Pink is for Gratitude

At 5:30 AM, Benjamin's alarm rings its usual monotone ring. He rises up and out of bed, and rubs his eyes. Stretching, he slowly pulls on his gray sweatpants and brown jacket to go for his typical morning jog through Karl the fog. Then, after eating his usual oatmeal and water breakfast, he walks down the block to the BART station to commute to work. Exiting BART, he walks another three blocks and arrives at work. He enters the building and boards the elevator; it dings five times before he exits. He takes another 20 steps and sits down in his bland white cubicle, which is one amongst a sea of other cubicles on the fifth floor. Benjamin wearily begins to work. His job is in accounting, and he spends his work hours crunching long numbers all day. After working his typical 8-hour shift, he boards BART and heads back home, picking up his usual papers and pens. He makes dinner: mushroom soup for one. 

Grasping his head, he covers his eyes and groans.

As he sits down to watch “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” for the hundredth time since the incident,  he receives a phone call from Grayson. Bright colors seen to flood through the phone; he had not talked to anyone in forever. Benjamin jumps at the unexpected phone call, upsetting his soup.

Grayson.

Grayson was Benjamin's best friend until college. They fell out after what happened.

“Hello Ben! Er… Long time no see!”

“What- Why are you calling?”

“Hey! Um.. Ben, I have something for ya. A gift, for Christmas, you know. Er.. meet me at the alley in Belden Place for it tomorrow, alright?”

No, don’t go.

“Okay.”

Wait! I want to talk.

Please don’t leave.

I need a friend.

“Click.”

“Sigh.”

***

Karl was very misty the next day. Belden Place had barely any people at all- that was understandable, it was christmas. And by the time Benjamim had gotten to the Belden after his daily routine, Grayson was shivering in the cold.

Yes!

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself!”

“What is my…”

There was a huge gift, wrapped in the most extravagant paper Benjamin had ever seen.

“What the…”

Grayson laughed. Benjamin missed his laugh.

“So… What do you think it is?”

Benjamin shook his head.

“I dunno, I haven’t got anything in three years.”

Grayson’s smile faltered a bit. Then he recovered.

“Okay… Here it is!!!”

He lifted the paper off and tossed it to Benjamin. ]

“A bird?”

It was a beautiful, rainbow colored golden striped parrot. The feathers were radiating light, and Benjamin had to shield his eyes at the parrot. His life was so bleak know that this was the first time in years that he had so much color come in his life, with Grayson and this parrot. His parrot. 

“Yes! Merry Christmas!!”

Grayson gave Benjamin a smile. A smile that knew.

Benjamin smiled for the first time in weeks.

***

how to feed a parrot.

how to clean parrots.

what do parrots eat?

how to play with parrots

parrot names

For Benjamin, his new parrot had given him something to play with and talk to, and he thought Grayson was very kind.

Parrots can talk.

There was a problem. Benjamin did not know how to take care of parrots. He had never had a parrot in his life. He had never even had a pet in his life.

He had chosen Pikachu for the parrot's name, and was proud of it. It brought a little color into his house.

It wasn’t a real house, it was more like a flat. The kitchen was bare and empty, the couch was a bed, and the tables were scattered everywhere. The floor was very clean, and the closet was filled with shirts and watches.

Ben loved his bird. But it wouldn’t love him.

He skipped work to feed Pikcachu, talk to it, wash it, play with it, and hope it would talk back. Like a person.

Like Ellen.

It had been three years since she disappeared off the face of the earth. Gone, just gone. She had just married him, and had gotten a job as a doctor. Then one day, she just went away.

Forever.

“Where is Ellen?”

“Gone! Vanished at 12:00 a.m.!”

“No.”

“Yes.”

He searched everywhere, every source, everyone in Ellen’s family. But all he found was nothing. She had just left him with an empty heart and had walked away. So Ben closed his heart and feelings. He lived in an empty shell, sad and lonely. Until Grayson and Pikachu came, and now he was pouring his heart into it. If only Pikachu returned it.

The bird never talked back. It never spoke, never pecked, and never showed any kind of love to Ben. This just made his sense of self-worth shoot down, and he got more and more depressed.

“Talk!”

Benjamin screamed at Pikachu. It hopped away.

That was the last straw.

“I’VE BEEN TAKING CARE OF YOU FOR A MONTH NOW! CUTTING WORK TO FEED YOU! SAVING MONEY, PLAYING WITH YOU, AND CHANGING MY SCHUELE FOR YOU! DID YOU GIVE ME A SECOND OF GRATITUDE? NO! AND I WAS HOPING THAT I WOULD HAVE SOMEONE TO TALK TO AFTER ELLEN DISAPPEARED AND THEN GRAYSON SHOWS UP! I’VE HAD IT W-WITH Y-y-”

Benjamin fell.

There was a series of taps. Then Pikachu hopped on Ben’s back.

“I sorry. Human friend. Needs happy. Needs friend.”

“You...talked.”

“Friend. Needs friend. I learn. Friend. I say sorry.”

Benjamin started crying at this. He wished that he could take back his awful words. 

He was learning… learning to save me… and now… I have… a friend.

***

 Bright blue sky. Orange sun. Green grass. Pink roses.

“Angela!”

“Ben!”

“Your back!”

Angela blushes and kisses Benjamin.

“I got you a red sweater for Christmas!”

“You shouldn’t have.”

It had been a year since Benjamin’s breakdown. A year since Pikachu saved him. One year since Benjamin’s life had gone uphill and he had got remarried.

“Squack!”

“Pikachu!”

Benjamin saw Pikachu soaring to him, the golden feathers shining. He caught it and snuggled into its feathers. He then kissed Angela and put a pink rose in her hair. He had a garden and mansion now, and this was all thanks to Pikachu. He had a job now, and it was because of Pikachu.

“Why the pink roses?”

“For gratitude.”