into his little hamster house and stayed there. He heard footsteps as his little girl ran into the room and then everything was being picked up and he heard things like, “Poor Hammie!” “needs a new one!” “maybe tomorrow” and “move him to a safer place ”. The door to his cage opened and his broken wheel was taken out. The cage was set back down and soon everything was quiet. Hammie peeked out and instead of the usual view of the playroom, he was staring out a big, clear window. Hammie looked around him and realized his cage had been moved up to the top of the bookshelf. “ Oh,wow! I can see clouds! And trees! And kids and houses and there’s so much to look at! I’m going to be so busy! Look at that furry squirrel, he looks fun. Oh, look at the car driving! Look at that mailbox! Ooh, look at that robin flying! She looks friendly!” And from his new place on the bookshelf near the window, Hammie watched and looked and saw and only missed his wheel a tiny bit.
Hammie was right about the robin. She was friendly. As she flew by the window, she saw him and thought, “Oh, what a sweet looking hamster! I never saw him before. I’ll go say hello!”
But when she flew closer, she saw that the window was closed. Since she couldn’t talk to him, she waved. “He’s waving back!” She smiled. “I knew he was nice. I hope we can meet soon. For now, I suppose I’ll go back to flying!” and off she went.
Robin loved to fly. She loved having the cool ground under her feet one minute and then deciding to fly up into the warm sunlight a moment later. She loved seeing how fast she could swoop in a circle, how close she could get to the ground, and that no branch was too high for her to land on. She never felt stuck or bored because she could always fly away. She believed nothing could ever be more fun than flying.
The next morning, Hammie woke up to the sound of a plastic bag opening. He stuck his face out of his house and saw his cage door opening and….a brand new wheel being placed right in the middle of his cage! He couldn’t believe it! A wonderful new view and a new wheel! “Oh, I’m so happy the baby learned to stand!”he thought with glee. He hopped right in and ran and ran until his little world once more became a happy, joyful blur.
Robin was also having a wonderful morning and she flew and flitted from place to place. When she flew by the hamster’s window, she noticed it was still closed. She flew back once more to look inside to see what he was doing. He running so fast on a wheel that she couldn’t even see his feet. She flew by a third time to try to wave at him again but he was so busy running he didn’t see her. “Oh, well, maybe next time” she thought to herself as she flew off into the warm morning sunshine.
So it went for the next few days. Robin flew, Hammie ran, and the window stayed closed. Robin felt sorry for the little hamster who lived in a cage and couldn’t fly. “All that work and he never gets to go anywhere. It’s like he’s stuck. I hope he isn’t sad,” she thought to herself. Meanwhile, Hammie had been watching the robin. She didn’t seem to stay in one place very long. She was always flying off. Hammie noticed her feet hardly ever touched the ground. “Maybe it’s hard for her to run.” Hammie felt sorry for the bird who was always having to fly off and never got to run. “I hope she isn’t sad,” he thought.
Then one day, a very special thing happened. Well, it started off as an accident in the kitchen. The kids in Hammie’s family forgot about some cookies baking in the oven. The whole house smelled like burnt chocolate and butter. The family opened all the windows to get the smell out. Robin happened to fly by just as the playroom window was pushed up. “The window! It’s open! At last!” She tweeted to herself and flew down to say hi.
Hammie was having a particularly fast run that day. The wheel was squeaking especially loudly. It was so loud that he didn’t hear the friendly “Hi!…hello? Hello?” Until he happened to look over and see a bird standing on the windowsill. He was so surprised that he tripped and went flying right off the wheel. “Oh, no! Are you okay?!?” The bird asked. Hammie giggled. “Oh, yes, I’m fine, thanks! I didn’t see you there. I was having such a fun run on my wheel. My name is Hammie.” He climbed onto the bars of the cage to get closer to the windowsill. “I’m Robin” the bird chirped. “So…it was a fun run?” She asked. She sounded surprised. Hammie was surprised that she was surprised. “Oh, yes, it’s always fun.” Then he remembered that he never saw her running. “I mean, um..well… flying looks fun, too?”
Robin thought the little hamster sounded sad. “Yes, it is. And guess what I just decided? You’re going to go flying today!”
Hammie giggled again. “Oh, I can’t fly.”
Robin hopped on her little birdie feet with excitement. “Of course you can! You can hold onto my back and I’ll take you for a ride!” Hammie had not been expecting this. He accidentally let go of the bars and dropped to the floor of his cage.“I don’t think that will work!” He squeaked. Robin was determined. “If you can hold onto bars, you can hold onto feathers.” That was a fair point. But Hammie remembered something just in time. “Oh, but my door is closed! I guess I can’t.” He smiled and raised his shoulders in a shrug but before his shoulders were back down, Robin had hopped on the shelf and popped the lock open with her beak.
Hammie was still smiling, but not because he was happy. Because he forgot how to move anything, even his face. “Oh. You know how to open doors. And mine is now…open. That’s…so surprising. ”
“Climb on, my new friend who is named Hammie! You’ll love it!”
Hammie swallowed. “Well. Okay…I guess a quick flight would be….fine…” he slowly climbed out of his cage and onto Robin’s back. Before he could say, “Maybe we should start off slowly” Robin had already taken flight, was out the window and above the roof of the house.
Hammie squeaked with a terror he had never felt before, not even when the baby pulled his cage down. He couldn’t see the ground and couldn’t tell where the sky was or how high they were. It felt like he was falling in all different directions and without ever landing. All he could do was squeak as loudly as he could with his tiny hamster voice and hope Robin could hear him so she would stop flying.
