Reader: "They had been flying for six hours over the ocean. They felt the need to recover their strength. What was better than a nice feast of herrings? Following the instructions of the pilot-seagulls the flock got into a current of cold air and dived towards the herring shoal. They holed the water like bows and, when they rose again, each seagull was holding a fish in his beak. Kengah put her head under water to catch a herring and so she couldn't hear the alert which shook the air."

Pilot: Danger at starboard! Emergency taking-off!

Reader: "When Kengah took her head out of the water she found herself alone in the immensity of the ocean. She opened her wings for taking flight but the wave was quicker and swamped her completely (…). The sticky spot, the black plague was gluing her wings to her body. Kengah damned the humans."

Kengah ends up breathless on Zorba's balcony.

Zorba: That's not a good landing!
Kengah: I have been swept away by a wave black of oil! It is the damnation of the sea!
Zorba: Fly to the zoo: you'll find a vet who will help you.
Kengah: I can fly no more! This has been my last flight!
Zorba: Rest. I'll bring you some food.
Kengah: There's no time, because I have to lay an egg.
Zorba: I'll call for help.
Kengah: Stay here! I have to ask you to make three promises.
Zorba: All right. Everything you want.
Kengah: Promise that you will not eat my egg.
Zorba: I promise I will not eat your egg.
Kengah: Promise that you look after my egg.
Zorba: Yes, I promise it.
Kengah: Promise that you will teach my egg how to fly!
Zorba: I promise you, but rest, and I'll go and call for help.

Reader: Zorba went quickly down and ran to the "Cunco", an Italian restaurant in the harbour. Two cats, who were rummaging in the trash saw him going.
cat 1: Gosh what a fatty!
cat 2: That's right! He looks like a ball of tar.
Zorba: (jumping on the dustbin, he draws out a talon and shows it to Stray cat 1) Can you see this talon? Do you want to try it on your backbone? I've got nine more!
cat 1: What a beautiful day, buddy!
cat 2: That's right. Beautiful day, but a little cold!

Reader: Zorba sets out again and gets to the restaurant. He mews three times and waits on the doorstep. The Secretary comes; a roman cat who tells him:
Secretary: If you haven't booked you can't come in.
Zorba: I must mew with Colonel. It's important and urgent!
Secretary: All right, come in!
(Zorba gets in and meets Colonel)
Colonel: Damn it! The mice ate the champagne cork!
Zorba: Excuse me, it is a matter of life or death.
(Zorba tells him of the she-seagull)
Colonel: Hi, man, I'll see what I can do. Let's go to Diderot, he knows everything: He's encyclopedic.
three cats arrive at "Harry's", a bazaar at the harbour.)
Description of the bazaar
Mattia: You can't get in if you haven't paid the ticket.
Zorba: (drawing out a talon) If you want I draw out the other nine too!
Mattia: All right, you can get in!
Zorba: How can we save the she-seagull covered in oil?

Diderot: Let's have a look at the encyclopedia. Letter S, as in Seagull and letter O, as in oil. (Diderot turns the pages). Here it is! An oil stain can be removed with benzine!
Colonel: I knew it! It means that Secretary will wet his tail in benzine and will clean the she-seagull.
Secretary: What? I will not do it!
Colonel: Tonight there's cream liver at dinner. Don't you want any?
Secretary: Cream liver? I'll clean the she-seagull!
( The four cats gets back to Kengah, but she's dead).
Colonel: We should close her wings.

Zorba: Oh! She's laid an egg!
Colonel: Buddy, you are in trouble!
Zorba: What can I do with an egg?
Secretary: A nice omelette?
Colonel: Not at all! The promise of a cat of the harbour is the promise of us all!
Zorba: But…I have never sat on eggs in my life!
(Everybody looks at Diderot)
Diderot: I will look up the letter E in the encyclopedia, but we will surely need a big heart!
Secretary: We have to sit on it without breaking it.
(The three cats go out. Zorba stays)

Lucky asks her mom "Zorba" for food. Lucky, of course, cannot know that Zorba is not a seagull, but what she's looking for is protection, cuddles and help to survive. She's just a newborn and newborns - whatever species they belong to - all have the same basic needs. This was made clear to the children who thought together about what being a newborn could be like.

Reader. Zorba was feeling ridiculous. But a promise is a promise! He went to sleep with the egg close to him. On the evening of the twentieth day he was awaken by a tickle on his belly.
Lucky: Mum! Mum, I'm hungry!
(He gives her an apple, then a potato, but Lucky doesn't eat. While he is trying to catch some flies, the two stray cats see him.)
cat 1: Look, Fatty is dancing!
cat 2: Maybe he's getting ready for a dance competition,
(Zorba gives the flies to Lucky who eats them and curls up close to him. Zorba goes away and when he comes back he sees the two stray cats near Lucky)
cat 1: I'll eat the wings!
cat 2: And I'll eat the leg!
(Zorba arrives silently at their backs. He puts a leg on their heads and keeps them still at the ground.)
cat 1: What a nice kitten, lady!
cat 2: We're vegetarians!
Zorba: I'm not a lady, stupid!
cat 1: What a nice son! It'll get a beautiful cat!
It isn't a cat! It's a seagull!
cat 2: All cats should have a seagull for a son. They're the nicest in the world!
(Zorba draws his talons out and scratches the cats' ears. They run away and Zorba saves the small seagull.)

