The Red Dress
I flutter about my cage excitedly, my owner, wearing her usual black top and jeans comes in with my food. Oh how I love her, she's so kind to me. My owner is the manager at the pet shop I live in. I may live in a pet shop, but I'm really just my owners. I'm not for sale. Every day my routine is the same, I sleep, I flutter about my cage, I sometimes get new toys and cage accessories, or new treats, I eat, and watch new people walk in, walk out, sometimes they look at me and ask for my price, but my owner always tells them I'm not for sale. One day, the door opens, and a girl in a beautiful red dress walks in, I've never seen a person like her before. I see different people everyday, but no one ever looks like her. There was just something about her that made me stop fluttering in my cage, and just look at her. She smiled and waved to my owner, and looked around the shop a little, I stood there staring, and a moment later, her eyes settled on me. I noticed how her eyes were the perfect autumn colour, they reminded me of everything I loved about Autumn, the leaves, the trees, the way my owner always takes me out to the park in Autumn. I love my owner. The girl in the red dress slowly made her way over to the counter, not taking her eyes off of me, and knelt down so that her eyes were level with mine.
*Gosh what a beautiful bird* she said. I fluttered about my cage excited, I'd never had anyone like her compliment me like that before.
*How much?* the girl asks my owner. I bounce around and pause to look at what my owner would say, but she had a dark look in her eyes.
*Sorry*
she said through clenched teeth, I noticed she didn't sound very sorry, though I was sure it was the word sorry she had said,
*She's not for sale*
The red dress girl looked down at me with disappointment.
*Oh ok, very sorry, but she is a rather beautiful bird*
The girl turned around, her red dress swishing around her legs, said her fair well, and left the shop. My owner, still with a dark look on her face, started to get out my food, by the sound of it, but I didn't see her, I was too busy clinging to the bars of my cage, hoping I'd see her red dress flicker behind the window again.
The next day, was more boring than any other, I sat right at the front of my cage, waiting, I don't know what for, but I knew I needed it to come soon. The day was almost over, and I was more bored than I had ever been, I felt a longing, for something.... something new. My owner gave me more of my food, that I loved, but today, it just seemed flavourless, as though all my life Id been eating the most amazing food in the world, but today I got unsalted, runny, mashed potato that wasn't even potato, but some wet flakes from a packet. The door squeaked open, and I realised what I'd been waiting for all day. The girl in the red dress had come back.
I started jumping around my cage excitedly like a bouncing ball, squawking at her like crazy. She laughs and walks over, asking my owner if it's ok to play with me a little. My owner opens my cage and I zoom out and land on the girl in the red dress' shoulder, causing her to laugh. She pet my head lightly and closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling. She played around with me for an hour until my owner said we were closing and had to put me back in my cage, she asked if she could feed me some leftover bread from her lunch but my owner refused, saying that I probably wouldn't eat it because I was only used to my owners hand. She seemed a little disappointed, but didn't push it further. I pecked my owners hand once for that, but furiously. The next day she came again and the next, but a week after her first visit she completely ignored me. She was fascinated by a new, stupid, talking cockatoo. She asked how much he cost and said she'd consider purchasing him. The owner was happy that we might make another sell, but I was not. If she buys that idiotic mumbling parrot, then she'll have no more reason to come in, she'll no longer visit... And my life will be back. I loved my life before, but after meeting the girl in the red dress, and feeling the happiness with her, I don't want it to go. Maybe my owner will be friends with her, and she can still pat me and play with me? But will she want to? It's just my owner and me now. I love my owner. But sometimes I still hope to see her walk into the store again, but she never does, ever since she bought the cockatoo. I've seen her walk past the shop through the windows a few times, in fact, I thought I saw a flicker of her red dress walk past, just before I *accidentally* flew into that window...
