Budgies of Fun

Honking from vehicles on the street down below echo loudly as they drive aggressively down the street. Snow twinkles slowly past the window, showing off their unique patterns. 

Lights from the Christmas tree light up the room nicely, giving a warm aura through the small, one room apartment. 

A knock on the door, immediately sends the young twenty something back into reality as she slowly opens her front door.

The feeling of anxiousness brews through her body as she allows the feeling of anticipation waft through the warm air.

“Thank you so much for taking care of her for me.” The male brunette says genuinely as he enters the apartment, caring an empty bird cage and the tiny friend sitting on top of his broad shoulders. “My mother hates birds and she will not allow one into her house, and my grades this semester only fuels her fire.” He continued with a smile as he gently placed the cage onto the carpet floor. “So thank you so much for taking care of her during the break.”

“…Yeah, that’s what friends are for.” She says shakily as she is hesitant to babysit a bird. 

“Don’t worry you two will become fast friends…Now I better get going before the snow storm hits.” He says as he places the small yellow headed, turquoise feathered creature into the overly large metal cage with multiple tiny little play structures. Before he leaves, he turns towards his budgie; “I’ll see you after the Christmas break, and keep Kandis company. Bye.” 

Without another word, he simply walks out the apartment in silence. Without looking back, he never said goodbye to his friend whom was nice enough to take in the bird for two weeks as he went back home for the holidays. 

As the door closed, Kandis turns to the bird, questioning why her friend said bye to the bird and not her. They were close friends after all…weren’t they?

“Well I guess he was in a hurry huh?” She finds herself talking to the bird. 

The small creature chirps into song as she flaps her wings, playing on her little swing.

“Well Sadie…no, that’s not it…umm. Sandra, yeah Sandra. Lets listen to some Christmas corals, shall we. I mean Christmas is only a few days away and my exams are officially over so now I could actually focus on the holiday. But don’t worry, were going to have lots of fun…budgies of fun. Did you see what I did there…and I’m talking to a bird. ”

The bird chimes a tune as she continues to play.

“I just realized that I have absolutely no clue on how to take care of you Sandra…I mean, I never even had a dog and Brody is only allowing me to take care of you because nobody else is staying for the holidays. So I’m your only chance.” She tells herself quietly so she doesn’t want to seem too crazy as she watches the bird play.

Kandis searched the bird cage to see if there were any instructions for the bird, such as food ingredients or anything important. After a while it is obvious that Brody didn’t leave any instructions for her. All he gave was the bird and cage, no food or anything else important.

By this point, darkness fills the windows as night have taken over the sky. The evening air is filled with misty snow crystals as snow hungrily pelt the streets. No messages are sending at the moment so, Kandis cannot ask Brody about his bird…Sandra was it?

The Christmas tree lights brighten up the small living room as they illuminate through the darkness outside.

Squawking fills the room as she begins ruffling her feathers and aggressively rattling the caged door.

“You want out?” She questions as she’s hesitant about letting the bird loose into the apartment, but Brody never leaves the bird in the cage for many hours at a time so what’s the harm? She thinks to herself.

The air fills of falling feathers as turquoise clouds the air, little Sandra races like a rocket out the cage, the very second that Kandis opens the door.

Buzzing from the ceiling fan catches her attention a couple seconds after she has already let the little friend out of the cage.

“Wait! Sandra, don’t fly towards the fan!...Sandra come here!” She shouts with all her might as she quickly sprints towards the switch for the fan that happens to be across the apartment and deep into the kitchen.

With a puff of much needed oxygen, she gets to the switch, turning off the fan, luckily before anything happened to Sandra. Brody would never forgive her if she got Sandra killed the very first day of her taking care of her, nor would she forgive herself.

Sandra chimes to the Christmas music as it plays softly throughout the apartment. She flys carefree throughout the room, loving the new scenery.

“I have no idea on how to take care of a bird…like how am I supposed to know when to feed you or what to feed you. I could google it, but what if you’re allergic to something…Wait. Could birds even get allergic reactions?” She finds herself talking to the bird once again as she watches the creature fly majestically.

“She is beautiful,” she thinks to herself.

Ice pellets knock on the window as it begins to hail, snow balls begin to thrash from above as it only picks up speed. Screeches from the vehicles breaks from outside full fill the room as the whether is only going to get much worse from here.

Morning has arrived as Kandis saunters into the kitchen as she begins making herself some much needed coffee, taking care of this bird is going to be much harder than she originally thought. She can’t believe that she almost killed the little creature with the ceiling fan because she forgot to turn it off.

“Ugh, Sandra stop your singing or chiming or whatever it is and come get some banana slices.” She calls out as she sets out a tiny bowl and begins chopping up a banana.

Squawk, “Whose Sandra,” the tiny mysterious voice fills Kandis’s ears as she jumps back from surprise tangling with horror. 

As she struggles to catch her breath, she turns, facing the flying creature as she gracefully lands onto the kitchen counter.

“What on Earth?” She finds herself saying out loud as she slowly catches her breath, she could feel her heart beat decline as the panic rushes over. “Talking bird…Who would have thought?”

The bird quickly snatches the sliced banana before Kandis could finish slicing the rest.

“Okay then, if you’re not Sandra, then who are you?” 

Squawk, “Sandy,” Squawk, “more banana,” squawk.

“Okay, well I guess I was talking to myself for nothing then.” She laughs to herself as she continues to feed the bird.

I guess taking care of her will be much easier than I thought…if I have any questions, I could simply just ask her. She thinks to herself.

“Well now that you’re finished eating, lets have some fun, shall we?” She questions while staring at the beautiful green eyed creature as she fluffed her pretty wings.

“Budgies of fun.” The bird chimes.