Reader: Zorba understands that place is not safe anymore and takes the chick to the bazaar. But here also the danger is behind the corner.
small seagull walks in the bazaar, when a mouse appears from behind the stuffed bear.)
Lucky: Help! He wants to eat me!
(Zorba comes and the mouse runs away)
Colonel: We forgot the mice! We must make a deal with them! Go and get him!
Zorba: Let me speak with your boss.

mice boss arrives with all of them)
boss: Oh! The fatty cat! Fatty! Fatty!
Zorba: Leave the chick alone. He's under the cats' protection.
boss: So it is true that you're growing a nice chick to eat him all by yourselves! Egotists!
Zorba: I'm not afraid of you, because I killed more mice than the hairs I have on! If you touch the chick, I'll kill you all! -
boss: Have you thought of how going out of here, ball of fat? Watch it, you could become a cat puree! Cat puree, cat puree!
(Zorba draws his talons out and jumps on the back of the mice boss.)
Zorba: I will become puree, but you will have no eyes to see me! Will you leave the chick alone?
boss: What rude manners! We can make a deal!
Zorba: Which one?
boss: Let us go through the restaurant court.
Zorba: All right! But only at night, when humans can't see you!
(Zorba backs away) (the deal with the miceboss has been made and the mice start dancing)
(Sopravvento arrives at the bazaar and greets the cats)
Sopravvento: Good morning, everybody!
Colonel: WE were waiting for you. Only you can check if it's a male or a female.
small seagull's sleeping. Sopravvento gets to her and looks under the tail feathers)
Sopravvento: She's a nice young lady!
Colonel: I would call her Lucky, because we looked after her and we love her.
We greet you, Lucky, friend of the cats!
(Lucky GIVES A KISS TO EACH OF THE CATS)

Reader: lucky lives happily in the bazaar. during the day, while tourists are there, she stays hidden among the stuffed animals. but one night Mattia tells her:
Mattia: ugly bird! don't go and shit around like all birds do!

Lucky: why do you tell me so, sir? I'm a clean cat and I do my things only in my litter.
Mattia: but look at yourself! you are not a cat! you haven't got four legs, the fur and the whiskers like all cats! your friends the cats, those flea-infested, want you to get fat and then will eat you with the mice!
(Lucky IS SAD AS HER SENSE OF IDENTITY HAS JUST BEEN SHATTERED AND Zorba IS LOOKING FOR HER)
Zorba: we have squids at dinner, why aren't you coming? are you sick?
Lucky: do you want me to get fat so that you will eat me with the mice?
Zorba: who told you this nonsense?
Lucky: Mattia told me everything.
Zorba: it is only true that you are a seagull. since you were born we have been looking after you and loved you. we are proud you feel as a cat and think we are your family. when you learn to fly you will feel as a seagull, you will be happy and will love us more!
Lucky: but I'm afraid of flying!
Zorba: when you fly I will be near you!
(Zorba LICKS HER HEAD AND Lucky PUTS HER WINGS ON HIS BACK. THEY LEAVE TOGETHER)

Reader: Colonel, Secretary, Sopravento, Zorba, Diderot tried unsuccesfully for many days to teach her to fly. Diderot had pulled his whiskers one by one after the first twelve failures. they talked for hours and hours to find the way to make her fly. Zorba had stayed all the time near the she-seagull, who was sad for not being able to fly. eventually colonel declared:
Colonel: we the harbour cats will let you break the taboo one time only. you will mew with one human only, but we will tell you who.
Zorba: the human living with the cat Bubulina.
Colonel: Bubulina,s human, why just him?
Zorba: I trust him! I heard somebody reading what he writes. he can't fly with a bird's wings, but he flies with words. he's a poet!
(SERENADE TO BUBULINA THE beautiful and sexy she-CAT)

(Zorba GOES TO BUBULINA'S TERRACE)
Zorba: I have to speak to your master.
Bubulina: no, my master is busy and when he writes he doesn't want to be disturbed.
Zorba: but I have to mieow with him.
Bubulina: you can't mieew! it's a taboo! get out of here right now!
SPITS AND RAISED HER fur)
Zorba: do you like funk, sweetie?
DANCES WITH OTHER CATS. THE POET ARRIVES AND WHEN HE SEES THEM STARTS LAUGHING)

Zorba: I know I can't dance very well.
Poetcan you s.. s.. speak?
Zorba: you can speak too, but I'm not surprised! I can speak all human languages!
Poet: This is an hallucination! you are an hallucination, aren't you?
Zorba: no, I'm a cat. we the harbour cats have chosen you to confide our secret and ask for help.
Poet: Mew then ,cat.
Zorba: we have fostered a she-seagull, but we can't make her fly. will you help us?
Poettonight. listen to this poem on seagulls, cat:

"but their little heart
the same as the funambolists –
for nothing sighs so much
as for that silly rain
which nearly always brings wind
which nearly always brings sun."

(Zorba LOOKS AT THE SKY HEAVY WITH CLOUDS)

Zorba: seagulls love rain. I was sure you could help us.

Reader: they arrange to meet at midnight in front of the bazaar. Zorba, Lucky, Secretary, Colonel, Diderot and the poet meet. the poet advises them to go to the steeple tower of st.Michael's church. from the top the cars look as bright eyed insects. the poet takes the she-seagull into his hands and puts her on the rail.
Poet:you will fly now, lucky. breath. open your wings. feel the rain.
Lucky: the rain! I like it! (open her wings) i love you.
Zorba: fly! the sky will be yours!
Lucky: I will never forget you.
Zorba: Come on, fly!
Poet:we did it. I think you want to be on your own for a while. I 'll be waiting for you downstairs.

Reader: Zorba stays there looking at Lucky until he feels rain drops, or maybe tears, wetting his yellow eyes of big good cat.

Seagulls: the seagulls' little heart, the same heart beating in every rope-walker, most longs for that silly drizzle. Silly drizzle almost always announcing Wind, almost always announcing Sun. She is finally free to fly back where she belongs, among her people.

The End

About the pictures.