Page 25 of Talk Birdie to Me

They walked together through the zoo with Cody summarizing in a little more detail the events of the previous night. Skipping over the part with what he and his date had been doing before they stumbled upon the intruder.

Lauren took it all in, grunting and nodding once in a while. She looked concerned more than anything. Cody couldn’t tell where that concern was coming from. Was she worried about Gary? Or maybe she was worried that the intruder might make a return appearance?

At the aviary, they entered behind two women, each with a young child in hand. Cody and Lauren stood back by the entrance, watching the visitors interact with the birds.

At first, things went well. The kids pointed excitedly as they spotted each new bird.

“See?” Cody said. “I told you they’d be fine. Gary was the instigator.”

Then it happened.

A bright green Amazon parrot let an expletive fly.

It wasn’t the worst word. But the moment the kids began giggling, and the women grabbed their hands in shock and tried to pull them along, the rest of the birds fell into a fit of laughter.

“Oh, I see all right.” Lauren didn’t even bother to hide her smug grin.

They approached the family, and Lauren proceeded to apologize and herd them away. The women ushered the children out of the aviary, while the birds continued to cackle and shout more expletives as a farewell.

Cody confronted the hooligans. “That’s enough, chuckleheads.”

The birds cackled some more.

“When you’re back in your cages this afternoon, remember that you only have yourselves to blame here.”

Well, that and a notorious instigator whose lingering impression Cody had underestimated. He’d have his work cut out for him next week, training this out of the rest of them again. Hopefully, it would be as short a process as last time. They’d all been fine until he’d reintroduced the Amazon to the flock. Fingers crossed, he could do it again.

But that was a problem for Next Week Cody. He never worried about Next Week Cody.

“Told you it was too soon,” Lauren said once the family was out of earshot.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Cody glared at the new ringleader of the bunch. The bird gave a defiant squawk. “Put them back inside. I’ll start working with them again tomorrow.”

“Not gonna stick around to help me clean up the mess you made?”

“I’ve got enough mess to clean up,” he said. “I need to help Geena get acquainted with Gary.”

“Wait. Geena is the foster?” Lauren grabbed his arm. “That Geena? Your Geena?”

“She isn’t mine.” Cody remembered her talking about an ex-husband, but he couldn’t imagine the woman “belonging” to anyone. “But yes, that Geena.”

“I got the sense that date didn’t go so well. Or at least she wasn’t super thrilled to find you here the other day. How’d you convince her to take that mess of a bird?”

“I didn’t. Her sister did.”

“Ah, I see,” Lauren said. “You just gave her those puppy eyes.”

“I don’t have puppy eyes.”

“Yeah, you do. When you want a favor.”

“Anyway, she seems like a good person, and we all want the bird safe. Since she was the only option, she agreed.”

“Wait, does that mean you told her what happened last night? With the break-in?”

“Not exactly.”

“So she doesn’t know someone was trying to steal him?” Lauren put her hands on her hips. “Cody.”

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