Robin did hear Hammie but she thought he was squeaking with joy. “It’s the same squeak he makes on his wheel, but louder! He must be having even more fun than when he’s running on his wheel!” She thought happily. It was an easy mistake to make- she didn’t realize that earlier she had heard the wheel squeaking, not Hammie. Hammie didn’t squeak when he was having fun. Only when he was scared stiff.
Finally and at last, Robin circled back to the window and landed gracefully next to his cage. Hammie dropped off immediately and ran dizzily back inside.
“Was it so much fun? Was it the best fun you’ve ever had? I’m so glad it worked!” Robin twittered. “I’ll tell you what, I will check every day and whenever the window is open, I’ll come back and give you another ride, okay?”
“No that’s okay I’m fine i mean thank you so much for offering but really I probably shouldn’t fly anymore I mean the window is never open usually and besides I can’t ask you to do that and anyway that was sort of the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done and I may not be able to sleep tonight but thank you that’s very kind.” Hammie said at all once.
Robin blinked. “Oh. I thought you were having so much fun. I mean, flying is the best feeling there is! It’s complete freedom, maybe if you tried it again-“
“NO!” Squeaked Hammie. “Honestly, I do appreciate you being so kind, but that wasn’t very fun for me. At all. I’m much happier running on my wheel. Because, actually, running is the best feeling. Now that I have tried flying, I know what it’s like. There’s too much space and directions and my stomach feels like it’s missing. It’s definitely not as fun as running.”
Robin shook her head. “No, running isn’t as much fun as flying. It’s a little dangerous actually. Big, hunting animals might be able to catch you when you run, but not if you fly.”
“Of course!” Hammie hadn’t thought of this. “You’ve never run on a wheel before! It’s delightful! You get to run and run without ever worrying about where you’re going and you never get lost and it’s perfectly safe!” He smiled and clapped his paws together. “Go for a run on my wheel! You’ll love it!”
Robin smiled patiently. “Well, I can’t fit into your cage or the wheel so it wouldn’t-“ but before she could finish, Hammie had already pushed the wheel until it was directly under the open cage door. “Here’s what you do- you can run on the top of the wheel! The door is big enough that you can get your legs inside.”
Robin was still smiling but not because she was happy. She was too confused to remember how to move anything, even her face. “Well, I suppose that could work but-“
Hammie jumped up and down with excitement. “Yay! Hop on!”
“Ok, I guess a quick run would be….fine…” Robin didn’t want to hurt her new friend’s feelings, so she gently hopped onto the cage and through the open door. She put her feet on the top of the wheel. Before she could say, “I’ll just start with a slow walk,” Hammie gave the wheel a giant push. “Go, Robin! You’re doing great! Look at you! You’re having so much fun, you can’t even talk!”
But Robin wasn’t having fun. Robin couldn’t talk because she realized that if she stopped running, even for a second, she would crash into the roof of the cage and get stuck. Hammie had given her such a mighty push (very surprising for such a tiny animal) that she had to run as fast as her legs could go to stay on the wheel. Just when she thought it was starting to slow enough that she could hop off, Hammie said, “Don’t worry, the fun isn’t over yet!” And gave it another enormous push. Robin’s bird legs had never been so tired.
Finally, at last, Hammie decided to hop into the wheel and slow it down. He couldn’t wait any longer to ask Robin how much she had loved running on his wheel. Robin hopped onto the window sill and tried to catch her breath. Hammie began chattering. “Isn’t that the most fun? Your feet were going so fast! Probably as fast as flying, maybe even faster! And you weren’t in danger at all, so that was the first time you could just run without worrying and you just felt joyful, right?”
“Not exactly.” Robin managed to tweet. “I was about to fall the whole time! I couldn’t keep up!” “Oh, really? I’m so sorry!” Hammie said. He thought for a moment. “Well, next time, we’ll start off slower-“
Robin interrupted him. “No that’s okay there doesn’t need to be a next time honestly that exhausting and difficult and it was pretty awful and I can’t breath and how do you enjoy that I can’t feel my feet they hurt so badly!” She said all at once.
Hammie blinked. Robin blinked. “Oh.” They both said at the same time. “Well.” They both said at the same time.
“The thing is” Robin tried. “I know we’re new friends and all, and I don’t want to be rude, but I think you’re wrong. It just seems impossible that someone couldn’t love flying.”
“I know what you mean, except to me it seems wrong to say that you don’t enjoy running.” Hammie said. He tapped his little hamster paw fingers together.
“Maybe the word we’re trying to to think of isn’t ‘wrong…’ It’s different.” Robin said slowly.
“Of course! You’re right! That’s it!” Hammie said happily.
“What’s it?” Robin was confused.
“Different!”
“Right, it’s different.” Robin tried to explain again. “It’s not wrong, but I don’t know what it is.”
“It’s different!” Hammie said.
“What is?” Robin asked.
Hammie took a deep, cheerful, and patient breath. “We’re not wrong that we don’t like the same things! We’re just different! It’s not wrong that you like to fly. It’s not wrong that I like to run!”
“Oh!” Said Robin. “We’re just different from each other! I get it! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“You did! You just didn’t know you did!” Hammie giggled.
They heard someone starting to climb up the stairs.
“I think they’re going to close the window,” said Hammie. “I hope you can visit me again the next time the window is open.”
“I will!” Promised Robin. “I’ll fly by and check every day.”
“And I’ll be right here, running.” Hammie smiled.
Robin smiled too as she flew out the window. She looked back as she saw Hammie get back on his wheel to run. He did seem happy.
Hammie looked out the window at Robin as she flew off through the trees. He was glad she was flying. He knew she loved it.