A Cry in the Forest

This story is from Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world and one of the countries in our church’s Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Do you know where Madagascar is? If you look on a map, find the continent of Africa, and then search for the big foot-shaped island off the southeast coast. That’s Madagascar. Our story today comes from the central east coast region:
Late one afternoon, a woman named Pascaline was walking down a narrow trail in the forest. In her basket was the money that she had made from selling fruit in the market that day. The sun was beginning to set and the forest was growing dark. Pascaline needed to rush home to begin making rise for supper. Her baby boy, Rivo, was tied snugly to her back with a wide cloth. He was getting fussy because he wanted to eat, too.
As Pascaline hurried along, she was surprised to hear footsteps behind her. Her heart began to beat very quickly. Just last week, her neighbor’s house had been broken into. Was the person walking behind her a friend or a thief?
Rounding a turn in the path, Pascaline decided to hide behind a big tree to let the person following her pass by. If it was someone that she knew, she would come out and they could walk home together. But if it was a stranger, Pascaline would wait many minutes so that the person could get far ahead of her and her little boy.
Quietly Pascaline crept into the bushes at the base of the tree. The footsteps on the path slowed down and then stopped. She was right. Whoever was out there had been trying to catch up to her! She held her breath with fear and stayed very still.
But Baby Rivo did not understand that they were in danger. All he knew was that his tummy was very hungry and it was time for mama to feed him. Buzzing mosquitoes began to bite his tender skin and he started to fidget and whimper. Pascaline knew that soon he would begin to cry and her hiding place would be found out.
Unbeknownst to Pascaline, on a branch far above her hiding place sat a dronga (droon-ga), a handsome bird with black shiny feathers. He had a proud curly feather on the top of his head and his longish tail was split like an upside-down “V”. Drongas are not only good-looking, they’re very clever. They can sing like many different birds and even “meow” like a cat.
The footsteps started again and as they came closer, baby Rivo began to cry to be fed, “Waaa! Waaa!” Pascaline bounced him gently to calm him, but nothing worked. “Waaa! Waaa!” Rivo cried, louder and louder.
Pascaline could hear the footsteps hurrying now. She grew cold with fear and almost leapt out from her hiding place to run away.
“Waaa! Waaa!” howled baby Rivo.
“Waaa! Waaa!” echoed a voice above their heads.
What was that? Pascaline looked up. She could barely see the bird sitting amongst the branches until she saw its black beak move. “Waaa! Waaa!” the dronga cried again. Why, he sounded just like baby Rivo!
Pascaline didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, too. If baby Rivo’s wailing didn’t give away their hiding place,