The world is constantly capricious and malevolent. Someone somewhere is suffering while someone elsewhere is ascendant of this disparity. It is dangerous out there with misanthropes filled with rancor, hoping for vilification to their nemesis, all that are amiable. The irascible try to disparage the contrite and the taciturn are left reticent. These worldly problems are esoteric in Zelo’s opinion, therefore his doesn’t care.

 The youngest of six boys, Zelo’s gregariousness led to his provincial views. Prattle about those with diffidence and those with impetuosity was contentious and Zelo really did not care. It was all extraneous information his mind filtered out whenever his five older brothers discussed morose matters.  What mattered to him was that he got what he wanted when he wanted it, even if he didn’t really want it. Since his birth, Zelo has had innate prodigal and languid tendencies. 

So when his second eldest brother walked into the house after a trip to their prolific garden with a freshly picked lemon, Zelo cried out with zeal, “That lemon is mine!” While these five brothers are usually very forbearing when it comes to Zelo’s egocentricity, after years of dealing with his tantrums, they let their magnanimousness slip away. They cut it up for him and force fed him when the boy refused; Zelo actually has a great enmity for sour things.

Here came the great reprove in an impetuous and spontaneous harangue. Gone were the obsequious brothers who tried to placate and dote. “You are so slothful and haughty! Day after night we have to sate your childishness. When will you grow up?” That night Zelo hid in one of the unused rooms on the third floor in another transient fit.  

Zelo at this point in his mental development has not learned how to act stoic and composed. He still found his brothers’ defiance as nefarious and his incorrigible will was not mitigative. In this room with peaceful dove wallpaper, Zelo fumed. He kicked the antiquated furnace and called a pack of fearsome chimera out of great malice. At this time, it would have been nearly impossible to cajole a smile out of this acrimonious teen.

 In an ephemeral glance, Zelo was sure he had seen a wing flap on the wallpaper. It all began when someone left the window open. One second he was staring confused at the wallpaper and the next a head was popping off, the body following, and the wings flailing behind it as it swooped out the open window and made its great escape. Before Zelo had time to blink a second burst off and fluttered around his head. Seconds later a dozen had freed themselves from the confines of dry wallpaper. Within minutes the room was filled with hooting doves swarming around Zelo and pecking at his skin.

All Zelo had wanted was to be alone and now he couldn’t even move without touching a rat with feathers. One bird latched its talons into his shirt, then another, then another, until the whole bunch had grabbed onto his clothes and were picking him off the floor. Slowly at first, the birds guided him to the open window.

 Finally the panic started to set in. These birds were obviously trying to kill him! Zelo stretched his arms out in vain to grab at the bureau, his fingers grazing along the sleek top and missing the round knobs of a drawer. Useless appendages! He made a fruitless attempt at grabbing the curtain before his hands were already out the window and the rest of his body soon followed. There wasn’t a chance to feel at awe over the birds; they had the strength to lift him completely horizontally to get out the window. Too late, Zelo and the doves were already soaring towards the distant mountains.

The birds carried him across the land, searching far and wide. It was animal to understand, the power that’s inside. Then he was falling, tumbling, twirling in air, surely he’d die when he hit the ground. The doves had released him! Instead, he seemed to fall right on top of another boy with a very familiar group of birds above him as well. With great trepidation, the boy stuttered out, “I-I-I’m Jino.”

Zelo looked the frightened teen right in the eye and responded, “I’m Zelo, and these doves used to be wallpaper.”

Curiosity took over Zelo, and he asked Jino questions that he’d normally never ask even his brothers, personal questions about his family, his feelings, and his views on the world. It was odd for Zelo to comprehend at first, but there are other people out there in the world and they don’t all live a spoiled life like he did. By the end of their impromptu session together, supposedly Zelo had learned some life lesson (probably Jino too, if it concerned liveliness and friendship) because deep down in Zelo’s heart, he was grateful for his brothers and never feeling true loneliness.

The doves peacefully swooped down and swept their respective boys and flew them back to where they belonged, not the third-floor bedroom.