Page 90 of For the Birds

“Good point.”

“Let’s call Mr. Whipple.”

Neely Kate tried his number but got no answer. In the meantime, Squawker watched us like we were the Fenton County High School Saturday matinee performance of Our Town—slightly interested but mostly bored.

“Now what?” I asked.

Neely Kate gave me a grimace. “I know someone else we cancall.”

I released a long groan. “You callhim.”

“It’s gonna be weird if I do it instead ofyou.”

I dug my phone out of my pocket, thankful my cloud had transferred all my numbers to my new phone, and called Levi’s cell phone.

“Rose!” he said, sounding pleased. “I thought you’d text me the details of dinner tomorrow night.”

“Actually, that’s not what I’m callin’ about. It’s more work-related. Maybe I should have called the office.”

“Don’t be silly. Is Muffyokay?”

“This call’s about Squawker. Neely Kate and I foundhim.”

“Really? That’s great . . . but I take it there’s a problem.”

“Hopefully not a big one. We don’t know how to catch him. We called Mr. Whipple, but he’s nothome.”

“Do you have a bird cage to put himin?”

“No.”

“Then you might be better off waiting until Mr. Whipple gets home. If you let him loose in your truck, he might hurt himself.”

“But if we leave him here, won’t he fly off?” That was a stupid question. Squawker was hopping around on the table, pecking at the cakes. “Say . . . I suspect it’s bad for parrots to havecake.”

“You’re not feeding him cake, areyou?”

“No,” I said, grabbing a cupcake out of Squawker’s reach.

“Parrots don’t fly all that much. If he’s flown recently, he’ll probably just sit there awhile. Your best bet is to wait for Mr. Whipple. He’d probably be the best draw. But if you think Squawker’s in danger, or you’re worried about him flying away, you can lure him with some type of food he likes.”

“Carrots.”

“Yep. That willwork.”

“Thanks, Levi.”

“Please feel free to call me anytime, Rose.”

I hung up and relayed what he’d told me, but Neely Kate made a face. “We don’t have time to sit around waiting for Mr. Whipple to showup.”

“It sounds like he’s been in Miss Mildred’s backyard since Sunday afternoon. We could probably leave him here and ask Miss Mildred to keep an eye onhim.”

She frowned. “I’d rather try to catch him. We could take him to Mr. Whipple’s house and put him in the aviary in theback.”

I didn’t think it was a great idea, but now that we’d found the parrot, I was hesitant to walkaway.

Neely Kate knocked on the back door and asked Miss Mildred for a carrot while I stood several feet from thebird.

---