The Flock of Grackles

By Alexander Ngo

All the Grackles of the flock worked tirelessly to ensure the health of the others–all but
one, that is. This Grackle was fat from stealing the food of all the others and too lazy to ever get food himself. All the other Grackles resented him, but they were used to this way of life. Every now and again there was a murmur of removing him from the flock, but it was never taken seriously. It was gravely important for the flock to stay united, after all. Their migration didn’t always go smoothly. The older, wiser yet more frail Grackles were often the target of the bullying and some days starved for it. One day, the wise elders gathered together to bring an end to the harassment.
“We must not let this mockery of our hardship continue,” one said.
“Agreed. But what are we to do? Even though he is less active, we are far too weak to
remove him by force,” another commented.
“We must rally all the other Grackles together,” another one remarked. “Just the few of
us are weak, but the whole flock can easily kick him out.”
One of them was very excited by this and said “Excellent idea! We will gather the entire
flock and call everyone to rise against him! We will finally be free of his tyranny!”
They did as they agreed, and the whole flock gathered together to attend the wise
Grackles’ speech. All but the lazy and crude Grackle, who thought such matters unimportant. The first elder spoke: “For the length of this migration, we have been suffering exploitation from one particular individual in our flock. If we do not expel him immediately, we will suffer the consequences.”
Then another in turn: “For too long he has starved us and paid nothing. We need justice
in the flock.” Finally another elder cried, “We must remove him from our midst!”
There were murmurs in the crowd as the elders awaited a response. Then the murmurs
became shouts of anger and upset.
“You want us separated!?”
“They want to tear our flock apart!”
The crowd was interrupted by the arrival of the rude Grackle who yelled “What’s all the
commotion!?”
He continued, saying, “These fools would love to kick me out, wouldn’t they? But that’s
just because they’re too weak to deal with life. They want to destroy our flock and turn us against each other. I think we should remove them instead.”
The crowd shouted in agreement. With the elders powerless to respond, the flock exiled them and left them behind on their migration.
The flock continued on, foraging for food and seeking shelter as it traveled south.
However, they grew weaker as they flew, for the fat Grackle stole away food the others needed to survive. The meager rations it left the rest of the flock were not enough to sustain them.
At first, they managed to survive. It didn’t last–just a few perished in the beginning, but
predators picked off more as the flock continued on their journey. As their numbers dwindled, the fat Grackle grew thinner, as he had less food to take and could not find food for himself. In the end, he met the same fate as all the rest–prey to creatures far larger than himself.
At the same time, a small flock of some elders were faring well and close to completing
their journey. Despite being old and frail, their unbreakable unity empowered them to finish their migration.

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Biography

I’m Alex Ngo, and I’m in the 10th grade. I’m part of the school newspaper, and I love what we do. Outside of school, I work on short stories for fun, sometimes collaboratively with my friends.

What is your main source of inspiration?

I see grackles everywhere at school, and I adore birds in general. It was a no-brainer to pick grackles as the focus of my fable.

What message do you hope to convey through your piece?

One bad apple can sour the bunch. It matters who you surround yourself with or who you put on a pedestal; make sure those people are good people.