The bird swap

A bird? Seriously? Among all of my sister’s relatives, she lets me take care of her bird for the holiday.

“Please Jade! It’ll be just for a week. I’ll pick her right up as soon as I get home.” my sister begged

“Just give her 2 teaspoons of the seeds I gave you every day” she said as she walked out carrying 2 suitcases.

Great, now I’m stuck with this bird I don’t even know what to do with, while she’s going to some posh hotels in London to spend Christmas. I placed the bird's cage on our kitchen table. Jackie, my sister, didn’t even tell me what kind of bird it is. So I took various pictures of it and sent it to my friends to figure out what breed this is, and so I can research on how I won’t accidentally kill it.

It’s a Parakeet. I did some research on where to place it, how to feed it, and what I have to do to keep it alive. I know that Jackie told me to give it 2 teaspoons of seeds every day. Even so, I need more information. Just as I turned my computer on to research; I received an email; I failed our math test. Great! Ugh. I wish I was the one in London right now! No one would actually get mad at me if I fail, no one even cares if I fail. But still, I want to be an architect. And these poor grades wouldn’t get me anywhere.

There was a hissing sound from the kitchen. It sounded like it was from a cat, but I don’t own a cat. I ran downstairs to check what the heck happened. Just as I thought this day would get any worse, there was a cat inside our house who surprisingly opened the door of the Parakeet's cage. Now there’s a bird flying all around the house.

I shouted, trying to calm myself. I breathed deeply, “1.. 2.. 3” then I tried to catch the Parakeet.

“Get here you stupid Parakeet”

I don’t know why, but it feels weird to call the bird “parakeet.” Jackie didn’t tell me what his name is, so I changed its name last minute.

“Hedwig, get back here!” I yelled while trying to find him. Hedwig sounds like a pretty sick name. I got that from the owl in Harry Potter. Anyway, I shouldn’t have wasted a minute of my time thinking of a name for that Parakeet. Because by now Hedwig was out of sight. He wasn’t in his cage, not in the kitchen, not in my room, not in the laundry room, not in the bathroom, and not in the living room.

Then a green figure dashed in front of my face and outside the window.

“Hedwig!”

I ran outside, trying to catch him. I was getting weird looks, but I didn’t care. I checked the time; it was 1:30. Jackie left for the airport at 1:00 I’ve only been with this bird for half an hour, but it feels like it’s been an entire day. Then a truck came, It was going too fast that it ran over Hedwig.

“Hedwi-” It was too late, he’s dead.

5 minutes later and I’m still there where I was. Staring right at Hedwig while vehicles run over him. What have I done? Why’d I even give him a name? What do I say once Jackie comes home? “Oh, hi Jackie! Your bird’s dead. But that’s fine, you can have the random cat that got in my house.” No, this can’t be.

A saleslady, from the store on the other side of the road, came and asked me if I was fine.

“Oh yea, I’m fine!” I answered

“You sure? You’ve been staring at the road for a while now.”

“Oh, that’s nothing. I- I was thinking about something, I didn’t realize that, y’know” “Anyway, do you know where I can get Parakeets?” I asked

“There’s this pet shop beside the SM store. I’m sure they sell Parakeets.”

“Great, thank you!”

“Happy to help, have a great day!”

“You too!”

What was I thinking? No, I can’t just buy a new bird and pretend that Hedwig didn’t just die. But I had no choice. I went to the SM store, and sure enough, there was a pet shop beside it.

“Hi! Do you have any Parakeets?” I asked.

“Yes, we have a lot of them.” the vendor said, while showing me the way to their cage.

I’ve found the Parakeets, now I just have to find Hedwig’s doppelganger. I don’t remember what he looked like, I’m in big trouble. I had to think quickly. I messaged Jackie.

“Heyyy girl! So your bird’s kind off missing you right now, so if you would just send me a picture of you two so I could show it to her to make him feel better.”

“Sure!” she replied, along with a picture of her bird.

He’s short and spout. With a light green body, yellow head, yellow wings, and a mix of light green and yellow tail. His head and wings have black stripes, like the ones on a zebra. I searched through the pile of Parakeets trying to find one that looks like him. The first one's too thin, second one's too tall, third one's body is too dark, the fourth one didn't have black stripes, and the fifth one, the fifth one looks exactly like him!

"Excuse me, I'll buy this one!" I said happily

"That'll be 5 dollars." the vendor said.

I gave my money and got the bird. Just then I received a message from Jackie.. "My flight just got cancelled, I'll be home by 3."

So I quickly got home, placed the new bird in it's cage, and brought the cat out. I was expecting the cat to make my house a total mess. But to my surprise, he just slept the whole afternoon. Anyway I waited, and waited, and at 3:30 Jackie was back, she got the bird and left.

I do hope she doesn't notice that she got a different bird.